Things Happening in May

• Easter Colouring Contest winners have been announced! Check out the submissions and winners on Facebook.
• Theology for the Ordinary Book Club: Discussing Bryan Stevenson‘s Just Mercy, Wednesday, May 3rd at 6 pm PST. Email heartland@cbwc.ca to RSVP
• Evangelism Masterclass: Post-Enlightenment Evangelism with Merv Budd. May 30, 10am PST. Sign up for Free.
• SERVE Registration closes May 31 cbwc.ca/serve
• Ordination Examining Council (OEC) Wednesday May 31^st at 9:30am and Thursday June 1^st at 9:15am. All welcome!
• Learn how we can Take Steps to End Hunger Locally and Globally this summer through Active In Mission.

 Partner Spotlight: HopeHill

News from Hopehill-Living in Community — a low-income senior housing society in Vancouver, a ministry of the CBWC Family

What are the characteristics of family?

There are several characteristics that are generally identified with a well-functioning family. Some include support; love and caring for other family members; providing security and a sense of belonging; open communication; and making each person within the family feel important, valued, respected and esteemed.  Cf. HealthyChildren.Org. Nov 21, 2015

Points To Ponder:

1. Hopehill is like a family. Nearly 400 residents call us “home.” Not everybody knows each other’s name, but people live together in a community, aware of each other’s needs, feeling supported by a staff, made to feel important.
2. The CBWC is a family “of churches.” We don’t all know each other, but we are at our best when we care about other congregations, feel important as part of the big picture, and we esteem and respect each other as we are esteemed and respected. 
3. Starting in 2023, Hopehill is expanding its roster. We are adding 64 new low-cost, affordable housing units for people looking to live in a family, neighbourhood community. In two years, we will have 50 “studio” and 14 “one-bedroom” brand-new units available. The Board of Hopehill has stated that we need to be “good to all, and especially to the household of faith” (Gal 6:10). If you as a CBWC congregant want to retire to Hopehill, we anticipate opening doors in the summer of 2025. You can contact us at office@hopehill.ca. We are taking names!   

P.S. A “low-income senior” by Vancouver standards is anyone living on less than $58,000/year.   

Kurios Camp Staff Bursary!

This $1,000 bursary is for young adults who serve an entire summer on staff at a CBWC Camp and will be attending the Kurios Gap Year Experience beginning the following fall.  For more details about which camps are participating and how to apply visit www.kurios.ca/campstaffbursary.

Celebrating Mother’s Day

In honour of Mother’s Day we have two special pieces to share!

This month’s Church Planting Blog featuring Carmen Ohori, who shares about being a church leader and a parent.

We also put together a special Mother’s Day greeting, from our home to yours!  CLICK HERE.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Church Planting Blog: A Lifestyle of Healthy Leadership: Families, Faith and Fear

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).

How do parents who are also church leaders walk faithfully with both their families and their congregations? After raising 6 kids, years of study in child development and attachment, and experiencing parenting as both a CBWC pastors’ spouse and a church staff member herself, Carmen Ohori says it starts with 1 John 4:18: big love driving out fear. Our kids’ fear, our congregations’ fear, and especially our own fear.

In this video, I ask Carmen to share some of her learnings from over the years as we continue our series on A Lifestyle of Healthy Leadership. She invites us to create space and time for our families to be connecting and figuring out our story together. She challenges us to show up with big love in those moments when our kids bring to us something that is hard for us to handle, and to also listen to the little voices that at first blush seem like just kids pushing our buttons but really are indicators of our own wounds.

Carmen also shares some encouragement on how to prioritize your most important relationship: the one with our Heavenly Father, in the midst of a busy or even chaotic life.

And let’s be clear: while Carmen specifically talks about building relationships with kids, her tools are important for all our relationships. Every behaviour we encounter in others and ourselves is a piece of communication—an opportunity to understand one another better.

Bottom line? We are all God’s kids and He’s got us.

To continue reading CLICK HERE.

