Our White Rock church has gifted us with many leaders in the BUWC. Currently Heather Thomson of Women in Focus, Fay Puddicombe, the Carey Centre Board Chair, and Ellis Andres are all from White Rock. The church graciously hosted the Surrey, New Westminster and Fraser Valley churches on Sunday, February 25th.
I was again struck by the diversity in our midst. Southpoint in Surrey is in its 3rd year, while White Rock has a long established ministry since 1954. Berea is excited about their new minister, Ward Cowie, who is arriving in the summer and New Westminster shared the challenges of being established, yet crowded in its present location.
Here are some observations from Paul Pearce:
The recent listening sessions were a time of encouragement and challenge as we had the opportunity to hear what God is doing through the ministries of our BUWC churches. Each region reflected the commitment of our local churches to contextualize their ministries to their communities. The diversity being expressed between urban/suburban and semi rural was refreshing. The honesty and transparency of churches struggling and uncertain about the future also reflected the integrity of those who are working through significant times of change and challenge.
The final session on Sunday evening for the Fraser Valley churches once again demonstrated faithfulness and variety. The new Church at Southpoint, the growing multicultural congregation at Broadmoor and Royal Oak Community are representative of some of these ministries. The host church at White Rock Baptist is visioning for the future and represents our commitment to pursue God’s work as we go ahead.
The value of these times for those who could attend was to gain a bigger picture of our BUWC work together and network churches for future resourcing. The commitments mutually made as we recovented around our shared ministries will be helpful and directional as we plan for the future of the BUWC. God was with us as we took time to share some time and ministry updates together!
Warmly,
In Christ
Jeremy Bell
LOWER MAINLAND/FRASER VALLEY
Royal Oak Community – Darrin Hotte
Prayer
Help us identify the community resources available to partner with
Inspire us with stories of how community connections can be made
Inspire us with stories of creative ministry
The Church at Southpoint – Scott Simpson
Continue to support us with faith and trust through financial support and administrative services and to embrace us as a new church in the BUWC (we would like to recover some of our GST from the past 3 years if possible)
Olivet – Wendy Amy
Prayer
Relational support and consultative support during our time of discernment of God’s direction during this time of our Lead Pastor’s leave
Berea – Brenda Radstock
Finding a worship leader/coordinator (grant so we can pay?)
Equipping lay leaders/leadership team towards spiritually based leadership that is financially responsible
Children’s ministry support
Continue support of youth pastor
Broadmoor – Carol Mager
Partner with us to “seek the well-being of Richmond and beyond” in mentoring, listening, human resources and financial resources
Burnaby North – Jim Walton
Equipping of the pastor/pastoral staff to lead the church through a vision goal-setting process that will help Burnaby North discover its God-given identity
White Rock – Ellis Andre
Tools for visioning and strategic planning, facilitator
Teaching type church-partner with Baptist Union to facilitate Senior Minister, Church Administration, BU supports person seeking training
Westwood Community – Ken Wettlaufer
Enabling resources for:
- Community carnival
- Vacation Bible school
- Church Retreat Travel and Accomodation subsidy
- Homeless initiatives
- Website enhancements
- Wireless microphone
- Youth facility rental and activity fees
Living Hope Fellowship – Peter Ahn
This year we need prayer and other denominational resources as we need to request them