In 2017, Pastor Alvin Poon and the team at Burnaby Alliance Church (BAC) were earnestly seeking God’s guidance for the future.
After much prayer, they devised a theme for the next 3 years: seek, submit, and support. They then spent a year seeking God’s direction for future expansion to an unknown location.
At that same time, the number of Mandarin-speaking families in Langley grew significantly. From 155 families in 2011/12, it exploded to 2000+ in 2017! A huge need for a new church presence became evident. BAC began exploring the neighbourhood of a fellow Alliance church, Mountainview Alliance in Langley, with the intent to rent space in their building.
But, writes Pastor Alvin Poon, “God turned our focus from expanding our own church's ministry to expanding His kingdom.”
Alvin reports that God touched their hears and re-oriented their resources towards assisting Mountainview to build a new Mandarin congregation.
Burnaby Alliance has agreed to provide financially and with people needs for at least two years, while Mountainview provides the venue and facilities for Mandarin worship.
Mountainview Alliance Church in Langley, BC
Both churches have a missional heart and vision for evangelism and mission, and are thrilled to be ministering together to Mandarin-speaking groups in Langley. Writes Pastor Gord Schulz, “Relational affection and camaraderie on a leadership level were evident early on; trust, respect and honest dialogue were present from the beginning.”
Poster from Community Fun Day event.
Members from both churches joined together in a significant teambuilding event this summer as they planned a Community Fun Day in late August. From handing out flyers to joint serving on the day of, they rubbed shoulders and built a sense of partnership. 550 guests showed up at the event and they are praying that many show up at the kick-off Mandarin service this Sunday.
Their hope is to hire a full-time pastor as soon as it becomes financially viable. Currently, BAC is providing their Mandarin pastor and other leaders to help this new Mandarin ministry.
Please pray for their first worship gathering coming up this Sunday, September 9th!
You can support this partnership!
Pray
...that God will lead the Mandarin-speaking families to attend the Mandarin worship.
... for the relationship between these churches, that we can expand God’s kingdom regardless of different languages and cultures.
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