Our Beginning

The Start Meeting

After drafting the modernized Ten Commandments, Dan, our founder, attended his church’s Start Meeting—an introductory session for newcomers. Led deep into the church’s catacombs, the small group of 8 or 9 settled into a cafeteria where several committee members were already seated, waiting.

The room fell silent when the head pastor unexpectedly entered and began by stating that we should start at the beginning with the Ten Commandments. He then posed a question: “Does anyone know how many of these laws govern the relationship between man and God?”

When the room remained silent, Dan raised his hand and correctly identified that the first four commandments were directed toward God. The room—pastor included—seemed visibly impressed. A committee member in the back was asked to find the passage on the Commandments in their Bible but Dan interjected, claiming he knew them by heart. Skeptical, the pastor challenged him to recite them.

Dan began his recitation, delivering them nearly word-for-word—though he was actually reciting the revised version he had recently written. He spoke with such conviction that the pastor only stopped him when he reached the ninth commandment, as time was running out for the class. To close the session, the pastor turned the focus back to the group, asking the newcomers what had ultimately drawn them to the church.

One woman told her story. She explained that after dying during surgery, God had filled her with a light and told her she was being sent back to be a witness. When Dan heard this, he nearly fell out of his chair. He did the math and was shaken; out of the roughly fifteen people in the room, three people had said they had heard the voice of God. There was the woman brought back from the dead to be a witness; the pastor had told the entire congregation that he was divinely directed to find and save their church and then there was Dan himself, whom God had entrusted with the Blueprints for a new religion meant to save the world. (We realize it sounds crazy but please continue reading )

The Cost of the Calling

Of course, Dan is aware of ” how far out there” his story sounds—he’s the first to admit he would have trouble accepting it himself. The reality is that he never asked to be the architect of a new faith and often wonders why God didn’t choose someone better equipped. The “job” has already cost him dearly, fracturing his family and thinning his circle of friends.

He has also had to brace himself for the potential backlash, knowing full well that messages of peace often feel like threats to those in power. But Dan has learned that when God gives you an assignment, you can’t run away forever…. His own “run” ended on December 25, 2015. After a lifetime of silence and what had been a very trying year, he finally reached out in prayer, only to find that God had been lying in wait.

“Dan didn’t just find God that Christmas morning; he was bushwhacked by Him”.

Plan All You Want, But…

It all began on a freezing February night while Dan was working sales in Ontario. He had returned to Montreal after sixteen years on the East Coast—a move he once vowed he would never make. Having been away from Quebec for over two decades, he had grown weary of the political landscape and the language laws, swearing he’d never call the province home again.

Fate, however, had other plans. After his mother suffered a stroke that left her with vascular dementia, Dan moved her to Nova Scotia to care for her himself. But a year later, the pull of family became too much for her to bear. To keep her close to her other children, Dan brought her back to Montreal. In what felt almost like a sign, in a 125-apartment building he managed to sublet a large apartment directly above his sister—who was already caring for their two ailing brothers—putting the entire family under one roof except for one other sister who lived with her husband abroad.

After over a decade of caregiving, his mother had a second fall—resulting in a re-fractured hip and pelvis—which meant that Dan’s mother finally required professional care. Even then, Dan felt a sense of divine favor; he secured her a home just one street away, allowing him to keep his daily vigil.