The Church – My Journey

I love the church in spite of all its warts. It was not always this way. Growing up with a strong Christian heritage, I still had little experience with church. As a missionary kid I spent four years in a boarding school in China, where church services were a blend of Anglican, Baptist and Brethren in style.  After returning to Canada our family lived on a Bible College campus where I experienced great preaching and wonderful music, but very little of the dynamics of church life. During university days I was active in music, Bible teaching and youth ministry in three different churches, but I experienced little of community.  When my wife and I moved to Quadra Island on the BC coast, our “church” was in a camp setting. I took my turns in preaching and we assisted with Sunday school, music and youth ministry. During the summer months, church services were overrun with about 50+ campers, and it was hard to feel you had been in church. Island families who attended services really got lost in the shuffle during the summer as the camp staff was just too busy.

Out of this somewhat mixed background, God began to give me longing for the kind of church community I saw in the New Testament. A number of us felt the need for a community of believers free from the “institutional” ties of camp. I had often said that I would never be a pastor—something about the church scared me. Yet God led us into establishing a church on the island, and I was pastor for 20 years.

Two early influences nurtured a vision of the church. In The Firs School of Ministry, an annual pastors’ conference, leaders like Larry Richards and Ray Stedman gave us instruction in principles of the New Testament church. In the early ‘80’s I joined my cousins, Allen & Paul Thompson of World Team, in leading a conference on the nature of the church in Sacramento, California. We were joined by a group of blacks from Watts county, whose fervour for the Lord was life-changing—to worship with them you had to be physically fit. For more than a week we talked about and experienced the dynamics of the church in action—teaching, fellowship, worship and prayer. Gradually a vision emerged of what the church was meant to be as it is described in Acts 2. The vision of a dynamic church has motivated me for 35 years.

When I first came to College Heights my first sermon was on Acts 2:42 – 47. When I came back on staff last August my first sermon was on the same text. I do not have all the answers for dynamic church life, but I think I have learned some important principles over the years. I will share some of these over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Pastor Alan

Back