A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Hans Kouwenberg is the pastor of St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Prince George, B.C. This is what we hope to be the beginning of a series. We solicit articles on “living churches” you know of, or minister in, in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The article does not have to be lengthy. Life is all we are looking for.

What makes a church alive? Life, of course. The loving, living resurrection life of Jesus Christ, incarnate in a congregation (John 1:4, 14. 16). Individual and communal life. Worshipping and working life. Sacrificial and serving life. Praying life.

Tucked in among the hauntingly beautiful mountains and lakes of the West Kootenays of British Columbia is the pastoral charge of Nelson-Slocan. They are churches that are alive. First Presbyterian is located in the picturesque late Victorian granite-and-brick-building town of Nelson, still “the Queen city” of the Kootenays. Quaint and gracious turn-of-the-century houses rise on the city slope overlooking the west arm of Kootenay Lake. The congregation worships in a simple frame building (1891) located a quarter of the way up the slope. Fifty miles up the winding country highway road, west and north from Nelson, one finds the smaller congregation of St. Andrew’s, Slocan worshipping in a cozy little stove-heated building. First has expansion plans and St. Andrew’s has land purchased nearby for possible future development.

What makes me so excited about the life of this particular pastoral charge? “The very life of all ages, the life that has always existed with the Father, which actually became visible” first in Jesus (1 John 1:2) is now evident among this group of Christians. I had the opportunity to visit these folks with a couple of ladies from my congregation last May, as we joined them for a weekend conference on “the Renewed Church” with the Rev. Graham Pulkingham (He is an Episcopalian priest renowned for his work in building community: first in the Church of the Redeemer, Houston, Texas, then in England, and now with the Fisherfolk Community of Celebration in Colorado Springs, Colorado). The weekend conference, however, was incidental to what I found there. I found a church community – old and young – which had talented and varied leadership, and which was excited and eager about worship and whose whole sense of community and mutual service was evident and real. We were not just attending another conference on renewal, we were visiting a congregation that was in process of being renewed!

For a couple of years I had heard about the transformation of what others had described as a perpetually aid-receiving, struggling, rather traditional, country congregation into a ministry and mission that was increasingly self-reliant and alive. I wanted to see it for myself. That is why I took a week’s “study leave” and went, with two women who work with me as lay workers at St. Giles’, to the Kootenays. We wanted to see how the Rev. Calvin Brown, a delightful evangelical and episcopal mix of a man, had led and witnessed the development of a vital, communal congregational life. Specifically, we’d come to see the use of lay leadership and the “community houses” which others had said formed the backbone of the transformation.

Every faithful minister labours for years, I’m sure, seeking to preach and to teach the gospel until Jesus Christ sparks enough among the people that they catch fire. Cal stayed beyond his O.M. appointment. He married a daughter of the town. He committed himself to the people. Because of the rugged beauty of the environment and because of the attractiveness of the town. Nelson has always attracted and captivated people. And because of the local fine arts college (originally Notre Dame University, now David Thompson College) young people especially, seeking and searching a gentle counter culture, find a lodging place in Nelson and the country round about. A number of these found their way to First Church (as well as Slocan). Whether through the ministry of caring people at the Way Inn coffee house or the ministry of the Word and Sacrament they found Jesus Christ and they found a place to belong. They found acceptance and vulnerability and trust. And, gradually, some of these young men and women began to take leadership and the real transformation of the congregation began.

Let me focus specifically on First Church, although elements of this renewal are to be found also in Slocan. As people began to care for the ministry and mission of the congregation, they also began to deepen in their care for each other. Stemming from the mutual support which Cal gave and received from Brent Mason, one of the first young men who came to First and its ministry, a desire to open one’s homes to each other for more than hospitality developed. Particularly stimulating in this direction was Graham Pulkingham’s book A New Way of Living, recounting his experiences at the Church of the Redeemer. Brent read the book first and then Cal. They caught a vision of a different kind of Church than we normally experience, “as more than a gathering place,” “as a church alive and Jesus alive in it.” At first there was no desire to form community houses per se. They began with a small Bible study: four women and the two men. Community began with Cal and Brent living together; it was threatened by Cal’s marriage to Phyllis, one of the women; it struggled through a government sponsored “society house”, ministering to needy people; it moved, wrenchingly, slowly, to a commitment to counselling together regarding everything, even moving, and to discovering the difference between hosting and sharing. Through the Lord’s leading there came to be an intentional “house ministry” where people – singles, broken families, and eventually families came to live together to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Not everyone saw this as being necessary, but neither was it threatening to those who didn’t.

“Certainly the house ministry has raised the level of expectations of the membership of the participants and of the members and adherents of the congregation as a whole. Covenant-making is a natural part of the congregation’s life. ’’

In 1981 a “House Ministry Covenant” (see insert) put into words this age-old yet new concept of church community which had been tried for four and a half years. Later in 1982 a “Vision” or goal statement was developed (see insert) which sought to spell out this ministry as one way of fleshing out “life together as a congregation.”

