Checking in with new BCY Regional Minister Brian Louw
Hello to my dear brothers and sisters in Christ who call the CBWC home. What an amazing start these past two months have been for me as I seek to serve you and our churches across the BCY region. It remains my prayer that, together, we would continue to see God at work in our midst. I continue to ask that you would pray for me, even as we pray for and encourage one another.
Given that I’ve only recently started in this role, there’s not much for me to update. Even my recent trips to the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, and the Okanagan feel like they were whistle-stop tours. So, for now, it seems prudent to me to share a little more of who I am and how I think. Hopefully this will reflect my prayers and dreams for this next season.
Mark Kingston , Calvary Baptist, Gibsons, BC
Randy Hamm, First Baptist, Vernon, BC
Brian Carnahan, Bethel Baptist, Sechelt, BC
Let me illustrate it with the oft-heard response to our question, “How are you doing?” I’m sure you ask that question multiple times a day and probably get asked it as well. As I ask the question, I’m noticing more and more people responding with something along the lines of, “Oh, you know, I’m surviving…” Of course, some might phrase it more negatively with, “I’m hanging in there”—while others choose the more sarcastic, “I’m just living the dream!” I even saw a meme recently that answered this question with, “The horrors persist, but so do I!” I really do hope that’s not how you would respond.
But what about you? How are you doing? My prayer, my goal, my focus, and energy will be on helping our brothers and sisters get to a place of being able to say they’re thriving, not simply surviving. I genuinely believe that Jesus meant what He said when He said He came to give us abundant life (John 10:10). And I long to see our churches and their respective leaders experience that abundant life first-hand. I know it’s tough going in the day-to-day grind of vocational ministry, and there are a lot of challenges that come our way. However, I still believe God longs to equip us and help us do more than merely survive the work of ministry. By His grace, I hope to help where I can.
Let me close by asking again, “How are you doing, and how can I help you thrive?” I look forward to discovering the answers to those questions in the near future. Until then, will you join me in praying for our churches and their people in this next season? And enjoy the stories below of two of our churches celebrating some big milestones.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Brian Louw
Anniversary Celebrations in West Vancouver
Any day of any year, we could list examples of God’s faithfulness to our churches. But now and then we hit a milestone large enough to make us stop, shake our heads in wonder, regale each other with “Can you believe …?” stories, and break into spontaneous praise to our Lord for His goodness.
This past year was one of those highlight times for the folks at West Vancouver Baptist Church. In 2024, we celebrated our 100th anniversary as a formally organized Baptist congregation. It was wonderful—and a little surreal! A hundred years may not seem like a long time for some of our older sister churches, but it’s a significant landmark on Vancouver’s North Shore, where our spiritual grandparents were true pioneers. (To put things in perspective, regular ferry service to the North Shore began in 1909, and you couldn’t drive here from Vancouver until the first bridge was completed in 1938! In 1924, West Vancouver was a collection of First Nations homes, Vancouverite summer cottages, and huts for farmers, loggers, and fishermen, only recently equipped with electricity.)
A century of ministry deserves a significant party. So, our team spent the whole summer developing materials, posting pictures, playing videos, sharing stories, and inviting our members to reflect on all God has done in our midst. Festivities came to a climax in fall with a celebration service and big after-church gathering, where our current congregation welcomed a large influx of guests along with friends and family visiting from a distance. It was great to stroll down memory lane together. Our hearts were encouraged as we retold stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness to WVBC over the years.
He has certainly been good and faithful through many changes.
The neighbourhood we serve has changed dramatically. What was a small, rustic community a boat-ride from Vancouver is now a major urban area, with all the ministry challenges and opportunities of the big city.
We serve out of a very different home base than our founders did in 1924. Over the decades, West Van Baptist has proclaimed the gospel from a building that was little more than a shack with pews, then from a traditional church-from-the-movies sanctuary, and most recently, from a creative and eye-catching modern space where art and nature draw our eyes upward in worship. In each season, God has provided what we need to gather and serve, faithfully equipping our congregation to minister in the way that has been best for the time.
Our ministries have changed. There have been organs and choirs, drums and guitars, giant Christmas pageants and intimate Bible studies, youth revival movements, and programs of care for the aging. Early on, most of our members had European names. Today, we are an intentionally intercultural community where regular ministries take place in at least 3 languages, and services welcome new Canadians with simultaneous translation.
The people have changed, too. This is most obvious from the addition and subtraction of names on the membership register. Earlier generations have gone to be with their Lord and the great cloud of witnesses who wait for us in His presence. New generations and new additions have taken their place in our sanctuary.
