This month, BCCN presents the first of three ‘snapshots’ of the church in Vancouver. The focus is on the entire downtown peninsula, west of Main Street, known as  the downtown core.

Next month will look at the Downtown Eastside, with August’s snapshot being the geographically large and primarily residential area from UBC to  East Vancouver.

In an age of urban and suburban sprawl, immigration and population growth, the downtown core retains an extremely high density of housing and a distinct demographic. Indeed, people are moving in to the area.

Vancouver’s First Baptist Church conducted an in-depth profile of the downtown core two years ago, when its population exceeded 70,000.

The study – which focussed on the West End, Coal Harbour, Central Downtown, South Yaletown, East Downtown and North Yaletown – revealed some unique demographics:

 • 61 percent live alone, contrasted with only 38 percent in the rest of the GVRD.

 • 95 percent live in condos (38 percent GVRD), with 77 percent renting (39 percent GVRD).

 • 76 percent are unmarried (50 percent GVRD) with 57 percent having never married (32 percent GVRD).

 • 55 – 67 percent are male. The higher figures likely reflect the high concentration of gay men in the West End.

The most notable stated Christian affiliations are: Roman Catholic, 20 percent; Anglican, 6.3 percent; United, 5.7 percent; and Baptist, 1.7 percent.

The figures for individual Protestant denominations are likely understated, due to those who simply reported their affiliation as Christian or Protestant. Stated religious affiliation is a poor indicator of actual church attendance.

Church options

Given the number of people in this densely populated city core, church options are indeed few.

The two most prominent and established evangelical churches are First Baptist and Coastal Church. Together, they have some 2,000 attendees each week. A number of other smaller churches rent facilities.

Holy Rosary (Roman Catholic) Cathedral, home of Archbishop Raymond Roussin, holds six services every Sunday.

The Anglican Christ Church Cathedral and St. Andrew’s-Wesley United, the two prominent mainline churches, both embrace a liberal theological stance. These churches have been very committed to social action, and have been involved in organizing two of the city’s largest forums on homelessness.

Pastor’s heart

BCCN spoke to First Baptist Church senior pastor Tom Cowan, who two years ago moved from Victoria – where he led one of the larger churches.

“I’ve a sharper sense of the challenge of being a ‘church in the city’ here. People can drive in from the suburbs, but that is not [being] a church in the city,” he said. “But we do now have 20  to 30 percent of people that could walk to church.”

 Cowan is aware of both the area’s 70,000 residents and the vast number of workers who belong to the downtown core.

He outlined some of the ‘people groups’ which belong to the downtown core:  “St. Paul’s Hospital staff and patients, office workers, the many ESL students that attend language

schools, hotel workers and guests, those that work in the many retail stores, the law courts, city council, the firehall, police and emergency service people.

“We also have some street people and sex workers in the downtown. I think of John Stott’s comment: ‘When cities go bad, the real question is, ‘Where is the salt?’”

Asked how the plight of the city affects him emotionally, Cowan is candid.

“I am not an emotional man, but there are times when I sit at my desk, and I hear frightful swearing and conflict in the lane right under my window, I hear the sirens – the noise and the pain of the city. Tears run down my cheeks. I am aware of Ephesians 6: spiritual warfare.”

He feels the church is meant to be involved in reclaiming these people. “The devil has got people’s lives tied up in knots [with] addictions. “We are called to set the captives free!”

Airport & hospital

Coastal Church started in 1994, and has enjoyed steady growth over the years. They now see approximately 1,200 every Sunday. According to lead pastor David Koop, they baptized some 100 people in English Bay last year.

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“Around 65 percent of our people come from the community. We sometimes feel like we are an ‘airport church’: people landing and leaving. But also we’re a ‘hospital church’; the condo towers are filled with hurting people,” he said.

Like First Baptist’s Cowan, he is very aware of the pressures of being a church in the downtown core. “I want to have a presence in the community. Every day, I encounter darkness, con artists, et cetera. All the streets flow to downtown; for fun, sports, partying . . . you come downtown!”

Coastal runs the Alpha course, usually seeing 100 – 140 attending; they also have weekly Celebrate Recovery groups, for those in the process of gaining freedom from harmful lifestyles.

For the past 20 years Herb Reesor has led ‘Faith in the Marketplace’ in the Hong Kong Bank building on Hornby/Georgia.

“We offer a lunchtime 30-minute ‘refreshing place,’ with Scripture teachers from various places,” he told BCCN. “In an extremely stressful workplace, it’s a bit of an oasis!”

Also, according to Alpha Canada’s Shaila Visser, four ‘Alpha in the Marketplace’ courses have been held in downtown boardrooms every year – with around 200 guests in total attending.

Challenges

The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) has recognized the unique challenges involved with a downtown setting. Led by Point Grey Community Church’s head pastor Greg Laing, a dozen PAOC leaders have been meeting regularly.

“Rather than looking for a ‘programmatic’ solution,” he said, “we are trusting God for his blueprint for urban ministry. The challenges involve: high transience (of both church leaders and people); cost of housing; church rental; and the high level of relational brokenness.

“Plus, there is a diversity – with penthouse executive and marginally homeless in [the same] neighborhoods. The new ‘parish’ is a tower!”

Laing does. however, describe, “a vigorous trend of church planting in the core.”

Among the regular services: Christian City Church, at Pacific Palisades Hotel; Surrey-based Victory Christian Fellowship’s ‘Downtown Campus,’ in the Public Library; PacificChurch.ca,  in the Roundhouse; PAOC’s pioneering ‘Living Room,’ in a condo; and First Baptist’s Urban Sanctuary, at the Chez Faye coffee shop, 1168 Mainland Street.

“The big challenge is to stay with it,” Laing said, adding: “We definitely will be opposed spiritually.”

City in Focus . . . faith in the marketplace

Tom Cooper heads City in Focus. Founded 20 years ago, CIF focuses on the many white collar workers in the business area of the downtown.

“We facilitate coordination between ministries, churches and government, and are involved with projects consistent with Christian values,” Cooper said.

CIF hosts a wide range of events, including: the annual B.C. Leadership Prayer Breakfast, which attracts more than 1,000 people, including political leaders; monthly prayer breakfasts, with 30 – 100 attending; retreats; and luncheons enabling business leaders to network with Christians visiting Vancouver.

“We are about building a bridge with the unchurched community, addressing issues of the marketplace and faith,” Cooper said. He is widely regarded as a kind of unofficial ‘chaplain’ to many.

Asked to give an example of this, he responded: “I think of a CEO who has no faith, but is married to a strong Christian who is going through serious illness. He shares his heart with me, and I find I am invited into his crisis. I visit the hospital. In another instance, I might go to the court to stand with the teen of a business leader.

“Leaders have confessed infidelity, addictions and other struggles with me. It’s an issue of who can they trust, and confidentiality.”

Cooper sees a greater openness to ‘transcendence’ and a diminishment of ‘Christian bashing.’ He sees Christians very actively involved in issues such as homelessness.

More than Gold

Cooper is also involved in a growing coalition of ministries, the Vancouver Whistler Games Network.

It is preparing for the influx of visitors around the 2010 winter Olympics.

The initiative, ‘More than Gold,’ is already very actively linking churches and ministries, for the expected huge flood of visitors to Vancouver.

June 2008