Christ Community Church- 
our LPD Church of the Week
Christ Community Church is located in Ucluelet, and is our most western church. It has a rich history that dates back to WWII, where West Coast believers reached out to a family that was facing discrimination. Their conviction has been and remains to reach out to everyone and anyone in the Name of Christ. This is reflected in their mission, which is:
We are a community of followers of Jesus Christ committed to live by faith, to be known by love, and to be a voice of hope in Ucluelet, Hitacu, and the surrounding area.
Their calling is to be:
A safe place to be authentic with God and with one another.
It doesn’t matter who you are, what happened in your past or what’s happening in your life right now. It doesn’t matter where you are in your spiritual journey or how many questions you have. Maybe you’ve lived here forever or you’re new in town, passing through on vacation or here for a season of your life. We don’t have to hide our rough edges and struggles – we’re here to walk with one another as we discover the hope of God’s amazing love for us in Jesus Christ.
We are thankful for the many volunteers who faithfully serve at Christ Community Church, and for the ministry of Dave and Meghan De Jong who are serving as coach and facilitators to the church family.
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What Good is COVID?
In recent months, it has been a joy for me to once again be able to visit district churches “live” on Sunday mornings. With COVID closures, my church visits have been for the most part been “virtual” since March 2020.
On Sunday, October 17, it was a joy to again visit and preach at Grace Hanin Community Church, and to present the ordination certificates to Joshua Kim, Doo pyo (Andy) Hong and Jong Kyung (JK) Lee. The last time I spoke from their pulpit was at our LPD Conference, on March 7, 2020. Days later COVID restrictions began.
We have weathered much and we have learned much through this stormy and unpredictable season of COVID. We, who have trained for and given “pulpit ministry” for many years have had to adjust to preaching to a camera; to a congregation of masked people and to “hybrid” congregations composed of both “live” and those online.
While we might at times long for the “good old days” or for things to “get back to normal,” to do so is to disregard a much deeper change that had been already coming to the church before COVID. Church attendance had already been in decline, and followers of Christ were showing a growing preference for more informal fellowships and “home churches” than the larger “organized” churches.
To this end, Christianity Today recently posted a thoughtful article by church planter and professor of missiology, Kyuboem Lee, titled “How Might the COVID-19 Crisis Reshape our Churches for Good?”
In this, he challenges us to look beyond COVID to observe, understand and adapt to the changes coming to our society and the church today. He writes:
The crisis faced by churches during the pandemic draws our attention to larger, already-existing crises we have ignored for too long.
We have become overly dependent on a mode of church that invests most of our time, efforts, and financial resources on large-gathering productions on Sundays. When church leaders switched over to online platforms, they faced the blank eye of the camera. There was no feedback, interaction, or engagement. But isn’t this the way things had been for a while? The goals of “doing church” had been polished worship experiences, marketing the church to visitors and members alike and featuring one-way monologues by preachers relying on their oratorical skills and personal charisma to get the gospel message across and build a ministry.
This attractional model of church had already been failing to connect with the younger generation of Christians, as well as with the “dones”—longtime Christians who had become disillusioned with prevailing models of church and dropped out. Why? One of the dones explained to sociologist and “Church Refugees” coauthor Josh Packard, “I’m tired of being lectured to. I’m just done with having some guy tell me what to do.” He or she is speaking to the problem of clericalism and the disengagement of the laity. The pandemic only accelerated the disengagement that was already underway.
I do trust that such writing is not a discouragement to you in your ministry. What is observed is not true of everyone or every church. On the other hand, do the themes of this article ring true to you at all? Do they align with conversations that you have had with people in your life?
In these days of COVID, though we have learned to communicate and keep connected in new ways, we have also learned how much we need each other’s friendship, fellowship and encouragement. This happens much better face to face than online! COVID restrictions have limited the size of our gatherings for much of the past 19 months, and we have come to appreciate being able to gather in small groups and to share and apply the Word to our lives.
Our call is to make disciples – those who love, follow and obey Jesus Christ, not us as their leaders. We are called to preach Christ, not ourselves. Authority is not found in the leader – it is found in God’s Word – to which all of us, leaders and “followers” must submit.
As we continue to grow, adjust and learn in this season of COVID, we have opportunity to innovate and to draw people together to seek the Lord in responding to the changes and opportunities we have before us. It means learning new things. It means moving beyond what I have learned to do. It means giving up some of the things we may have enjoyed.
Our mission is unchanging – our methods have changed, are changing, and will change more in the future. Perhaps God is bringing good from COVID after all!
Here is a helpful article on differentiating methods and mission in your church, “3 THINGS THAT ARE SABOTAGING THE CHURCH’S FUTURE.”
why-the-church-needs-to-decide-on-its-real-mission
Lee ends his article with the following challenge
The church has been granted the theological imagination to reinvent and rebuild. For people of resurrection, death becomes a doorway out of which new life emerges. So we do not pine for a return to normal as our deliverance, but we long for a resurrection that overshadows the old life. A crisis might not be a grave but a womb. Our resilience comes from our theology of resurrection.
I look forward to seeing you soon and to continuing to grow together! We are praying for you and glad to be a support to you!
On discipleship, here is an encouraging word from Oswald Chambers from this week’s readings. He begins, “Jesus Christ did not say, “Go and save souls” (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but He said, “Go…make disciples of all the nations….” Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself...”
https://utmost.org/the-method-of-missions/
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COVID UPDATE
The BC Centre for Disease Control and BC Ministry of Health continue to state that:
“Worship services are exempt from both the provincial mask mandate that requires mask use in indoor public spaces and the requirement to provide proof of immunization against COVID-19 to access some events, services and businesses. However, faith leaders are supported to implement these additional measures in their in-person services should they desire to do so.”
Here is the full document: http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/community-settings/faith-based-spiritual-and-worship-practices
While we will welcome all who attend, please be both considerate and mindful of those who are either compromised and/or specially cautious regarding COVID. Wearing a mask can be an act of servanthood to brothers and sisters who feel vulnerable to COVID.
Please note:
Organized events such as a wedding or funeral reception or other events that do not have a worship service component require all attendees to provide proof of vaccination and wear masks.
Restrictions for the upper Fraser Valley – Abbotsford, Sardis, Chilliwack and Agassiz: Regional-Measures-Order–Fraser-East–Sept-28-2021.pdf
Please also note and utilize the recommendations provided in the document “Guidance for Holding Low Risk Worship Services.”
COVID_public_guidance/COVID-19_Guidance_Faith_Based_Organizations.pdf
Children’s Ministries (K-Grade 12) are exempt from vaccine requirements: covid-19/vaccine/proof
Please also check current policy and resources on our LPD Website at: https://www.lpd-efcc.ca/covid-19/ Thanks to Josephine for keeping us up to date!
Important News regarding the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canadian Recovery Hiring Program (CHRP).
The Federal Government announced that the CEWS Program would end on October 23.
Here is a quick summary:
We are regularly following all government announcements and updating our website several times per week. Please check our website at: https://www.lpd-efcc.ca/ and check the COVID resources tab.
For personal assistance, please contact Josephine at the district office
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LPD Annual Conference
March 4,5 2021
– at Mill Lake Church in Abbotsford
please mark your calendars – details will follow–
