It’s no secret that downtown Vancouver is about as diverse a place as any on the planet. You have extreme wealth and extreme poverty backing onto the same alleyways. You have ethnic groups from all over the globe, with over half of downtown residents having a first language other than English. You have a higher percentage of people living alone than anywhere else in the GVRD. And in addition to the 70,000 people who live there, tens of thousands more flock downtown each day and weekend to work, party, attend sports, arts and cultural events. But amid all this diversity and activity, the one common thread is a desperate need for the healing and wholeness only God can give. The rich are just as in need of a Saviour as the poor. The only real difference is that the wealthy don’t recognize their need, or they don’t let on that they do. Just like the poor, they self-medicate in a bunch of ways to help themselves face life. The only difference is that they have the means to do so outside of plain view.
The various ethnicities within downtown represent a host of religious affiliations, and while spirituality may be in vogue among a growing segment, Vancouver is still the place where most people filling out religious surveys check the box marked “none”. And in the middle of all this, there are only a handful of vibrant downtown churches. If Tim Keller is right when he says, “As the city goes, so goes the culture”, then the church needs to be strategic about placing itself right in the centre of that place of influence. That realization impacted us very deeply.
Kester Brewin, in his book Signs of Emergence, put it very well:
"We must learn to penetrate our cities and find God in them. These connected, complex places are where it will not be God alone, but God and us and him and her and white and black and gay and straight and Protestant and Catholic and the whole feast of life. And only in the city can we get that message. It is not an easy message to tune into with so much white noise and hatred and difficulty and screwed-up transport and mugging and division...But with practice, with a commitment to engaging positively with the city and looking to catch it doing good rather than always on the lookout to knock it down, we can begin to see glimpses of why God is committed to the city as our future: because the redeemed city is the final expression of humanity and divinity in cooperation. It is the conjunction of God's creation with our creativity, where we are building something together." (pp.132-3)
Over quite a few years now, God has been growing in Terri and me a heart for the city. Although we only actually moved downtown in summer 2008, many aspects of our lives have brought us here frequently. Whether we came in for education, live theatre or musical pursuits, there was a part of us that always felt at home in Vancouver. As we sought the Lord’s guidance as to our future, Vancouver has been clearly on the radar for a good while. With all our hearts, we long for this broken and beautiful place to look more and more like the city of God. That's why we're here. May God use our new little community to announce the his kingdom, for his honor and glory.
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Written on Monday, 24 August 2009 15:37 by
Nelson Boschman
