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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-05-02, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2019. PAGE 9. Clinton native working to open new London church Clinton-native Tyler Fromm recently moved across Canada, leaving Calgary, Alberta, to start a new church in London, Ontario. Fromm, alongside his wife Lee, is an estimated five months away from launching Collective Church in London, a non-denominational place of Christian worship. He also plans to be the church’s pastor. It was no small feat for Fromm to pack up his family, including Lee and their two young children, Ava and Parker, and return to London. However, he is excited about the challenge and opportunity of creating a new church with a goal of serving that community. “Any time you’re risking something, there better be a compelling reason to do so,” he said. “This whole adventure is incredibly compelling to my family, so much so that we moved our two kids and whole family across the country.” That risk, however, was something that Fromm wanted to mitigate, so he and Lee have partnered with ARC, a church start-up organization, to help make their dream a reality. “ARC’s model is launching large and well-funded churches,” he said. “Most churches in Canada hover around the 80-person mark, and a lot of church start-ups struggle to get past the 100-person mark.” ARC has launched approximately 800 churches in the United States and 19 in Canada with a 93 per cent success rate. “My wife Lee and I knew that, if we were going to do this, we wanted the best chance to be successful. That’s why we’re working with an organization like ARC. We want to do this well. We moved across the country and made significant sacrifices because we believe in this and we believe in London.” The aim is to have a larger church, Fromm said, because small churches can struggle to grow, and under ARC’s plan, the first service needs to have a large number of people there to build momentum and reach “critical mass”. “That way, when you’re into month six, year one or year two, you are sustainable, and you can make it work,” he said. To build up to that, since moving back to London, several months ago, the Fromms have been building their launch team, hosting monthly interest parties and engaging with people who may join the church. “We want to have a degree of momentum going forward to make this work,” he said. Fromm said they want a group of 50 people before the public launch of the church on Sept. 22. “Depending on your launch team, a church launch service will see an average of four people per team member,” he said. “With numbers like that, you have a couple hundred people to the first service and you can grow from there.” He said that the church is working on crossing that threshold through engaging with the community and building relationships. Fromm also hopes that he and the Continued from page 3 assistants (EAs), janitors, secretaries and everyone else in the education field, are at risk. He said that some of those people are the most valuable in the system in his understanding of it, because teachers couldn’t do their jobs without them. An elementary teacher from the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board said that, while elementary teachers support their secondary school peers, changes to the elementary system can’t be overlooked. She said that support is going to disappear from the system, resulting in a more stressful working environment, which in itself could manifest as mental health issues for staff. She also said that the annual Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) testing needed to be done away with because it is a flawed test that only provides a “snapshot” of a student’s life. Stiles pointed to the fact that the test, which was called flawed by other speakers, was strengthened by the new government which took a reported part-time position that paid approximately $2,000 a year and turned it into a full-time job for a failed PC candidate for more than $100,000. The NDP, according to Stiles, does plan to do away with the test, but said it made sense that Ford wanted to keep it. She said that, by controlling the test, the government can control what is taught, helping the government to control facts and figures it presents. She said getting rid of the EQAO would prevent “bad governments” from using it to justify changes. A special education teacher from Stratford spoke next, saying that, in a world where safety concerns are already increasing, these cuts would inevitably lead to more. Dave Armour, a teacher at Goderich District Collegiate Institute, gave a brief history lesson on changes to the education system, tying negative changes to former conservative governments, including reducing high school to a four-year program through the OAC program, changing required courses for graduation and having schools viewed as businesses. “Students are not a product,” he said. “‘Teach’ isn’t something I can give to someone. I can help them learn. “The changes that come in with conservative governments have one intent – make education cheaper,” he said. “It’s always about that and that’s not the answer.” Stiles said that was an important lesson to learn from modernity, and that the changes, in her mind, had a particular goal: undercut public education so that private education becomes a lucrative business opportunity. Willi Laurie, a former educator, said she was concerned about Junior Kindergarten programming, saying that going back to part-time programming wasn’t feasible. She also said that rumours that teachers may be taken out of Kindergarten classes and replaced with two Early Childhood Educators (currently, the model often has one ECE with a teacher) was concerning. “We still need teachers,” she said. “However, this is all about making sure that education is cheap and private education looks better.” Aside from aiming to make private schooling more lucrative, Laurie said, she felt Ford was trying to create part-time teaching as the norm to save on benefits. She said these changes will not create the resiliency that Thompson touts, but will instead increase dropouts, especially among students who “learn at a different pace”. Several other speakers addressed issues similar to those discussed above before Stiles encouraged everyone to continue to tell their stories. “We need stories from teachers, students, parents, grandparents and neighbours,” she said. “The stories will help me to get the answers we need and get the message out.” She went on to say that teachers, boards, unions and their supporters need to continue to be visible in their protests because it’s the only way to send their message to Thompson and Ford. “We need to keep pushing or else these issues will come back. She encouraged people to use petitions to share a unified stance and said that school boards should continue to send letters to Thompson and the government so their concerns are heard. 25%off All Gardening Books for the month of May The Citizen 541 Turnberry St., Brussels 519-887-9114 405 Queen St., Blyth 519-523-4792 The “Vow”Factor Wedding Package Stag & Doe 2" wide x 4" high Engagement 4" wide x 3" high Card of Thanks 25 words Wedding Announcement 4" wide x 4" high Prebook all 5 ads in The Citizen for only $100 Savings of over $100 Be part of our Bridal Showcase Call or email today 519-523-4792 or info@northhuron.on.ca WOW! Teachers concerned with education cuts By Denny Scott The Citizen Taking a chance Tyler Fromm, who grew up in Clinton, recently moved his family to London from Calgary to open Collective Church, a new kind of worship group. From left: Parker, Lee, Tyler and Ava. (Denny Scott photo) Continued on page 12