Around Town: Border Walk, Legacy Education Summit, People Count! . . .

This weekend seems like an excellent time to gather at the American border to “stand alongside refugee claimants who continue to navigate dangerous and uncertain border realities.”

And that is exactly what will be happening. A Border Walk & Prayer Pilgrimage will take place Saturday morning (January 31) at Peace Arch Provincial Park.

The gathering is sponsored by Journey Home Community, which offers transitional housing, settlement assistance and relational support to refugee claimaint families.

Here is their invitation:

Join us for a meaningful morning of solidarity, learning and prayer at the Border Walk & Prayer Pilgrimage.

This gathering invites participants to slow down, listen, reflect and stand alongside refugee claimants who continue to navigate dangerous and uncertain border realities. Together, we will explore the journey many take to reach safety, hear a refugee story and ground our time in prayer and community.

Whether you’re new to refugee-related issues or already deeply engaged, this experience is designed to deepen understanding and inspire compassionate action.

We especially encourage church leaders and community groups to come as a carload, sharing the experience together.

What to expect

• • On arrival
    Coffee, tea and muffins as we gather and get oriented.
  • Learning and storytelling
    • Introduction to border realities for asylum seekers.
    • A story shared by someone with lived refugee experience.
    • Context on pathways, risks and how the community can respond.
  • Prayer and reflection
    Group prayer, moments of quiet reflection and songs that root us in hope.
  • Border walk
    A guided walk through Peace Arch Park as we reflect together on what we’ve heard.
  • Lunch and debrief
    Hot lunch provided.

A short closing reflection and a call to action.

Go here to sign up.

The Border Walk is also supported by groups such as:

• New Hope Community Services, which hosts newcomers to Metro Vancouver in two apartments, in Surrey and New Westminster, and
• CityGate Vancouver, which is developing networks of churches collaborating with each other and the wider city to address vital areas of need such as refugee displacement, food insecurity, poverty amongst students in school, unaffordable housing, underutilized church properties and the need for church renewal.

Journey Home grew out of a community group at Willingdon Church in Burnaby more than 20 years ago. Apart from all their daily work with new arrivals, they regularly work with church groups and host training sessions.

If you can’t make it all the way down to the border, you could take part in A Walk in the Refugee’s Shoes, at St. John’s Vancouver Anglican Church: “an interactive experience designed by Journey Home, our partner organization, to deepen our understanding of the journey of refugee claimants.” Short notice, though; it’s on tonight (January 29).

Or you could go to their Love Without Borders: Welcoming Refugee Claimants Orientation, February 28 at Willingdon Church.

For a moving article about what churches are doing in Minneapolis, Christianity Today posted ‘In a Tense Minnesota, Christians Help Immigrant Neighbors’ January 26.

Legacy Education Summit

Kevin Cavanaugh will be one of the presenters at Legacy Education Summit.

Riverside Calvary Chapel will host a free, day-long Legacy Education Summit this Saturday (January 31):

Prepare to be inspired and equipped as we are reminded of the importance of a biblical worldview in education.

Together, we will explore and ponder the following questions:

• • What is the purpose of education?
  • What kind of students do we want to enter the world?
  • How can we help reshape education so that students enter the world well-equipped?
  • How do we create a lasting effect?
  • How can education influence our culture for Christ?
  • What role do parents, families and our elders have in education?

The purpose of this event is to gather anyone who understands how important education is and how it affects both individuals and our communities at large. Please plan to attend this important and potentially life-changing event!

Keynote speakers are Brent Smith, Lead Pastor of Riverside Calvary Chapel; Matt Rowan, Lead Pastor of Christ the King Community Church on the Sunshine Coast; Tanya Gaw, founder of Action4Canada; Rick Martin, Dean for the College of Education at Calvary Chapel University; and Kevin Cavanaugh, Executive Director of Free to Care.

People count!

Shelby Boese

All too often I hear the (somewhat condescending) view that churches these days have become too concerned about the number of converts, members, churches, etc in their community.

No doubt true, in some cases, but . . . Shelby Boese, Executive Minister of Mennonite Church British Columbia, offered a refreshing perspective January 21, in his weekly reflection (this week on “AGM reporting season”).

Here is a portion:

[C]ounting has a way of focusing us.

• • Member counts tell us who has decided to covenant, lead and submit to one another in a local church.

  • Adherent counts tell us that non-members (and children / youth) who are engaged count and indicate our outwardness. “The Church is the only organization that exists solely for the benefit of non-members.” –Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1881 – 1944)

  • Small groups and classes meeting regularly show where our on-ground love and development of community is going deeper.

  • Budget numbers / spending plans, giving families / individuals show us if our investing in people is aligned with building our community, assisting others and the state of discipleship and heart towards releasing the control of money for bigger purposes than just ourselves.

  • Counting missional conversations, outreach and service events indicate how we are doing at living and telling the work of being Christou Apostoloi (Χριστοῦ Ἀπόστολοι), ambassadors of Christ’s reconciling work (2 Corinthians 5:20).

  • Counting worship gatherings attendance – like Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) – tells us if our worship is engaging.

For the church we count, because each number, each statistic represents a person, a beloved Child of God, whom Jesus died for, and therefore each is of inestimable worth. A count is an attempt to guide, gauge, report and challenge us to remember it’s about Jesus and people.

We count (enumerate, take stock) people, because people count (matter). We count now, so one day we can celebrate The Lamb’s count beyond measure. After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7.9

Go here for the full comment.

Events are listed below, but there is also an Events page and a Jobs page on the Church for Vancouver site.