Week 20 - Columbia Presbyterian Church

www.columbiapresbyterian.org

This week found us visiting Columbia Presbyterian Church, a church that we have known of for years, even have several friends that attend there, and yet did not realize how large a church body and how active in the community they are. Among the many community efforts one in particular, Compassion Connect free medical and dental clinics, is one that Loren has helped with on several occasions in years past. It is good to see CPC carrying the torch and continuing to facilitate this important ministry to those who still lack adequate medical and dental care.

CPC holds two services on Sunday and this week we attended the earlier one that is the more traditional service, the later one is more contemporary. The auditorium holds about 550 people and this week it was near capacity. The congregants in our service were a mix of ages but leaned to an older group. In all likelihood the later service might be a younger group. Being in the traditional service had a special benefit for us this week in that their hand bell choir performed a couple of numbers. Haven't heard a full bell choir in many years; a very meditative form of musical expression. They even did an arrangement of the classic song El Shaddai. In addition to the bell choir, music was a collection of congregational hymns with organ accompaniment.

The auditorium was comfortable with plenty of artificial and diffused natural lighting. In addition to the auditorium being large the front foyer was spacious, allowing plenty of room to stand, visit, and have coffee; as we saw many congregants doing before service. Two video projection screens were used throughout the service for song lyrics, scripture reading, and key message points. We were warmly greeted by several people and of course it was nice to see the familiar faces of a few friends.

The lead pastor was away for the weekend so we had the opportunity to hear one of the associate pastors deliver the message. He gave a very straight forward, to the point message. They are in a series entitled Connect the Dots and this week, in honor of pentecost, the message was about "a living hope." Prior to the pastor beginning two congregants read a selection of scripture passages that focused us on the object of this "living hope."  He then asked and answered several questions: 1) What is an area in life that needs hope? 2) What do we put our hope in; ourselves, others, circumstances? (Psalm 62:5-6) 3) What is the basis of our hope? Finally he directed us to our hope in a person. (1 Peter 1:3-5) Jesus is a living hope as he has ascended, he is a personal hope through the gift of the Spirit, and he is an enduring hope that we can keep our eyes fixed on.

It was nice to finally take the time to experience CPC's time together. In some ways it was much like what we expected yet in others it was different than we had envisioned. This church community is yet another example of many works of the Kingdom being done in and around the greater Vancouver area.