Church Planting BC

Seeing God Work—Celebration Banquet 2008

The first annual Church Planting BC Celebration Banquet was a tremendous evening and a blessing to our guests, the BCMB Conference and all of our church planters! The evening began sharply at 6:00 pm in the foyer of North Langley Community Church, with tasty Hors d’oeuvres and the sounds of the Nelson Boschman Jazz Trio.

Our delicious buffet was served shortly after that to a crowd of over 300 guests. After dinner and during dessert, Gord Fleming, the Executive Director for Church Planting in BC, began our program by providing an outline of the vision that the Board of Church Extension (BOCE) has for church planting in BC. Gord followed that up with a trip down memory lane as he introduced the men who have preceded him and blazed the trail for church planting in BC.

He introduced Nick Dyck (1973-1987), Jake Balzer (1987-1995), James Nickkel (1995-2002) and Geoff Neufled (2002-2006). Three of these men were present and gave a short testimony of the work God has done through their time in ministry.

Next up was a time of worship led again by Nelson Boschman (planting a church in Vancouver) on piano and a number of other church planters including, Andrew Stanley on guitar, Paul Wicki on violin, Bindu Sidhu on electric guitar, Terri Boschman on vocals, Nikki Bonney on bass and Glenn Davies on drums.

Gord then introduced four current church planters that demonstrated the various stages of planting that our planters are at. Bindu Sidhu from Life Centre in Abbotsford provided an update on the church plant that they have established a few years ago. His brother Kal also provided a personal testimony. Andrew and Rebecca Stanley were up next and they introduced their church plant in the Dunbar area of Vancouver. Urban Journey is just underway and in the pre-launch stage. They were followed by newly assessed and excited to be just starting, James Bonney who shared on how God calls. Glenn Davies who, along with his family are preparing to move to Squamish and planting a new church in an area that he described as spiritually dark and difficult to reach, was last up to share with our guests.

Finally we watched our new church planting video and an offering was taken to support the work of this ministry in BC. We want to thank all of those who worked so hard and sacrificially to prepare and serve at this banquet. To our guests and those who provided financially to support the work of our church planters, we thank you so much for standing with us in this ministry.

Check our gallery of photos from the Celebration Banquet 2008!