I personally experienced the warmth and hearty fellowship of Cedar House’s ministry. This house had one couple with their one child and four singles (plus one “associate member” who was still checking out the concept). Two other houses, Emmaus and Aphoron (“looking unto . . ”) housed one couple and three singles and one couple, four children and one single respectively. Each house is presently led by an elder as house leader, one is the minister, the other two are ruling elders. Two homes are owned privately, one is owned by the congregation. Another home, bought by one of the members of Cedar House, is also available for this ministry. Presently several singles rent it. Members pay a nominal “rent” and share in food expenses. Much more, they share in life together. Although there are private spaces – one’s own or shared room – there is obviously much pleasure in sharing meals, music and moods. I saw and felt much laughter and clowning. I saw and shared in some serious discussions. The house is a home: there is a cozy informality and yet a clear definition of responsibilities and duties. Each house has a spare room or two for overnight hospitality as well. I was welcomed and quickly felt relaxed and responsive.

People are free to engage in their own activities and come and go as employment or excursion requires. Usually the “house” is together for supper although not always. Monday nights are house meetings when items of a practical and pastoral nature are shared. Saturday nights special “house suppers” are scheduled and one house will visit another and share the evening together. Often the evening will include devotional and recreational time together. While I was there one evening we had songs. Scripture, and slides from someone’s honeymoon in England (a children’s book author who lives in Nelson and who attends the congregation) and Welsh cakes with strawberry preserves and real clotted cream! Three to four times a year all houses get together for a “celebration” – especially at special seasons. Every year each house goes for a retreat.

Admission to the houses is discussed by all the house leaders together (virtually, save for one other, the Session!). There is open discussion about “room” and “space” physical and psychological. The house is asked if they would agree to sharing their home, and, upon no less than 6 months commitment, a person’s entry is approved. Commitments are renewed every year for three years, after which time a more or less permanent relationship is entered upon – yet which can be changed at any time. Only one relationship so far required disciplinary action, i.e. expulsion.

Certainly the house ministry has raised the level of expectations of the membership of the participants and of the members and adherents of the congregation as a whole. Covenant-making is a natural part of the congregation’s life. People not only make commitments to become communicant members of the congregation (as is normal in most congregations); they also make (and sign) covenants for the “music ministry”, for the “Way-Inn” Coffee House “ministry”, and for training and service in “lay ministry”. As the houses also encourage “cluster groups” – some of which meet outside of the houses – a general encouragement of Bible study and building small group fellowship is fostered. The older people’s reaction in the congregation is obviously positive. They are delighted with the tempo and the tone of the congregation’s life.

Although the congregation has its compliment of typical church structure and organizations, its new life is finding expression in additional services and ministries at the church building: a mid-week Wednesday service with contemporary praise and spontaneous, intercessory prayer and an early Thursday morning communion service before folk go to work. Although the congregation has not grown spectacularly in numbers. First Church now has 68 members and St. Andrew’s has 40, this congregation has features which are what I recently read are the marks of a publishable book: their ministry and mission is increasingly “unique”, their communal life “illustrates and illuminates” the Saviour they profess; their congregational life “has an edge” to it. Of course, the house ministry, still developing, is a key element in this renewed life. Where it will ultimately lead the congregation only the Lord knows, but it is invigorating. It was good to be there.

HOUSE MINISTRY COVENANT

We believe that God has called us into covenant community. We believe God has called us together in a commitment that expresses Jesus’ desire that we may be one as He and the Father are one. (John 17:23)

We believe that within our community God is calling us:

  1. To open our lives and houses to the total Lordship of Jesus Christ that God’s purposes may be fulfilled in our midst.
  2. To make it our goal to become an environment in which we have and serve one another as perfectly as we can.
  3. To be an environment in which our lives are committed and shared together at the deepest level possible. This commitment would cover every aspect of life (priorities, finances, social life).
  4. To present ourselves totally. Our minds, our bodies, our talents, our gifts to the Lord, and the community. For the building up of one another in Christ and the service of all.
  5. We commit ourselves to submit to the order of authority God has established in our midst, namely the individual house leaders under the authority of the Session of the First Presbyterian Nelson, which in turn is under the authority of the Presbytery of Kootenay, Synod of B.C., and the General Assembly of Canada.

THE VISION

Our purpose is to grow up into Christ and to show the love of God in the Koinonia relationship (for our fellowship is with God the Father and His Son Jesus).

This Koinonia is open to all whom the Lord our God will call and subject to the headship of Jesus Christ within His Church.

It is a love that is open to all who desire life and is characterized by forgiveness, acceptance and truth.

It is as flexible in its expression as the Holy Spirit who blows wherever it pleases …  you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going and yet its creative seeking of the Kingdom of God has the order of its Creator who knows our human frailty and has given us leaders, teachers and governors for a safe ordering of our welfare.

This life is presently expressed in living together in households which express the loving, healing, caring nature of our God and our desire to “model”, encourage and share with the First Church Body the way. the truth, and the life of Christ in reaching out to the poor to the richness of life in Christ while acknowledging our own poverty of spirit in the hope of receiving the blessing of Jesus.

The House Covenant expresses in fuller ways the total commitment and accountability we share in Jesus.