A bit of history..

I arrived with James Perraux at Langley Christian Life Assembly for the BC/Yukon district’s conference entitled Live Out Loud, at the beginning of October. It was great to see familiar faces, albeit with a few more lines and grey ( if any )hairs. Travelling to BC is a bit of a pilgrimage for me. Especially due to the fact that I spent eighteen years of my life in Vancouver,including fifteen years of full time ministry. All but a few of those years involved campus ministry.  There is a big part of me on the West Coast and it is hard to describe what it is like to reencounter myself back in my familiar haunts. I got to hang out with some people who have played a large part in my life.

Halos?

Let me share a picture of interest In the middle is my previous associate pastor at Point Grey Community Church, Greg Laing. He was also the associate of Lawrence Rae (left) , who succeeded me as pastor. Greg is now the lead pastor. I planted the church and pastored it from 1989 to 1997. This is the first time that we have been able to get a picture of the three of us in the same place at the same time. How about that halo effect

Greg  Lawrence Jeff Robb Rod

The second picture includes a couple more generations. First, there is Rod Bitterman ( right), who took a chance on hiring me , in 1982, out of Regent College at  Vancouver Christian Life Centre (downtown -West End) as its Young Adults pastor ( continuing ministry I had already been involved in for the three years I was involved in the church while going to Regent)  and who released me part-time to begin campus ministry in 1985 and plant Point Grey Community Church four years later. As well as Lawrence and Greg, there is Jeff Wong, who has been on staff at PGCC and is planting an innovative urban church called More Than 12  . As Jeff was sharing notes with one of his team who was part of VCLC in the old days, he says that it is more than clear to him that we share the same DNA, even though the look and structure are different.

 This actually has a tie into campus ministry. Rod Bitterman believed in university ministry. He was willing to put himself behind me, and Reid Johnson before me, to cover and support ministry on and to the UBC campus and beyond. He did it without any expectation of being able to see the benefit of this investment within the walls of his church. However, the way the Kingdom works, God honored VCLC for its support of campus ministry and subsequently the planting of Point Grey Community Church. Further, Lawrence and Greg have taken the same missional , Kingdom ( Big Picture) view of campus ministry. PGCC has supported campus ministry in a way that is both sacrificial and inspiring.

In the future, I would like to write about this in some depth. The lineage you see in this photo represents a glimpse of a Vision that God started. Thirty years later I can see the ongoing fruit of it in the way it has produced and reproduced disciples and spread the Kingdom far beyond the borders of the local church. On a personal note, I simply cannot understand pastors who feel that campus ministry needs to be about them ,or their church, and who cannot see the bigger picture of what God can do when we lay our agendas down and work for the greater good.