Vancouver Consultation: City Summit agenda

The year-long Vancouver Consultation process will be capped by the City Summit November 24 – 25, at Glad Tidings Church.

Participating will be church and ministry leaders from the city of Vancouver, with a handful of observers from surrounding cities.

The two days will be divided roughly into four parts, with prayer and worship mixed in:

1. Vancouver in Context (Thursday morning)

• City Leaders Roundtable will feature representatives from the government, non-profit and business sectors: Andrea Reimer, Vancouver City Councillor; Deb Bryant, CEO of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC; and John Neate, owner of JJ Bean Coffee. They will offer their visions for Vancouver and then have a moderated conversation about how the Christian community can better participate in the life of the city.
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  Tim Dickau at Grandview Calvary Church.

  Keynote presentations on elements of Vancouver’s national and local contexts that ought to inform our ministries: Dr. Glenn Smith has run Christian Direction in Montreal for over three decades, working ecumenically with civic governments. Dr. Tim Dickau, pastor of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church since 1989, revived a dying church by casting vision for holistic gospel engagement with issues of housing, refugees, food security and much more.

2. Signs of Hope (Thursday afternoon)

• An extended lunch structured for small group discussion around the morning’s topics.

• Jonathan Bird: Vancouver demographics and trends; summary of findings from focus groups conducted earlier this year among more than 130 pastors and non-profit executives from all corners of Vancouver.

• Presentations by local champions of innovative, successful mission:
  
  

  Jonathan Mitchell

  • Maureen Donovan: Catholic Prison Ministry
  • Karen Reed: Houses of Hospitality
  • Karen Giesbrecht: Planted Community Food Network
  • Rueben Zuidhof, Hot Sauce Marketing: social purpose business & discipleship
  • Jonathan Mitchell: Chapel citywide youth discipleship
  • Paul Pearce: CHAT (Centre for Healthy Aging Transitions) ministry to and by retiree

• Dr. Ray Bakke will address the international situation; he is a highly regarded pioneer in contemporary urban missiology who developed the Consultation model and has assisted them in many major cities around the world.

3. Site Visits (Friday morning)

• After an orientation session that supplies questions for analysis, participants will break into groups to tour ministries that are really making a difference in Vancouver:

• Faith Fellowship Baptist – multicultural community development; Place of Refuge Recovery Home
• St. Paul’s Anglican Community Advocacy Office; Meta Communities house church
• Inner Hope Youth Ministries; Youth Unlimited’s Creative Life arts program
• Madonna House – Roman Catholic house (poustinia) for prayer and neighbour care; International Student Ministries Canada at UBC.
  
• Mission Possible Enterprises (social enterprise); Union Gospel Mission (church outreach and equipping)
• Grandview Calvary Baptist; Vancouver East Vineyard (congregational renewal through holistic neighbour care)
• Kinbrace Refugee Housing & Support; Christian Reformed Refugee Services
• City In Focus (marketplace chaplaincy); Business By the Book (congregational outreach to central business district)

• Participants will consider these questions: What factors are allowing them to succeed? What principles can be transferred to their own efforts?

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  The gathered leaders will be asked what we can do together, for the good of the city.

  Breakout Session 1: “From the perspective of the church as a whole in Vancouver, how can we most bless the city – given what you know about your own ministry context and what we’ve heard the last two days?”

• Breakout Session 2: “What are the major barriers to the church blessing the city in these ways?”

• Panel: Brief final observations and exhortations from Glenn, Ray, Tim.

• Group consensus about next steps: “Given the pattern that we see in your individual responses, what would be ways to support and encourage you and your group as you move forward? What does it mean to do this together?

To gain a fuller sense of the Vancouver Consultation process, read the three accompanying articles on the Church for Vancouver site.