Less visible, but every bit as important: the lives of men and women, girls and boys have changed as they have heard God’s Word, received the invitation to know and love the Lord Jesus, and embraced His call to serve with gifts granted by the Spirit.
We have thought often about God’s faithfulness over the past year. West Van Baptist has seen many changes, yet—as He promised and as we expected—God has walked hand-in-hand with us all the way, meeting us in worship, teaching us through the Word, encouraging us with His presence, graciously touching our lives and reaching out to others through us. We recall Jesus’ words that if we would stay firmly rooted in Him, like branches anchored to a Vine, His life would flow through us, and we would be both fruitful and joyful. We’re not perfect branches, but God has been gracious, and it has been our privilege to prove the truth of His promise over 100 years of ministry on Vancouver’s North Shore.
We’re excited to see what the next season holds. Like the songwriter, we know that the Lord is on our side, and in every change He faithful will remain. He will undertake to guide the future as He has the past.* We can hardly wait for the next milestone, the next big party, and the new stories we’ll have to share!
Ken Radant
Lead Pastor, West Vancouver Baptist Church
(* Lines from Be Still My Soul, by Jean Sibelius)
White Rock Baptist celebrated 70 years in April 2025!
On June 23, 1954, a group from FBC Vancouver and Olivet Baptist in New Westminster met to discuss plans for a church in White Rock. On September 12 of that year, the first public worship service was held at 3pm in the Hilltop Gospel Hall.
Construction of the White Rock Baptist Church building was complete and ready for services on April 10, 1955.
Please enjoy this reflection from church member, Fay Puddicombe, who attended the celebrations this April!
God is faithful! As a longtime member of White Rock Baptist Church, it was my joy to help plan the celebrations we held to recognize our 70th anniversary.
We chose “Great is God’s Faithfulness” as our theme for the year. As we celebrated God’s faithfulness to us as a church, we also acknowledged the people who supported the church’s ministry through the years. We noted that congregations before us had vision, put in hard work and supported the ministry in many ways. We gave thanks for those from First Baptist Vancouver and Olivet Baptist in New Westminster as they prayed and planted our church in the early 1950s.
One of the memories that stands out to me is that a few men worked together to develop the new church building and surrounding properties. After two sets of condos and a care home were built, the profits from that enterprise provided funding to provide the new church building with only a very small mortgage. Today our mortgage-free building is estimated to be valued over seven million dollars. But more than the building they developed, they instilled in us a servant mentality; we all have responsibility to keep up the church facility. We continue to seek ways to use the building in ministry to the community, and in turn, to God’s kingdom. We regularly have work and clean up days around the church and property and have many who volunteer their time regularly to make repairs where needed.
As former pastor, Ellis Andre, said at our 50th anniversary, “God handpicked particular people and placed them here at appropriate stages in the life of the church.” God continues to bring people and ministries to us. We are grounded enough to keep the message of God’s kingdom real and steadfast, while also being flexible and creative enough to offer appropriate ministries that reflect the needs of the world around us. For example, during the pandemic we offered drive-through communions, online Sunday School and Worship services, and events in the parking lot for children.
As we serve with gladness, we provide a legacy for the future of our church. The church building, the ministries that can thrive within the walls, the work to make everything run well, the volunteers who give of time, the money we give, what’s it all about? Every time we see a baptism, the symbol of a changed life, it is a reminder. The work, the energy, the giving: it’s all worth it for changed lives. Lives turned around to Christ. It continues to be our hope that, following the example of all those that came before us, we will be found faithful to those who come after us. May this church continue to be a beacon of God’s love to our community and beyond.
Click here to view a video from their AGM this year, celebrating the milestone.
Ministry News from the BCY Region
Warm Welcomes:
Jennifer Friesen, Lead Pastor of Kitsilano Christian Community Church
Winsor Boggs, Pastor of Preteens and Youth Ministries as First Baptist Church Vancouver
Samuel Andri, Youth Pastor of Grandview Church
Laura Nelson, Associate Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church Gibsons
Roy Yip, Associate Pastor at Makarios Evangelical Church
Fond Farewells:
Deb Judas, Associate Pastor at The Neighbourhood Church
Don Crawford Interim Pastor, Kitsilano Christian Community
This regional newsletter is published quarterly within the CBWC’s monthly newsletter, Making Connections. Have a story idea? Email our senior writer, Hannah Hamm: hhamm@cbwc.ca