Rob Hogendoorn on Planting a Church with 11,000 Phone Calls, His Children’s Reflections on Growing Up in Church, and Rediscovering Evangelism Through Alpha
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In this conversation, Jason sits down with Rob Hogendoorn, founding and lead pastor of Forest City Community Church in London, Ontario, to talk about planting and leading one church for over three decades, what it's cost and given his family along the way, and what's fueling his hope for the church in Canada right now.
Rob traces his path from a life-changing encounter with Jesus as a boy, through planting Forest City Community Church from scratch in the mid-90s, to the practices and relationships that have sustained him ever since: a renewed passion for evangelism, a decades-long peer community of fellow church planters, and a handful of ordinary, everyday encounters that keep reminding him people are hungrier for God than the prevailing narrative suggests. He shares an honest look at what his family paid along the way, and offers an invitation for pastors across Canada to let down their nets again.
In this episode you'll hear:
What Rob's adult kids told him about growing up inside a church plant,
The mid-90s "Phones for You" cold-call campaign that filled Forest City Community Church's very first Sunday with 172 people,
Why building the church's DNA around 20 percent lifelong believers and 80 percent not-yet-connected people has kept its evangelistic edge for three decades,
The visit to HTB that reignited Rob's own front-line evangelism and made Alpha central to the church,
The longtime peer group of fellow church planters that shifted from tactical survival talk to soul-level honesty,
Why COVID was the hardest season of Rob's ministry.
Rob Hogendoorn
Rob Hogendoorn was born in Toronto, the fourth of five children born to Dutch immigrant parents. He sensed God's call to pastoral ministry in his third year of university and went on to earn his M.Div at Calvin Theological Seminary. After his first pastoring assignment, he knew church planting was his deeper calling, and in the mid-1990s he planted Forest City Community Church in London, Ontario. Beyond FCCC, Rob works with, advocates for, and speaks on behalf of World Vision and Alpha Canada, and serves on the board of the Global Leadership Network in Canada. He is married to Coby, with four kids and ten grandchildren, and enjoys golf, hiking, reading, and traveling.
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