About Us

Growing in the knowledge and love of Christ, to make Christ known in the North

Our Team

Serving Christ and His Church Together

Russell DeGraaf

Russell DeGraaf

Pastor

Russell DeGraaf is the pastor of Boreal Baptist Church. He was a tree planter and crew leader in tree planting for 11 years. During his time there, he began to lead Bible studies in the bush camps and God worked through those Bible studies. Some tree planters even came to saving faith. This helped Russell to discern a call to ministry and a unique equipping for remote areas in the woods of Northern Canada.

After receiving his Master of Divinity from Toronto Baptist Seminary, Russell became a church planting apprentice with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Church of Canada (FEB for short) to discern how God could use him in Northern Canada. During this time, Russell met his wife Hannah, who God had similarly prepared for rugged settings through her parents being missionaries in Mongolia. They were married and started Boreal Baptist Church later that same year in Manitouwadge.

Office Hours

Our Door Is Always Open

Feel free to drop in for a visit!

Thursdays

 1-4 pm

Location

8 Shawinigan Pl, Manitouwadge

What We Believe

Statement of Faith

At Boreal Baptist Church, our faith is rooted in the timeless truth of Scripture. We believe in one God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and in the saving grace made available to all through Jesus Christ. Our Statement of Faith expresses our commitment to biblical teaching, Christ-centered living, and the mission of the Church to make Him known in the world.

We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God; that the sixty-six books, as originally written, both the Old and New Testaments were verbally inspired by the Spirit of God and every word is accurate; that the Bible has ultimate authority in all matters of faith and practice and is the true basis of Christian union.

(2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Thes 2:13; 1 Co 2:13; 2 Tim 3:16)

We believe in one God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

(Deut 6:4; Gen 1; John 1:3; Isa 6:1-3; Ps 90:2, 103:19; Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14)

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of Jesus Christ, in His eternal existence with the Father in pre-incarnate glory, in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and personal return.

(Jn 1:3, 10:30; Col 1:15-17; Heb 1:2; Lk 1:35; Heb 4:15; Rom 8:32; Isa 53:6; Matt 28:6; Luke 24:39; Heb 7:25; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thes 4:13-18)

We believe in the absolute and essential deity and personality of the Holy Spirit Who convinces of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; Who regenerates, sanctifies, illuminates and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ.

(Gen 1:2; 2 Cor 3:16, 6:19, 13:14; 1 Cor 2:10-13, 12:11; Matt 28:19; Eph 4:30; Ps 139:7-10; Is 11:2, 40:13-14; 2 Pet 1:20-21; Jn 3:5-6, 14:26; Acts 9:31; Ez 37:28; Rom 15:6, 13; Jn 16:8-11, 13)

We believe that Satan exists as an evil personality, the originator of sin, the archenemy of God and man.

(Isa 14:12-17; Ez 28:11-19; Gen 3:1-15; Matt 4:1-11; Rev 12:9-10; 1 Jn 3:8; Zech 3:1; Matt 13:19; 2 Cor 4:4; 1 Pet 5:8)

We believe that humanity was divinely created in the image of God; that they sinned, becoming guilty before God, resulting in total depravity, thereby incurring physical and spiritual death. Human life begins with conception, therefore a child in the womb is fully human. God created us male and female, equal yet differing in roles, reserving sexual intimacy for only within the covenant of marriage between a man and woman.

(Gen 1:26-27, 2:7, 24, 3:16-19, 5:2; Exodus 21:22-23; Ja 3:9; Rom 1:26-27, 5:12-19, 6:23; Ps 51:5, 139:13; Job 15:14, 25:4; Gal 3:22, 28; 1 Ki 8:46; Ecc 7:20; Luke 1:39-44; 1 Cor 6:9; Eph 5:22-33; 1 Tim 2:11, 3:7; Tit 2:2-6)

We believe that salvation is by the sovereign, electing grace of God; that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, expiatory and propitiatory death; that justification is by faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and that those whom God has effectually called shall be divinely preserved and finally perfected in the image of the Lord.

(Rom 8:28-30; Eph 1:4-11, 2:8-9; 2 Thes 2:13; 2 Tim 2:10; 1 Pet 1:1-5; Rom 3:24-25, 6:4-11; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 4:10; Jn 6:37-40, 44, 65)

We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ; in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust; in the eternal blessing of the redeemed and in the judgment and conscious, eternal punishment of the wicked.

(1 Thes 4:16; Tit 2:13; Jn 6:39; Rom 8:10-11, 19-23; 2 Cor 4:14; Dan 12:2; Jn 5:28-29; Rev 20:11-15; 2 Thes 1:7-9)

We believe that a church is a company of baptized born-again believers, called out from the world, separated unto the Lord Jesus, voluntarily meeting for the ministry of the Word, the mutual edification of its members, the observance of the ordinances, and the proclamation of the gospel. We believe it is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely given gifts, precepts and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the Great Head of the church. We believe the only offices in the church are pastors/elders/overseers and deacons.

(Acts 2:38-39; 1 Cor 11:3, 12:12-14; Eph 1:22, 2:11-3:6, 4:11, 5:22-33; 2 Cor 6:14-17; 1 Pet 1:13-25, 5:1-5; Heb 10:23-25; Prov 27:17; 1 Cor 12:23-28; Mk 16:15; Tit 1:5-9; Col 1:17-18; Acts 20:28; 1 Tim 3:1-13)

We believe that there are only two ordinances for the church regularly observed in the New Testament in the following order: 1) Baptism, which is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby he obeys Christ’s command and sets forth his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. 2) The Lord’s Supper, which is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and wine, which symbolize the Lord’s body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He comes.

(Acts 2:38-42, 8:36-39; Rom 6:1-11; 1 Cor 10:16, 11:28-32)

We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord’s day and that, in a special sense, it is the divinely appointed day for worship and spiritual exercise.

(Ex 20:8-11, 23:12, Deut 5:12-15; Is 58:13-14; Acts 20:7; Luke 4:16)

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honoured and obeyed, except only in the things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only Lord of the conscience and Prince of the kings of the earth.

(Ps 22:28; Is 9:6; Acts 5:29; Rom 13:1, 7; Tit 3:1; 1 Tim 2:1-3; 1 Pet 2:13-17)