By Lloyd Mackey

“VICTORIA values smallness,” said Dan Rutherford.

That idea has been given a lot of thought by this lead pastor and his team at Gateway Baptist Church.

And one of the results of that thinking, he told BCCN, is the process Gateway is now developing: promoting “multiple gatherings that all share a common DNA and mission, but with each gathering expressing what they share quite differently.”

This writer’s own research would tend to affirm Rutherford’s ‘smallness’ premise. In Victoria, there are two Protestant churches whose regular weekend attendance exceeds 1,000. In the cities of Abbotsford and Kelowna, both about half the size of Greater Victoria, there are at least five each.

That is not evidence that fewer people attend or relate to a church: rather, that there is no popular push among Victoria worshippers  to be part of large churches.

Rutherford and his team tried to keep this in mind in helping their worshipping community move toward “looking for fresh ways to connect the gospel to Victoria’s culture.”

Rutherford came to Gateway from the Meeting Place, a Winnipeg Mennonite Brethren congregation of about 1,500, which accommodated its worshippers in three basically similar services.

The “fresh ways” now emerging at Gateway involve “trying to connect with high, pop and edge culture,” through the development of several ‘gatherings’ related to particular cultures, but not segmented by age groups, Rutherford told BCCN.

Continue article >>

The beginning of the process, which took six months of careful and prayerful thinking on the part of the leadership – relying on surveying and feedback – has, in Rutherford’s modest view, “gone pretty well.”

This fall, a ‘Legacy’ gathering was developed, with a service separate from the long standing worship time, which drew about 200 people.

The names of the gatherings and their statements of purpose synthesize the leadership objectives. Legacy, defined as “authentic faith through a classic lens,” meets at 9:30 and is led by Pastor Peter MacRaild. The 11 am slot, called Venture, is aimed at providing “life giving faith for changing times,” and is led by Rutherford. Finally, Re:New, at 6:30 p.m., seeks to be “engaging culture and renewing faith”; its pastor is Aaron Dyck.

Legacy, said Rutherford, has a worship style that is “keyboard driven, drawing from people who have mainline church background but don’t go to church.” The music has a base of traditional hymns, rather than choruses; and another key element is confessional prayer. “We wanted it to be mainline and gospel-oriented – a fruitful place come to Christ.”

Rutherford noted that two other Victoria churches, Lambrick Park and Glad Tidings, have similar models; those are the two Victoria churches that consistently attract over 1,000 most weekends.

Rutherford sees the potential to develop about 12 such gatherings in time. The current three are all at the church’s Royal Oak campus. There could be developmental opportunities in the West Shore suburb, the high density urban area of James Bay.

The hope, Rutherford suggested, would be for Gateway to reach a portion of Victoria’s “unchurched” population.

January 2011