Tim Dickau leads CityGate Vancouver, which has been gathering church leaders across Canada to reimagine how they steward their church lands.
The church in Canada is one of the largest landholders in the country. One estimate is that church properties and buildings in Canada are valued at over 26 billion dollars.
In light of those vast landholdings, the question of how churches utilize and develop this land is one of the critical questions facing the church in our day.
Towards that end, CityGate has been gathering people in cities across the nation to explore these issues around church-owned land and buildings.
Vancouver 2024
After gathering some of the key players in this sector two years ago in Ontario, CityGate held its first public gathering this past March here in Vancouver at First Christian Reformed church.
At that gathering, we heard a theological rationale for “holding rather than having land” (stewarding land as a gift rather than treating it as our private property) and for living into a vision of reconciliation with our Indigenous neighbors around this land.
We also heard stories of creative development alongside stories of sacrificial preservation and utilization of church properties. We also got valuable input from politicians, developers, architects, urban planners and denominational leaders.
Out of that conference, more than a handful of churches are engaging in their own development projects with groups like Wayfinder Developments (formerly Co:Here Housing) and MOTIV Architects.
Toronto 2025
Participants at the Reimagine Conference in Toronto.
In an effort to bring this conversation across the country, CityGate organized a conference in Toronto at Wycliffe College.
The more than 120 participants had the privilege of hearing Yale Theologian Willie James Jennings call us to “return to the dirt” and recover a theology of land as gift; of hearing from developers like Indwell (with over 25 completed supportive living projects); of gathering with other folks in their denominations to contextualize these conversations within their own polities; and of building many new relationships across this sector.
The impact of these ongoing gatherings is beginning to be felt across the country.
For example, the Presbyterian Church in Canada has earmarked funds for any of its churches to apply for up to $25,000 for an initial feasibility study. Attendees of the first two conferences from The Alliance Canada have spurred on denominational conversations across the country. Anglicans locally and in dioceses across the nation are actively involved.
On the other hand, many denominations have barely entered these conversations, leaving churches on their own to navigate these important questions about land and buildings. Too many churches are left to reactionary responses in times of crisis, selling land to private developers rather than preparing proactively for the future.
Reimagine: conversation
We hope to change that through these Reimagine Conferences.
The videos from that conference are being edited and will be uploaded before the end of June on the new ‘Reimagine’ website we have developed to foster this conversation. That website can be accessed here.
We hope this website will help connect churches who are seeking to explore questions around creative development, with both resources and resource people, to guide them in those crucial first steps of visioning, discernment and feasibility analysis.
Please feel free to reach out to me personally if I can be of help in those initial stages of exploration as I view that as part of my role within the Lower Mainland churches.
Halifax 2026
The next gathering we are planning towards is Halifax 2026. We are also in dialogue with Dr. Jennings about an international conference at Yale in 2027. Please pray that the Canadian church will:
- Take seriously its call to bear witness to the God of generosity and justice through its land.
- Be diligent in its effort to retain this land for kingdom use and the common good.
- Be proactive in exploring creative use and development of this incredible gift of land.
Tim Dickau is Director of CityGate Vancouver, as well as Associate for the Missional Leadership Certificate Program at the Centre for Missional Leadership. Prior to taking on these roles, Tim served for 30 years as pastor of Grandview Church in East Vancouver.