Newsletter July 3, 2024
Message from the Pastor
Hi everyone! I trust you’re enjoying this week’s sunshine.
As we’ve now begun celebrating our 100th anniversary at WVBC in earnest, I’m going to insert a new feature into some of my newsletters this summer. Let’s call it “did you know…”
Did you know … That in the very beginning, our church started out as a Baptist mission with meetings held at Ambleside Hall at the bottom of 14th street? The hall was built to serve construction on the Pacific Great Eastern Railroad. Subsequently the facility was used by the Red Cross, for concerts and plays, and as a meeting place for civic events as well as churches. It was a strategic location at the center of North Shore action, just a couple blocks from the West Van ferry terminal established by John Lawson.
Soon after the ministry launched, property was purchased nearby at 15th and Duchess, and a dedicated 1-room building was constructed. It was pretty high-tech for the day—it even had electric lighting! This would be the birthplace of our ministry as an actual church, officially opening on Oct 8, 1922 with Reverend David Long as pastor. The first deacons were Almond Tabor, Payson Colpitts and John Teare (the Municipal Constable). After an initial period of ministry, the church was formally organized as a congregation of the Baptist Union of Western Canada on July 2, 1924, with Reverend Letch in the chair. It would come to be known as West Vancouver Baptist Church. There were 27 charter members.
And that’s how things started. I’ll add to the story in weeks to come. (A special thanks to Donna Galpin for providing some very helpful background material which will inform some of these historical ventures over the summer.)
On other fronts, this Sunday we’re going to boldly go where sermons rarely go: into the world of “hard proverbs.” We don’t talk about these much, though anyone who has spent time reading through Proverbs is aware that there are some sayings in this book which are hard to understand, or difficult to hear, or just plain puzzling. We can’t look at all the hard proverbs in the book, and I’m not going to try to dig deep into the individual examples. (That might be an interesting follow-up exercise.) But I’m hoping we’ll come away with some perspective on these verses which will be helpful. I, at least, have found this week’s study helpful to me. J
If you’re wanting to read ahead in preparation, Sunday’s Scripture reading will be drawn from Proverbs 30. (See especially verses 2-3, 15-16, 18-19, and 24-28.) Chapter 30 has a number of curious sayings, though it doesn’t begin to exhaust the group. Some other examples we’ll mention can be found in 13:7,23; 14:13,20; 16:7; 17:8; 18:18; 20:14,26; 21:14; 22:6; 23:13-14; 27:15.
Sermons on hard passages are not easy to prepare, so I certainly appreciate your prayers as I work on the project this week. Also a reminder: this Sunday we’ll have some Q&A time after the service for those who want to gather to talk about this week’s message and perhaps about other things we’ve studied in Proverbs over the past couple months.
Well, that’s the news for now. Have a wonderful week, and God bless you all richly.