In My Opinion: Catching up with Jesus: South Surrey

God has guided myself and Erin (my wife) to many different places in life - growing up in Ajax Ontario, moving out to Vancouver BC in 2004 to do a Masters degree at Regent College - at that time I started interning at South Delta Baptist Church - during my time in the awesome community I have met some of the most amazing, gifted and wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

I have had the pleasure to serve the people of SDBC as pastor: preaching, teaching, shepherding, leading and living side by side with them through some amazing and at times challenging years. The church has now entered a new phase which has brought with it a new phase for most people who work at the church - with the arrival of our new lead pastor Paul Johnson God brought a capacity for a new vision - which includes, among other great and

extremely faith-based ventures, church planting.

After much prayer, and conversation with friends, fellow staff and members of the SDBC church family, Erin and I have step out in faith toward the next phase God has for us as a missionary couple serving Jesus in the world - that I would lead a church campus in South Surrey BC, a town 25 minutes drive away from the main campus of SDBC (Tsawwassen) - The church leadership and members of the congregation have been developing a plan over the last year (which included a team to develop the plan and proposal for the campus, Church Planting Assessment that Erin and I went through in September) that was rolled out to the larger church community three weeks ago which had amazing support from the congregation!

That was Erin and I's last major thing to wait for before moving out to South Surrey - as missionaries to a culture it is important that pastors and church planters live in the community they are shepherding and trying to reach with the gospel of Jesus - and it is important to live in the community for as long as possible before one thinks about launching a campus there - for

me this was a non-negotiable form the start - something you don't even think about - and as much as Erin and I love Tsawwassen if we were going to be doing a campus in Surrey then that needed to be where we lived as soon as possible -

The decision to do this was not easy - Over the last year I wrestled with it- I love the ministry I am privileged to lead at SDBC - I get to teach and preach every week sometimes at both church services, I work in a beautiful office that has a view to the mountains, in a small town where everyone really does know my name (whether I know theirs or not!) - but most of all I get to minister to and beside the most amazing and encouraging (yet challenging) group of Young Adults I have ever been exposed to in my life - So when I felt God two and half years ago nudge me in this direction I questioned, waited and looked for other confirmations - Over the last years I have talked extensively and prayed through it with those I love, trust and respect - and even in times of doubt I could not get away from one thing: the calling. God has called me to do this - and as pastors have reminded me as I looked them in the face after years of pain and hardship in ministry - sometimes all you have is the call.

I will blog about the experiences I have as a team (Core Launch Team) and I plan, prepare, pray and position ourselves to follow and join Jesus on the mission he is on in South Surrey - the plan is that we publically launch the church by March or so of 2010 but there is so much work to be done before then - we will be a campus of SDBC (with an incarnational name specific to South Surrey) which will exist under the eldership of SDBC - we will be one family - sharing stories, resource, people and leaders - doing our best to expand the kingdom of God around the GVA in communities of love, faith and hope - faithfully preaching and living for the fame and glory of the name of Jesus to the glory of God!

I write this as I sit in my new (rented) living room in South Surrey, in our beautiful new townhouse (never been lived in before) boxes and stuff everywhere - a week of moving, frustration and many ups and downs - but now here we sit, already having met many wide-eyed neighbors (all young families!) who are really looking for community - a great and wonderful part of the gospel message of Jesus which the church is about - gospel-centered community - a family, a house, a temple, a body - all images which are communal from start to finish and our great hope is that Jesus uses us - sinful messed up, mistake ridden people to reach some of theses wonderful people by any means necessary for his glory (1 Cor. 9).

The slogan for the city seems fitting for our church, for Erin and I's life - the slogan is "The City of Surrey: the future lives here."

Some Facts about Surrey

It is BC'a second-largest city by population after the city of Vancouver. The six "town centres" comprising the City of Surrey are: Fleetwood, Whalley/City Centre, Guildford, Newton, Cloverdale, and South Surrey.^[2]

Surrey’s name came from Queen Victoria. She had named New Westminster, thus it is called the Royal City. In England, across the Thames from Westminster is the County of Surrey. It seemed appropriate that across the river from New Westminster there should also be a Surrey. Surrey was named by the first Clerk of the Municipal Council, Mr. H. J. Brewer, around 1880. "Due to the geographic similarity of this district to that of County Surrey in England, in relation to Westminster, I suggest it be named Surrey, British Columbia."

In 2007, the population of Surrey was counted as 423,935 a 17 percent increase from the 2001 population - Vancouver itself boasts of a population of 611,869 - Surrey, many believe, will bypass Vancouver in population in the next five years - it is the second largest city in BC and the fastest growing in the province.

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