One Big Family

CBWC Resources Help Youth Mission Trip | By Jenna Hanger

Last month, a group of fifteen teenagers and four leaders from Clive Baptist Church, AB, travelled to Keats Camp for a service mission trip. Prior to this trip, they had not heard of Keats Camp, but exploring into available CBWC resources led them to realize just how big and connected the CBWC family is. 

Clive youth pastor Amanda Scott had tried for weeks on her own to find a place for her youth’s mission trip. Originally, the plan had been to go to Mexico and support one of their missionaries. COVID travel restrictions in the States forced them to re-think their plan. Amanda called every YWAM base in the country and tried to chat with several other options before––in desperation––she reached out to the CBWC.

“It was an eye-opener for some of our people, especially our leadership,” Amanda said. “A lot of us don’t get the entire spectrum that is a denomination. We kind of go ‘Yeah, we are a CBWC church’, but we don’t really get the whole family, big picture that it is.”

When Amanda called, she was connected to the Director of Communications and Development, Louanne Haugan, who brainstormed a few ideas with her, and eventually connected her with the Director of Next Generation Ministries, Peter Anderson.

With Peter’s help, Amanda was able to connect with Keats Camp and with Hillside Baptist Church in Vancouver for a place to stay. They were thrilled to be able to find a place to serve that could be confident aligned with their belief system and would be a safe place for the youth.

“Here is a CBWC camp that we didn’t even know existed. And yet, they are part of us. So, having that opportunity to really see how they were operating, what was important to them, and being able to respect and honour them, that was really cool. It was also awesome to help, knowing that these are people we will connect with in the future; these are people we will see and communicate with again [as part of CBWC],” Amanda said.

Over the course of their time there, the youth group was able to help with a variety of projects—from spring cleaning to preparing the camp for the summer programs. Now, three of the kids who served are planning on returning to Keats camp to serve there again this summer.

Amanda said that the next time it comes to planning a mission trip in Canada, she will reach out to the CBWC sooner. She shared that the wealth of information and being able to talk to people more familiar with different areas was invaluable.

“I definitely would say it’s a resource we need to be more willing to tap into, and I know it’s one that I will be using again. If nothing else, for brainstorming [and connecting].”

Does Your Church Have a Social Media Policy?

1. Posting content to my personal social media pages is private—it doesn’t concern my employer.

While it may seem that posting to social media is a private activity, legally speaking—posting content to social media is considered a “publication” (Justice D.M. Brown in Leduc v. Roman, [2009]). Information travels fast via social media, and once it’s out there, it’s very difficult to retract.

2. The content on my personal social media pages cannot affect my employment.

Policies and behavioural standards are no different in the virtual world than they are in the “real world.” When you post photos or make comments on social media, you represent both yourself and your employer and remain bound to behavioural standards agreed to such as confidentiality, anti-bullying, anti-harassment, and copyright policies.

3. There’s no need for a social media policy as long as we respect one another.

Even on a staff where everyone gets along and is respectful, we all have different ideas of what is acceptable to post and what is not. Without some kind of a guideline, it is easy to harmlessly post community. For instance, asking for prayer for a diagnosis that is not public knowledge or sharing one’s political beliefs without stating that the opinion is their own and does not reflect the views of the church can have devasting consequences. Providing a disclaimer to employees is helpful such as: This is my personal blog. The ideas, opinions, conclusions, and all other content expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, (name the church).

The CBWC has a social media policy in place for its own staff and has also included one in the Minister’s Protocol Manual (MPM) for all credentialed ministers. And while a credentialed minister is ultimately held accountable to the MPM under the umbrella of the CBWC, it is expected that he or she is firstly accountable to the church that they are employed by. This is why it is important that churches and ministry organizations have a social media policy in place for all staff, whether credentialed or not. Developing a social media policy will help your church clarify social media engagement on both personal and organizational levels—preparing for, and hopefully preventing, misuse and abuse.

Click here to see the CBWC’s Social Media Policy.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8