A couple of years ago, The Globe and Mail featured a story called Vancouver churches unlocking their land value, noting: Urban churches are sitting on some of the priciest real estate in the province, and they’re using the situation to their…
The same sermon theme will be preached in churches all over Vancouver on Sunday June 11. Our theme: welcoming the stranger. I feel giddy with anticipation as I type! This is a response to the present fear-based political climate, especially…
Last Tuesday evening (March 7), the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC) was targeted. After an emailed bomb threat, the building was evacuated. A few hundred adults attending a concert and a few dozen teens playing sports were inconvenienced.…
The area around Brentwood Mall and the new SkyTrain station is undergoing a dramatic makeover. Life has been disrupted, but there is at least one oasis of calm in the midst of all the upheaval. Connections Coffee House has been quietly…
There is an ocean width of difference between being alone and being lonely. Some think it is language, unaffordable housing, technology or erratic work schedules that distance us from each other. For newcomers to Canada, it may be all of…
Brad Brisco will be in town next Thursday (October 13) to lead Missional Essentials: A Guide for Experiencing God’s Mission. The afternoon and evening sessions will take place at Southside Community Church in Surrey. Following is a comment from his…
“Forge Canada serves the church by evoking missional conversation, equipping churches to join God on mission and then helping to establish multiplying missional Christian communities in neighbourhoods across Canada.” So says Cam Roxburgh, national director of Forge Canada and team…
Ten years ago Craig Greenfield moved with his wife and kids from the slums of Phnom Penh in Cambodia to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). Then they moved back again. Not surprisingly, he’s got quite a story to tell. He gave…
Half a dozen local pastors and ministry leaders got a glimpse into a unique urban ministry in Manchester, England last week. We spent almost a week with Andy Hawthorne and members of The Message, which works with young people in…
My family moved to our neighbourhood three years ago and began the work of connecting and making our home here. It has been a slow and humbling time. I have been confronted with my own agendas and baggage – a need to…