Imagine three church families under one roof.
This is the exciting adventure of faith that is happening at University Chapel in Vancouver, BC.
This collaboration of communities is being led by three pastors:
Karen Daniels is the Transitional Pastor of the English congregation.
Hyok Kim is the Pastor of the Korean congregation.
And Bruce Nie is the Pastor of the Chinese congregation.
Knowing that each congregation can bless the others in their unique gifting, while inspired by the vision of the kingdom of heaven, and realizing that together they reflect the nature of their local neighbourhood, they are figuring out how to become spiritually one.
It’s a journey. One step at a time.
Through a grant project with Regent College, together they launched one of their shared ministries – a community garden project. Then, an appreciative inquiry showed that they like each other, enjoy doing projects together, and value strong teaching.
This will help guide them as they move forward. In the past, the different church families would meet at various times in the same building over the weekend.
They’re at the point now when all the church services occur at the same time in the same building, while sharing a children’s pastor and a youth pastor.
So the English, Chinese, and Korean children and youth are learning and worshipping together, while the adults are all in the building Sunday morning and remain in their own language congregations.
For Chinese New Year’s, they celebrated a special Lunar service.
Imagine Communion being served in three languages:
“This is my body and this is my blood” spoken in English, Korean, and Chinese.
The inter-cultural worship service gave them a sense of what it could be like.
It’s an exciting time and these three pastors look forward to what God might have in store for them.
Isn’t this the sort of unity and love for one another that Jesus calls us to?
In a world of division and conflict, three church families becoming one is extraordinary – and intriguing.