Abbotsford Evangelical Free Church
“Abby Free”
– our LPD Church of the Week
Thanks to Anna (Ben) Crumback at Sointula Community Church for producing the Church of the Week!
“Abby Free” was planted in 1962.
Abbotsford was a different place then, with a population of 20,326, and was
known as the “Bible Belt” of BC. Today, the population is 141,397,
and it has been referred to, perhaps unfairly, as the “Bullet Belt.”
More than 26% of the population was born outside of Canada, many of these
coming from South Asia. While about 61% of the population will identify with
the Christian Faith, a quarter of the population identifies with no religion at
all. Abbotsford has the first Sikh Gurdwara built in North America (1911), and
about 13% of the population identifies with the Sikh Faith.
Randy and Allana Lemke
have served at Abbotsford EFC since 2001. Randy began as youth pastor, and in
2010, became the senior pastor. As pastor, he has sought to lead the church in
both revitalization and relevance to the reach the changing population.
I was just at Abby Free this week, and was blessed to see so many children
participating in the Children’s Day Camp.
The mission of Abby Free is, “AbbyFree
exists to make the hope of Jesus known,” and their heart is
summarized in the phrase, “We love our City
in the Country and want to serve the people of
Abbotsford.”
Randy and Allana are
blessed with five children, and we are thankful for them and their ministry.
Please pray for Randy
and Allana, and for Abby Free as they seek to make the hope of Jesus known to
the community of Abbotsford.
Randy Lemke
also serves as Chair of
the Lower Pacific District Board. When I began ministry as
district superintendent, Randy served on the Board as youth rep. After some
time off the Board, he rejoined our board in 2016, and has served as our chair
since 2017.
Randy brings both integrity and practical wisdom to leading our board, and he
has a heart to serve you and your church, as we seek to “…encourage and resource our
growing family of churches to reflect Jesus Christ.” Please
pray for both Randy and for our board as we serve both you and our Lord.
***
So – how do you
measure up? How do those around you measure up? What do we use as a
measure?
We are reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel, in which he stated, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be
judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
(Matt.7:1,2).
We are all aware of the temptation to extend grace to ourselves,
while perhaps being less generous with others, and Christ’s words serve as a
sobering reminder of his standard.
Oswald Chambers recently had some interesting thoughts on this
subject, and I share his devotional below:
Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.
Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens— if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God, and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone.
***
Having acknowledged
our human frailty, by God’s grace, we can develop both character and competence
that enables us to be used effectively for our Lord.
Servant-leadership is not leadership by position or authority. It is grounded
on both godly character and a genuine interest to serve the best interests of
others and our Lord’s calling.
Dan Reiland offers some good counsel on the “levels” of leadership,
and relates this to our ministry of preaching and teaching. Some helpful
insights, both personally and in understanding how people respond to us.
Please pray for:
Upcoming Events:
CAMP EVERGREEN
August 5-10
This local summer camp is affiliated with the Lower Pacific District, and provides a great opportunity to extend your church ministry through camp, and to follow up afterwards. Many district families, including ours have benefited through this ministry, both in the children’s camp and leadership development in the LTD program. This summer, there is a children’s camp (Aug. 5-10), a teen camp and the LTD Leadership Program. Check out their website for details:
***
LPD/EFCC Pastor and Staff Orientation
All pastors staff and interested volunteers are welcome too this opportunity to learn about the history, ethos, doctrine and ministries of the EFCC. Orientation is a requirement for all persons seeking credentialing in the EFCC, and is valuable for everyone in EFCC churches.
Here is the info.
Pastor_and_Staff_Orientation_2019_Invitation.pdf
You can register online
at:
https://www.efccm.ca/wordpress/pastors-orientation/
***
Best Practices for Mission Workshop
The Best Practice for Church Missions Workshop, developed by Fellowship International and Northwest Baptist Seminary, has benefited almost 50 churches across Canada. It has been designed to help churches navigate the maze of missions options to become effective and strategic partners in God’s mission to the world.
This one-day workshop provides church leadership and missions committee members the opportunity to revisit and clarify their missions program. The interactive format encourages vision and passion as participants see a role and purpose for their leadership in missions involvement.
Join others in a day of discovery and decision making that will give clarity, purpose – and a plan – for impacting missions participation.
Book your table soon, there is only room for 6 churches.
Date: Saturday October 5
Time:
9.30 – 3.30
Cost per
church (includes lunch): $80 (up to 6 participants), $100 (7-10 participants),
$120 (11-15 participants)
Venue: Vancouver Chinese
Evangelical Free
3295 E Broadway (at Rupert)
Missions_Committee_Workshop_brochure.doc
***
LPD Pastor and Spouse Retreat
Nov. 22-24, 2019
Hello LPD pastors,
we’d like to invite you to join us on Nov.
22-24, 2019 for a Pastors’ retreat! We’d like to
encourage you to take a breather in late November (before Advent begins) with
your fellow pastors at Camp
Charis in Chilliwack.Registration is open on our
LPD Website. Please see:
https://www.lpd-efcc.ca/event/lpd-pastor-and-spouse-retreat/
