On this edition of The Exchange, Ed talks to Marc Pilon about evangelical revival in his beloved city of Quebec.
Marc Pilon is the pastor of Axe 21 Church in Sherbrooke, Quebec, one of the fastest growing evangelical churches in the area.
What’s going on in Quebec?
According to Marc, many people used to practice faith but a mass exodus from the Catholic Church occurred in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Many of the people sought to find meaning in their lives via other religions such as Hinduism or New Age philosophy.
Soon a majority of the population claimed no religious affiliation entirely. According to Marc, that’s starting to change.
“After a while of being without any spiritual affiliation or knowledge or experience, the people seem to feel that materialism is not the filling that void. They are seeing that they’re missing something.”
These people were told that being rich and successful will bring them happiness, but they have found out that it doesn’t. They have found that they need something more.
According Marc, the younger generation of Quebec citizens who have been agnostic or their entire lives are now having children and many of them don’t even know what to tell their children about the meaning of life.
Pilon quoted a popular personality in Quebec who said,
“We (Quebec) are one of the only places in the world where a thirteen year old boy will ask his dad what the meaning of life is and the Dad doesn’t have an answer, he’s not going to say anything, he has no clue what life is about because we haven’t thought about it so we kind of were denying that that question exists.”
According to Pilon, times have changed and the citizens of Quebec are hungry for truth.
“There’s a new sense of wanting to come back to our Christian roots, wanting to go back to the beauty of the message of Jesus to love one another.”
While Quebec is still in the early stages of spiritual revival, Marc can see God moving in his community and the surrounding communities as well.
