While the world may have been on pause, a Manitoban is catching his breath after a busy year.

Troy Lydiate, also known as Scribe Music, moved to the Vancouver area with his family in January of 2020 to plant a church in the heart of the city. A year and a half later, that church, as well as a second church plant, is thriving.

"It has been an absolute ride, and incredible ride, that's for sure," Lydiate says.

He has found there is a hunger for the gospel, brought forth even more so the pandemic. 

"I am seeing a lot of people going through a faith deconstruction. A lot of people with the pandemic and that sort of thing, have had a lot more time to think. They have had a lot more time to analyze, they have had a lot more time to put things into perspective."

Along with the deconstruction, he is finding both healthy and unhealthy actions. When it comes to faith conversations online, he wants people to be careful about what they are saying and consuming, saying there could be miscommunications when there is no accountability.

"I have definitely seen a lot of deconstruction of people's faith. A lot of it, as I said, is for the better, and some have had people walk away from the faith altogether. And that is like what I was saying before, for where me, my heart is so much towards accountability."

Part of this, for Lydiate, is looking to leaders who can walk with people through their deconstruction journeys. The desire to meet in person is also a need for Lydiate.

"You've seen some people get so comfortable with an online church that they forget the crucial importance and actually the biblical importance of physically gathering."

As he helps people get to the physical church, another of Scribe's passions, Christian hip hop, continues to push forward.

"The music industry can feel like an absolute rat race," he says. "There is this level where one is competing for the same awards, the same spaces, the same events., and as much as there is this level of opportunities that you want to take, there is a whole other side that we need to look at, that is 'why are we doing what we are doing, is the gospel being preached, are lives being transformed, are artists lives being transformed?"

He has been releasing singles this year, saying he is trying to develop his own catalogue as well as collaborate with the wider Christian hip hop community. 

"It is by the grace of God I have gotten far more connected within the last year with people of varying levels within the industry."

Soon, Lydiate will be taking on a new role with Apologetics Canada.