Steve Bray has faithfully served on The Gospel Coalition Canada Council since its inception. He also helped establish TGC Atlantic in 2011, reflecting his passion to strengthen gospel-centered churches throughout Atlantic Canada.
Steve serves as Lead Elder at Calvary Baptist Church in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He and his wife, Debbie, live in St. John’s and are grateful for their three children and ever-growing number of grandchildren.
TGC Canada’s Executive Director, Dwayne Cline, recently reached out to Steve and asked him a few questions about his life and ministry.
1. Looking back on your time serving on the TGC Canada Council, how has that experience shaped or encouraged your ministry?
The Gospel Coalition has played a huge part in my life from the very beginning, even when D. A. Carson and Tim Keller first shaped it in America. It was only a few years later that I had the joy and privilege of seeing TGC Canada start, and I was invited very early to be part of the founding council. From the very beginning, it was a delight and a joy. Being part of the council enhanced my network, created friendships and a sense of brotherhood. There has been mutual encouragement before, but now I have it extensively from east to west across the country. I have valued every gathering, phone call, and time we’ve been able to be together. I love the diversity of the council. I love the different perspectives of the country of Canada and how God is working in his bride, the church, from coast to coast to coast.
But without a doubt, the deepening friendships that have come out of this endeavour I cannot quantify in value. There are specific men who are now not just acquaintances, not just fellow labourers in the ministry, they are even more than my brothers in Christ. They are best friends, confidants. They are men I can go to for advice. They are brothers that I can ask to hold me accountable and hold me to a sense of transparency and vulnerability. They are men that I go and sharpen my theological mind and my spiritual heart against. And for that, I will owe them a debt of love that will really last into all eternity.
2. Tell us about what the Lord is doing at Calvary Baptist Church. What are some of the ways you’ve seen God’s faithfulness in this season?
I have been back in St. John’s, Newfoundland, since January 2015, and as I have gotten older, the one constant is that time seems to go faster. However, I have seen God do great and mighty things that are well beyond anything I could have hoped for, prayed for, or imagined. Now, like everyone who walks the Christian life, I have faced challenges, failures, setbacks, disappointments, and struggles in my personal, ministry, and public life.
But God is always faithful, and God is always building his church. I have had the joy of seeing God save people and build up Calvary Baptist Church. I have seen God completely remake Calvary with regard to her DNA, as we now have an average of 29 different nationalities, our average age is 28, we have over 100 children under 18, and Calvary as a church has caught a vision for church planting and reaching into the communities and neighbourhoods of her city.
To say that God has been faithful is an understatement. God has provided us with facilities and allowed us to reach out into the community through social enterprises, as we try to have a presence, working alongside the wonderful 250,000 people who make up this city. The work is far from done; we are asking God to save literally thousands, and to raise up a whole generation of men and women from all kinds of nationalities, backgrounds, and social standings. But we are seeing God do something that we have not seen done, and for that, we are both humbled and thankful.
3. You have a deep burden to see the gospel advance throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. How has God been opening doors, and what opportunities do you see for gospel ministry in the region?
When I moved back to Newfoundland in 2015, one of the big eye-opening moments for me was understanding my province’s 500-year history with institutional religion, yet seeing the absolute lack of understanding of the true biblical gospel and how it applies to everyday life. Very early on, God gave me a very deep burden to have healthy churches here. We want to see churches that preach the Bible expositionally and exegetically, that aren’t afraid of questions but have a graciousness, patience, and humility with each other and with those who are searching, threatened, or antagonistic to the gospel.
In 2019, Calvary Baptist decided to venture into something well beyond our abilities: asking God to start helping us plant churches in St. John’s and throughout Newfoundland and Labrador through an initiative called Mile One Mission. We wanted those churches to be based in neighbourhoods and reflect the make-up of the people who live there. I had no idea that God would work in the way he did. From 2019 to 2026, we have seen four new churches established, three in St. John’s and one in Labrador. Lord willing, in 2027 and 2028, we will start another four churches.
God has been working in amazing ways; he has opened doors for us to build affordable housing for seniors. We have started a couple of social enterprise businesses. We have been able to reach out and have each of our church planters take on positions of leadership and influence in their neighbourhoods. God has been very kind, very gracious. Again, I never want to make it seem that this has all been a bed of roses; starting churches in Newfoundland and Labrador is the very essence of starting churches in a hard place. The people are amazing, the culture is one-of-a-kind, and the love, friendliness, hospitality, and food are all things I am proud of and enjoy immensely. The ruggedness and beauty of my city and province take my breath away every day. Yet I live on an island called the Rock, and in many ways, my burden has been to ask God to break up the rock of my province spiritually.
We are asking the Lord to open the eyes and soften the hearts of men and women who live in all the regions of Newfoundland and Labrador, to allow us to plant seeds of the gospel and to see those seeds grow and bear fruit one day. I am just overwhelmingly thankful and have a heart of gratitude to God and the work of even a network like The Gospel Coalition Canada because it has been a source of strength, comfort, and resource for all the things we are trying to do here on the east coast in this province called Newfoundland and Labrador.
4. As you look ahead, how can the TGC Canada family be praying for you, your church, and the gospel work across Atlantic Canada?
As we think about the next decade, from 2026-2036, we’re asking the Lord to allow us to see another 10-13 churches started. This means we’re asking the Lord to save over 1,000 people. We’re asking the Lord to raise up another dozen Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who would want to be in full-time ministry. We’re asking the Lord to raise up more than 100 men and women that we can train in gospel preparedness.
So, from one ministry to another, from one province to a country, Calvary Baptist Church and Mile One Mission are asking The Gospel Coalition Canada family to pray that we will be faithful. Please pray that God would supply the men, women, finances, resources, ideas, and wisdom to know how to work this vision for God’s glory. We’re also asking that God will use us in some small way to be an encouragement to the rest of our fellow provinces, from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, indeed to Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, all the way to British Columbia and to the beautiful territories which make Canada truly unique. As a country, we’re asking God to work from sea to sea to sea.
So, to my fellow family of God across this country, would you pray for Calvary Baptist Church and Mile One Mission? Pray that God would protect us, provide for us, and pray that we would only work steadfastly and immovably for the glory of God. It is his name we want people to praise; it is Jesus Christ that we want people to see. We don’t want to be known for novel ideas, new gimmicks, or some new franchise-type church. We simply want to be a people who preach the gospel, then die and be forgotten. We ask all those in the family of God in Canada to pray that we will do exactly that.
