Week 18 - East Vancouver Community Church

eastvancouvercommunitychurch.com

Tucked away in a relatively sleepy residential part of town we discovered this week's church visit site. East Vancouver Community Church is well off the beaten path but conveniently located near several multi-family complexes. 

EVCC is affiliated with The Evangelical Church denomination, not one that we have ever had contact with before. An interesting historical note, TEC can trace their roots back to John Wesley and the Wesleyan movement he founded. In North America their origins are more recent, founded in Portland, OR in 1968.

The auditorium seats approx 250 and this week had about 100 in attendance. Several women were away on a retreat and we were assured that their numbers were low due to this event. That being said there was a cross section of ages represented, leaning toward an older group but with a few children and young people as well. The decor was simple but tastefully done with a good amount of filtered natural lighting. A screen was used for visual aids during music and scripture reading but rolled up during the message. Kind of nice not having a large blank white screen staring back at you during that part of the service. Several other churches have done similar in that they projected onto a wall but turned the projector off during the message. One of the benefits we are noticing of a smaller auditorium is there isn't the need to project the pastor or musicians bigger than life so those in the back row can see them.

We were warmly greeted by a few people and engaged in conversation with the pastor both before and after the service. One thing we have encountered on several visits is a number of pastors who are relatively new to the church community they currently serve. The pastor of EVCC is not new to ministry however, 30 years pastoring in Spokane and six years as a missionary in Asia before accepting the position here. 

Music was provided by four vocalists, aged high school and up, accompanied by piano, and included a mix of contemporary praises and traditional hymns. One thing that was interesting was a brief mash-up of High and Low Church traditions. In the Lutheran, and similar, churches it is common to speak the Apostles' or Nicene Creeds as part of the liturgy. In "seeker-friendly" and "evangelical" type churches such a practice is virtually non-existent; statements of core tenets of the faith are rarely, if ever, publicly and corporately affirmed. This time it was set to music and sung responsively.

Following the music and some announcements children were invited up for a time of prayer specific for them. After being dismissed to children's class the pastor then asked the congregants to offer up specific prayer requests and then led the group in a time of prayer for those requests. Each and every request was mentioned and time of silence was given for people to pray quietly for them. It left us with the feeling that people who made requests were heard and taken seriously.

The message was the final installment of a several week series entitled "Stories of the Kingdom: Parables to live by." This week focused on Mark 13:32-37 and what it means to be an "expectant watcher." The passage just before this refers to the return of Christ at a unknown, and unknowable, future time. The pastor was very clear about the unknowable part, challenging those who become caught up in the weeds of trying to predict when these events will happen. His point with the message was the command that Jesus gave to be expectant watchers, and focus on our tasks: 1) all are to watch, 2) watchers are to fulfill assigned tasks, 3) watchers continue to watch, and 4) watchers look around as well as up. In short the expectant watcher "believes something will happen and knows he doesn't know very much."

In some ways this week felt like a nice balance between highly structured liturgical services and less structured, free flowing, services. A third of the way through this project and we are beginning to recognize distinctive differences as well as plenty of commonalities.