Rooted in Canada’s Capital: Caleb and Alex’s Story
Caleb and Alex Groeneweg’s journey to pastoring in Ottawa is a story of shared calling, costly obedience, and the surprising ways that God restores weary pastors.
Caleb and Alex didn’t set out to pastor in Canada’s capital.
Their story began in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they met as teenagers on a year-long discipleship program. Both had recently surrendered their lives to Jesus and signed up to “give God a year.” That year brought them together and clarified a shared calling. They preached, led youth and kids ministries, and stacked chairs side by side. From the very beginning they sensed that whatever God was calling them to, it was something they would do together.
Caleb and Alex Groeneweg are the lead pastors of Local Church in Ottawa, where they have lived for 10 years with their three children. They were both participants in The Pastorate’s Lead Pastor Fellowship.
After a season of long-distance, with Alex in England and Caleb back home in Canada, they married and settled in the UK. They helped lead youth and home groups and, in time, were asked to plant a church in a working-class town. Alex was pregnant with their first child and both of them were working full-time jobs while leading a tiny launch team. Their home became the base of ministry: barbecues with neighbours, meals around the table, discipleship in the living room. It was stretching and imperfect, but people came to faith and a small, resilient community formed. Those early years taught them to love the local church in all her complexity and to keep saying yes to the next step.
Years later, with two young children and what felt like a dream home, Caleb sensed God interrupt his commute with a sentence he couldn’t shake: “You’re going to move to Canada sooner than you think.” Within days, that exact phrase was independently repeated back to him, confirming what he already knew: God was speaking.
Telling Alex was harder. With a newborn, a toddler, and extended family nearby, the thought of moving across the world was overwhelming. She pushed it away as long as she could until she sensed God gently but firmly calling her to surrender. Saying a quiet yes in her heart, she received a peace that didn’t match the circumstances, but that has remained with her ever since. From that moment, everything moved quickly. Their house sold almost immediately. Immigration progressed faster than anyone expected. Within nine months they had sold most of their belongings, packed what they had left into a shipping container, and boarded a plane for Ottawa with no job lined up, only the conviction that God had called them to go. “It was scary and exciting,” Caleb reflects. “But we knew it would be worse to stay if God was saying to go.”
In Ottawa, they quickly joined a church that was connected to the network that had shaped their early ministry and came in with a heart to serve. Caleb picked up videography work, and after a couple of years they were sent to plant again, this time in Carleton Place, a small town outside the city. There was a beautiful heritage building, people coming to know Jesus, and lots of good fruit, but the season was also costly. Over time, the strain of ministry and the pressure of wider church leadership challenges left them tired, disoriented, and carrying deeper wounds than they realized. They eventually stepped out of church leadership and, with grief and confusion, out of the church altogether. For the first time, they even wondered if coming to Canada had been a mistake.
It was in that vulnerable in-between that God led them to Local Church Ottawa, a young congregation in the heart of the city. They arrived tired, bruised, and unsure of themselves. Local Church quickly became, in Caleb’s words, “a hospital.” The pastors and community welcomed them like family and gave them space to heal. Spiritually, emotionally, and even physically, they began to come back to life. Alex describes it as a season where God rebuilt her sense of identity and calling through a culture of genuine encouragement. What had been worn down in earlier seasons of ministry was slowly restored.
In time, both Caleb and Alex joined the leadership team. Their lives were full, but healthy, and pastoral leadership wasn’t on their minds. Then, in 2023, the founding pastors shared that they sensed God calling them to uproot themselves from Local Church in order to plant another church. As they processed the news together, Caleb felt again the familiar nudge of God: “This is why I brought you here. It’s time to lead.” Saying yes would mean leaving a secure job and stepping back into the intensity of pastoral ministry, this time with three children and a hard-won commitment not to repeat the unhealthy patterns of the past. After praying and discerning as a family, they responded in faith. In January 2024, Caleb and Alex became the lead pastors of Local Church Ottawa, both of them fully engaged in the work, side by side.
Only a couple of months into this new responsibility, they heard about a retreat hosted by The Pastorate at Barnabas Landing. They had decided that in this new chapter, pastoral health would not be an afterthought. Attending the retreat was a tangible way of putting that conviction into practice. The Pastorate retreat quickly became a hinge point for them. Surrounded by other pastors from across Canada, they found language for what they had walked through, companionship in their present challenges, and a bigger vision of what God is doing in the Canadian church. It was there that they first heard about the Lead Pastor Fellowship, a core initiative of The Pastorate designed to foster spiritual vitality, community, and resilience among lead pastors.
Alex and Caleb pictured alongside their Lead Pastor Fellowship cohort.
“We didn’t want to lead in isolation,” Alex says. Through the Lead Pastor Fellowship, they entered a cohort of peers who understood both the joy and weight of leading a congregation. Since then, pastors from their cohort and broader Pastorate relationships have preached at Local, invested in their leaders, served at the church’s annual camp, and been on the other end of the phone when difficult situations arise. “Knowing we’re connected with pastors across Canada makes us feel a lot less lonely,” Caleb explains. “There’s a community who really cares about us, our family, and our church.”
For pastors in a city as complex as Ottawa, that wider fellowship matters. The capital is often described as “hard ground”—transient, political, shaped by the pressures of government life. Long-time pastors tell stories of churches and Bible colleges that have come and gone, but also of moments when God moved powerfully as churches united across traditions. Through The Pastorate, Caleb and Alex have gained a clearer view of that bigger picture and a deeper desire to pursue unity in their own city. Local has recently moved into a new church building with like-hearted partners, an answer to practical needs like space and parking, but also an opportunity for shared mission.
At the same time, they’re seeing a rising spiritual hunger among the next generation in their congregation. At a recent church camp, teenagers led the way in worship and prayer, praying for one another with a sincerity that moved the whole community. Children are catching the same hunger, stepping into prayer and conversation about Jesus in ways that feel fresh and unforced. The church is growing and the Spirit of God is moving.
“What gives me hope for the future of the church in Canada,” Alex reflects, “is seeing how desperate the world is for a Saviour, and how God is raising up a brave church, hungry for Him and unembarrassed to share Jesus.” Caleb adds, “We keep hearing stories of hunger across the country, from people in churches and people walking in off the street. It feels like God is drawing people to Himself.”
They don’t have a five or ten year roadmap, but they have no doubt about who is leading them. For now, that next step looks like loving Ottawa, stewarding a young and growing church, investing deeply in the next generation, and pursuing unity in a city that desperately needs it. And they are doing it with a growing sense that they are not alone. If God wants to move in Canada, it’s going to take healthy churches with healthy pastors,” Caleb says. “For us, The Pastorate is one of the ways He’s making that possible.”
Supporting Pastors like Caleb and Alex
Ministry in our nation’s capital holds unique significance for the health of the Church in Canada. In a city like Ottawa, shaped by government, universities, and a highly transient population, the presence of rooted, Christ-centred communities is vital. Pastors like Caleb and Alex at Local Church are helping people follow Jesus in the midst of political pressure, busyness, and shifting cultural values, offering a place of stability, hope, and spiritual family. By investing in leaders like them, we’re not only strengthening one local congregation, we’re helping the Gospel take deeper root in a city whose influence reaches across the country.
We invite you to join us in this important mission by giving to The Pastorate today. Your support helps equip pastors across Canada, ensuring the Gospel continues to transform lives in every corner of our nation.
