Well that “Athens” is in Canmore, Alberta, Canada! Yes – the Ascent Movement has gone into major pluralistic territory!
“Are you crazy”, people asked Rick & Donna Lamothe, “to plant a church here in Canmore, where this is a graveyard for Pastors & Churches”?
You see, there are no Baptist, no Pentecostal church in Canmore AB. Yes, there is a beautiful Catholic Church, but it is a “shrine”. It is even called ‘The Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Rockies’. Then there is one alive evangelical church, but they don’t even preach the Gospel. There are a few other very small churches. But in a beautiful small Canadian Rocky Town of about 17,000 people, with 10,000 more on the weekend who come to escape, only 1% of the population would go to church in Canmore!
On the outside, Canmore is truly inspiring, majestic, breath-taking. Well that’s because of the beauty of God’s creation. But on the inside, yes lots of beautiful people, searching, wondering perhaps who God is, but they are too busy worshipping His creation with all the sports, hiking, recreation, that can be done around here on weekends.
Why is Canmore a graveyard for pastors & churches?
Well in this Mountain Town, when you go deeper on the inside, you get to see a lot of idolatry, sexual immorality and witchcraft. Banff (next door to Canmore) – as inspiring as it is with people coming from all over the world, has the highest level of STD (sexually transmitted disease) in all of Canada.
Pastor Rick just preached a New Year’s message on The Three Sisters of Canmore – the iconic 3 mountains of Canmore standing above all the other mountains. Interesting, that are named after Faith, Love & Hope. We know 1 Corinthians 13 talks about Faith, Hope and Love and the greatest of these is love. But Rick stated how 1 Corinthians 13 really had nothing to do with a wedding passage. The Apostle Paul wanted to address a church back in Corinth, which was plagued with division, idolatry, sexual immorality, etc. He was telling them about the 8 things love does and the 8 things love does. Because back then, they were doing the 8 things true love should NOT be doing.
Fast forward the story to 2025-2026, many churches are still doing the 8 things love should not be going. People are easily angered. People have lots of envy. They keep records of wrongs. etc. And as Corinth was similar to Athens in its Greek cultural and religious pluralism – hum – so is Canmore. Lots of little Buddha statues everywhere.
So Rick & Donna, who are both in their early 60s, are planting a church in Athen-like-Canmore. Both are also Veterans, so they are not afraid of stepping onto the front lines to do battle and gain territory for Jesus. In fact, Rick & Donna believe they’ve planted 1000s of seeds for Jesus over this past Christmas like it has never been done before!
No Jesus at the Festival of Trees!
Malcom Hotel in Spring Creek Village (downtown Canmore), host the annual Festival of Trees, which is organized by the Rotary Club. When Rick & Donna were walking among the 88 Christmas Trees last Christmas 2024, they noticed that NOT ONE Christmas Tree had any notion of Jesus. Not one Nativity Scene! Imagine that!
inSPIRE Church was officially planted this past September 2025. So when Christmas rolled around, Rick & Donna made sure they had a premium location to display their Christmas Tree, one that would be filled with little wooden Nativity scene ornaments, and an actual big Manger Scene.
“Jesus was all over that tree”, Rick said. “Plus we had a prime location right by the Stirling Pub. And I think that would be ok with Jesus, as after-all, His 1st miracle was
making wine”!
That restaurant said maybe 10,000 people walked thru Malcom Hotel this past Christmas. They’ve never seen so many people. The festival had a record number of trees – 102 this year. And inSPIRE Church was the only one displaying Jesus! They even won 3rd prize in their category for best Christmas Tree.
“Imagine – Jesus came in 3rd place”, Rick said, “but we know He’s #1!”
And 100s of inSPIRE Church and inSPIRE Ministries pens with their logo and web sites were given away.
An amazing Christmas Eve Outreach!
inSPIRE Church has an average of 25-30 people in their core group. But instead of meeting where they normally meet every Sunday, Rick & Donna wanted to do something different
for their Christmas Outreach. Basically down the road to Malcom Hotel, is the history small Opera House. So for Christmas Eve, the Lamothes set-up 60 chairs. They thought they could double their attendance. But a wave of people came, and they were scrambling pulling more chairs out. 120 people came and Pastor Donna preached a “O Holy Night” in Canmore message. They had live worship (as normally they don’t – but they are still praying for a ‘missionary worship leader’ to move to Canmore and join their team). And so yes, you can contact them if you are interested in moving to Athens – I mean Canmore!
www.inspirechurch.ca
“It's a dream come-true to plant a pioneering church in a small mountain town”, the Lamothes have said, “but hey, we are praying BIG time for the reality of Matthew 5:14.”
Get involved with inSPIRE Church in Canmore Alberta!
The harvest is truly great in the Canadian Rocky Mountains! So pray for them, support them financially, even literally join them!
Join the inSPIRE journey – the intentional exploration to live with Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Relational & Emotional health. It’s the Great Commandment practically lived out like never before – loving God with ALL of who we are in the 5 areas of our lives!
