Major April McNeilly credits her four Gen Z daughters for igniting in her a greater love for God’s Word and for the body of Christ. Their questions pushed her, and this led to her eventual enrollment in the MTS program at Wycliffe College. “Wycliffe just grabbed me,” McNeilly remembers. “An evangelical Anglican seminary was just what I needed. In a day when truth is too often up for grabs, Wycliffe stands firm in 2,000 years of Christian orthodoxy.”
That grounding meant the MTS program gave McNeilly excellent language for her thoughts and what she was all about. Her “labour of love” thesis on the spiritual formation of Gen Zs in post-Christian Canada solidified her calling to remain an “elder at the gate,” mentoring Gen Zs in her circles. And as she sat in classes rubbing shoulders with Christians of all ages from different traditions, she felt stretched theologically and socially. “At the time I was in my mid-50s, and all this interaction gave me tremendous confidence to study, write, and think.”
She remembers Dr Marion Taylor’s encouragement: “You’re not too old, April. You want to get a PhD? Go for it. As a woman, you’re exactly the right age to be doing all this further education.” Amazing counsel for a Major in the Salvation Army who has almost exclusively pastored churches for 27 years throughout Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and France. As she puts it: “God’s love met me in a rural Newfoundland church, and I felt His calling on my life to be a Salvation Army officer.” Today, McNeilly pastors a Salvation Army congregation in Burlington and leads its mission in that area.
With Wycliffe-nurtured gifts of communication, coupled with a deeper love for the Word of God, McNeilly remains open to what comes next.
