Church’s initiatives lead to deep community connections
KELOWNA, BC—Metro Community Church in Kelowna's inner city enjoys a profile and an outreach to its neighbours that probably few churches in Canada can claim.
"There are no churches in our downtown core anymore," says lead pastor Laurence East. "So we have this strange distinction that the majority of folks who are homeless or poor in our city call Metro their home church."
In 2006, when Metro Community was launched as a campus of Willow Park Church, there had not been any church in downtown Kelowna for about 20 years. In 2010, it became a stand-alone church, so it could better connect with the urban poor.
More than 200 people attend its Sunday worship service, where they also get breakfast and coffee. In 2012, the church baptized about 18 people.
But its Sunday ministries comprise only about 10 per cent of the church's activities. The rest involves addressing things that the people themselves have identified as needs.
The result is an array of different ministries, including a community garden, free tax services, various community groups, and a mid-week barbeque. Others have evolved into social enterprises, such as a laundry business, a moving company, a coffee shop, and a financial literacy program, which East says "has just countless people going through it."
"All of these things are infused with a deep commitment to community and accountability," he says. "And within those obviously is interwoven a very intentional expression of the gospel."
On an individual basis, East says he and his pastoral team function "very much like what at the turn of the last century the parish priests would have been doing for people."
"There's a lot of home or hospital visits," he says. "My average week involves at least one or two visits to the courthouse and the jail. We do a lot of brokering with [the provincial public insurer] ICBC, because many people on the street get fines for bylaw infractions, and those get placed on their driving records."
What Metro didn't expect was the connections it would build with their non-church partners in the community, including the province's regional health authority, the RCMP, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Boys and Girls Club.
"On Wednesday night, 30 different agencies use our community centre as the hub of their midweek operations for outreach to the poor," East says. "We didn't solicit it, we were invited to be that. They recognize that there is a role for a church to play."
Metro's service to the community has also not gone unnoticed at City Hall.
"I've met Laurence. I'm really very impressed with his obvious level of commitment and passion," says Kelowna mayor Walter Gray. "And what the church is doing is highly commendable. They have a very positive presence in downtown Kelowna."
Out of a population approaching 120,000, Kelowna civic officials estimated in 2011 that more than 300 either lived on the street or in a shelter. A further 1,500 were the "hidden homeless" or "couch-surfers" who drift from place to place. Many are either seasonal workers or are seeking to escape a Prairie winter.
Gray believes the city is "making progress" against urban poverty. "At least it's not going the other way," he says.
But while East commends the city for the numerous agencies that assist Kelowna's poor, he still likens to "an insatiable monster" the many day-to-day crises that Metro gets asked to resolve.
And yet East insists all the "good stuff" they do in fact "isn't our good works. This is just Christ in us doing work by His Spirit. We're very careful to make that connection."
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
