Living in Vancouver for the past 33 years, I have witnessed a steady shift towards secularism and fragmented approaches to life[i]. While church attendance has decreased during those three decades[ii], the conditions of belief have also changed, as Charles Taylor…
In May 2017 Peter Biggs embarked on a major survey of Christianity in each of the municipalities from West Vancouver to Chilliwack. These ‘Snapshots of Faith’ were published first in The Light Magazine and have been re-posted on Church for…
Peter Biggs of The Light Magazine is researching one Metro Vancouver / Fraser Valley municipality each month, and producing a focus on each one. The September issue features the first of three ‘snapshots’ devoted to the City of Vancouver. Following is a portion…
Clean from hard drugs for two years and living in the brand new Co:Here Housing Community, Todd K’s[i] journey of recovery has been long. He began drinking heavily at 15, and was living on the streets of Vancouver with a crack cocaine…
The Co:Here Housing Community has been dedicated, celebrated and blessed. The only thing left now is to wait for final approval for 34 residents to move in to the brand new building at the corner of 1st and Victoria in east…
Pastor Tim Dickau of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church wrote this Foreword for his long-time friend and colleague Barry Morris. Hopeful Realism in Urban Ministry was published by Wipf and Stock in 2016. Urban ministry, especially when it is going ‘well,’…
City Councillor Andrea Reimer would love to see churches working together for the good of the city. “Many things start in a church basement,” she said recently. “I use that phrase a lot – and here we are in a…
Our family gathers together each Sunday in Advent to sing carols. Most weeks I choose ‘O Holy Night’ and I particularly love the third verse: Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is…
Forming any sort of abiding face to face community is becoming rarer in our culture. Robert Putnam’s classic study Bowling Alone charts the accelerating demise of participation in community groups and associations from the years 1960 – 2000.[1] There are multiple factors…
Forty years ago I hitchhiked up to a farm west of Lusaka in Zambia. Three months later I left as a born again Christian. The farmers/missionaries introduced me to Christ in their home Bible studies and I made a profession…