Pacific Community Church

In the last couple of years, as Pacific embraced ministries that addressed needs in our broader community, Monica and I have been more concerned and convicted about the church's role in community issues. More and more of us at Pacific are giving time and effort into opportunities where we are involved with those whose lives are desperate and often hopeless. Monday Night Cafe and the Cloverdale Christmas Hamper Project are two efforts that stand out.

I was reading from Isaiah 58. The chapter describes the sort of life that James the Apostle sums up with these words, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and and windows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Here are a few verses from Isaiah 58.

 6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

It seems that at Pacific there is a growing awareness about how we can be responding to the obvious needs in our own community. In the next few months we will be launching some new initiatives and opportunities for you to participate in. I want to give you a heads up so that perhaps you can begin thinking about them.

1. A Community Kitchen: Civic leaders in Cloverdale have requested that Pacific provide a community kitchen where people in need can find a meal or two a week. The Board, Staff and Missional Team are responding positively. Through the summer we will be making connections and around September we hope to slowly start a Monday Night Cafe here at Pacific and we are in talks with another local church who will use our building to host a Thursday lunch. We are taking this one step at a time and learning as we go. Email me if you want to know more: jim.heuving@pacificcommunity.ca
2. An Iranian Church Restart: We are joining a number of Chrisitan & Missionary Alliance Churches in the valley to help restart an Iranian Church on the North Shore. We are going to take a one time offering on June 26 where we hope to raise $2000 from Pacific alone. You will hear more in the next couple of weeks.
3. The Mosaic: In the last couple of years we have come to know Don Cowie and his church community in Vancouver. During the Olympics we came alongside them to help update their  kitchen so that they could expand their ministries among the homeless in Vancouver. We have continued in conversations and Pacific and Mosaic have developed a partnership where we can mutually help each other out. We can help them financially and they can help us grow in our ministries as God takes us deeper into our community. We hope to tell you more about this as we launch in September. You can visit their church website: www.themosaic.org
4. Defend Dignity: At a recent denominational event Pastor Brian and myself were introduced to a Canada-wide initiative that addresses the problem of prostitution in Canada. It was a provoking presentation that compelled us to seriously consider how we could participate. We are planning a service sometime before Christmas to focus on this issue. If you want to explore more now check out the site: www.defenddignity.ca
5. Out of Country Projects: Finally, we are in converations with Hungry for Life to develop our Haiti efforts and to launch a new overseas project. What is really exciting is that Hungry for Life is also partnering with the missionary arm of the Christian & Missionary Alliance on an experimental basise and we are hoping to be one of the experiments. We look forward to sharing more as more things get put into place in the next few months.

These are a number of new things in the works. Somewhat overwhelming isn't it? It wouldn't make sense if everybody was involved in everything but if there is something that interests you and you are experiencing a bit of a spiritual prompt--follow it. Perhaps there is a place where "your light will break forth like the dawn..."