A very good sign

Hello from Beth, to my Kits Church family and any others reading this. This is my first time writing as part of this blog. For the last month, I've been spending twenty or so hours of my week helping to water and nurture this recently-planted-in-a-park, yet-to-be-named church plant. I have been delighted, challenged, and generally overwhelmed with all sorts of new thoughts and emotions. So many times over the last few months I've wanted to share these new experiences with you, to tell you stories about our little community. Here is my first attempt to do so.

I want to tell you about one of the most exciting Sundays we've had together so far, a Sunday only a few weeks after our church was born, early in May. That was the Sunday when Julio and Lisa Hernandez visited from Washington, DC.

Many of you know that Julio and Lisa are really the roots of our new church. They worked both in Strathcona and at Kits, building bridges of relationship. Most of the church plant people were originally introduced to us through Julio and Lisa, before they moved to Washington.

So when we heard they were coming to visit, along with their newborn baby, Dinita, we spread the word and prepared for a party. By 2:00 that Sunday, there were about 30 people gathered at our site in the park, many of whom we had never met before, including plenty of kids who knew and loved Julio and Lisa. But the guests of honour were late. Finally we saw them coming from far away, and a bunch of kids ran to meet them. There were hugs all around, and even some tears of joy in the kids' eyes. Everyone wanted to look at the new baby, an incredible blessing in the Hernandez's lives after many miscarriages.

We started the service. I played the guitar, as the kids accompanied on maracas and hand drums, and we sang songs of thanksgiving: "every good and perfect gift comes from You." Jodi told us some stories about "Nobodies" who God turned into "Somebodies" in order to set His people free... from Moses, to Gideon, to Julio & Lisa. The highlight of the service was the end, when Eunice, an elder, gave gifts to Julio and Lisa, then sang and played her drum to bless baby Dinita, as some of the other First Nations women joined in, arms outstretched, hands cupped, in a gently swaying dance.

After the service, we all headed down the alley to Jodi's house for a BBQ. In a matter of minutes, the house was full of people - our numbers doubled to about 60 (food does have that effect!). Terry assumed the important role of hamburger-barbecuer on the back porch, and Jodi boiled hot dogs on the stove. Kids were everywhere, running in a steady stream from the back door through the house and out the front door, then around back again. I passed out punch and tried to learn everyone's names. Baby Dinita was making her rounds, being held by everyone in attendance.

Later, as the crowd thinned, I wandered to the sun room in the back. Eunice was sitting there with some other women, her drum beside her. I commented on the beautiful patterns on the surface of the drum. She picked it up and played another song, one that the women seemed to know well. As she finished, we heard a clap of thunder, a rare occurrence in Vancouver. Moving quickly from a ceremonious seriousness to characteristic tongue-in-cheek First Nations humour, Eunice quipped that she had perhaps drummed a little too hard. Our laughter was interrupted by a shout from outside: "It's an eagle!" Everyone rushed out to watch the huge bird circle, silhouetted on the dark clouds. We stood in hushed awe. Eagle sightings are especially significant in the First Nations community, a good sign - a very good sign.

The whole day seemed like a very good sign, a sign of God's grace to all of us, a sign of the legacy Julio and Lisa left for us, a sign of something new being birthed among us.

This is how a church is born

On Good Friday we gathered on the north slope of the Georgia Viaduct, the first official gathering of this church-to-be. Children played in the "forest" and we all helped make a cross with pine cones gathered from the ground. Twenty one of us were there, from 9months to 60 years in age, from First Nations bands, New Zealanders, Croatians, Cambodians, Scots, Chinese, Americans and Canadians, a good representation of the neighbourhood.

As we gathered pine cones I marvelled at what God is doing in this place. I wondered what God's dream is for this place, knowing that in seed form it was beginning here as we gathered around the cross of Jesus, and wandered through the neighbourhood asking, if Jesus were from this neighbourhood rather than from Galilee, where would he have walked on his journey to the cross? Where would we have stood?

We finished off our walk with a beautiful dinner at Hastings and Jackson, prepared by a friend, venison stew and bannock may become this community's Good Friday tradition. Another 20-30 friends joined us there for dinner, kids played foose ball, teenagers played pool, old and young sat talking and eating. This is how a church is born.

Holy Week

Learning to walk in this neighbourhood

So I am discovering that I need to re-learn how to walk in my new neighbourhood. My whole life I have walked with purpose (though a bit like a duck) and prided myself in my ability to move at a good clip but in my new neighbourhood that causes problems. The biggest being that people think I am a cop.

I want to say, "No, I don't work for the man who locks you up. I work for the one who sets you free", but maybe that is a bit cheesy. Instead I am trying to learn from Jesus who moved into the neighbourhood and was seen as a neighbour, not an authority (though he was), not someone with an agenda (even though he had one), but as a friend...or an enemy, but certainly not as an outsider.

As I learn to slow down and to match my pace with the pace of my friends here I find more people who want to talk. Most days, when I slow down, people ask me to pray for them. I don't quite understand why, but hopefully it is Jesus walking in me.

Conceptions and Misconceptions

"Church planting, church plaaaaan-ting", she sings to the tune of some old superhero theme song. "Jodi, what is church planting?" said my friend Aria someone quite new to the idea of church not to mention to the insider language of church culture.

In conversation with my cousin the other day she said, "I hear you are building a church?" "Well...no, perhaps starting a church, but not building a building, we will probably rent a space that already exists" I replied. "Oh, my Mom said you were 'church planting' and we figured that must mean that you were building a church."

That all has me thinking about language. Why do we call starting a new church, "church planting"? I don't know who first started using this language, but every church that currently exists was once either planted (beautiful intentionality), or it was the result of a church split (the dark ugly side of what happens when we do not play well in the sandbox with others). But as I walk around Vancouver as spring fights to come early I think I like this language of planting.

Planting speaks to hard work, tending to soil, working in compost, testing the nature of the soil you have, the amount of sun you will get, where you are in the biosphere and what will grow well in this place. Then you plant, and by faith you put these tiny seeds in the ground, and you wait. And wait. And wait. Tempted though you may be to dig up that little seed, and see how it is doing, is it growing? Will it make it? And in the dark ground that you have tended, there is an unfolding mystery that you cannot control. The mystery of a seed dying in order to break forth into fragile, tender life, a green shoot that is hard at first to distinguish from a weed. A garden emerging which will feed multitudes. Fruit that will hang heavy one day on these tender vines.

This is the mystery of God. Church planting.

Intro.

Welcome! This is a blog intended to keep Kits Church abreast of developments around a possible church plant in neighbourhood of Strathcona. It is also for anyone interested in being a part of this process.

We are one month into meeting with friends we have known for awhile and making new friends in the neighbourhood. Our goal is to meet 200 new people in the neighbourhood who might be interested in being a part of a new church that would be a place of welcome for people of all ages and from all different backgrounds. For now we hope that the vision of Kitsilano Christian Community would also be a marker for this new church, that we would be a place where people can:
Come as you are
Discover and grow in a relationship with Jesus
Support each other in practical and spiritual ways
Transform the world (starting with our neighbourhood) with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Stay tuned for stories of what we are dreaming and praying about.