Our Affiliation With The CBWC*

While Bethel Baptist Church traces its origins to outreach efforts in the 1920's, our formal affiliation with the Baptist Union of Western Canada* (BUWC) did not occur until 1955 when 8 charter members made an application to the B.C. Convention of Baptist Churches, which is part of the BUWC. The BUWC is part of a larger family under the umbrella of Canadian Baptist Ministries, an association of conventions and unions across Canada that call themselves, Baptists. (* - at the biennial BUWC Assembly in the Spring of 2007, the denomination made a decision to change its name from the Baptist Union of Western Canada to Canadian Baptists of Western Canada to better identify with our national connections under the umbrella of Canadian Baptist Ministries.)

Statement Of Purpose

The word "purpose" has become a kind of buzz word within Christian circles. In fact, I might even be infringing upon copyright protection just using the word 'purpose.' ;). It's good to have purpose, as long as you understand the purpose of having purpose, otherwise there is no purpose to having a purpose statement...

As Pastor at Bethel, and simply as a Christ follower, I think about church life in North America a lot and its constant pursuit of vision and purpose statements, and I am concerned that in our efforts to have such statements we somehow 'miss the forest for the trees' as the old saying goes. Our pursuit of statements intended to inspire simply become words expressed on a page rather than passion lived out in the hearts and lives of people. Having said that, I applaud those churches that our able to make the connection between the two. We as a church in are in the midst of a three phase process at present in 2009 that will produce a clearer statement of who we are, where we believe the Lord wants us to go, and how we'll get there. Our desire is for clarity of purpose and not just a slogan. Until then, we continue to base our understanding of purpose on the Great Commission.

I believe our purpose is clearly stated in Scripture: Go into the world, make disciples, baptize them and teach them. Here at Bethel Baptist Church we continue to seek God's will in terms of how we may specifically reach out to the community with the gospel of Jesus Christ, build up the people that are part of the church and equip them to go into the world and see God's Kingdom grow. Our desire is to honour the Lord with our commitments as members of His family that focus both inward and outward. I believe that is only in living differently that we will truly make a difference in this world, so we will continue to earnestly seek out ways to live according the Gospel and not our own intentions.

Pillars of Ministry Priority.

At Bethel, we seek to form our ministry efforts on 6 pillars. From these pillars, we see the church take shape and form its goals. They are:
1) Biblical Teaching and Preaching With a Purpose.
2) Authentic Worship.
3) Meaningful and Inspiring Fellowship.
4) Leadership Development.
5) Mobilizing Christians to Serve God and Others.
6) Effective Evangelism and Outreach.

These pillars rest on a platform of prayer and serve to guide all our ministry efforts.

Pastoral Staff