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SUNDAY SERVICE at 6pm (Evening Church)
ADDRESS:
7100 Granville Ave,
Richmond, B.C. V6Y 1N8
contact@stjohnsrichmond.com
Our main Sunday service is now on Sunday Evenings at 6pm (beginning May 5th). While we have been blessed to gather for worship on Sunday mornings for the past 17 years, God has opened up for us a unique, new opportunity to be a blessing to Richmond as we gather in the evening in the centre of the city. Read more about our Evening Service here, and below.
Dear SJR Family: This Easter season reminds us that we belong to the Risen King, who is alive today and nourishes and oversees his Church. At St. John’s Richmond we are gathered around the person of Jesus Christ, and the gospel news of all that God has accomplished through him.
As we have shared, SJR has been asked to shift out of Sunday mornings in the Hall at Trinity Lutheran Church (TLC,) and we have agreed to exit this space starting May 5th. The Directors have worked diligently to search for other options in Richmond for a Sunday morning gathering. The Location Task Force identified and reviewed 25 possibilities across the city, including churches, educational facilities, and commercial properties. We reached out to ten of these, and visited three. Only one space is currently available on Sunday mornings but its use is constrained by lack of storage, kitchen facilities, parking, and a higher rental cost.
TLC has invited us to keep meeting in their facility and offered us the exclusive use of the building any time after 1:30pm. After extensive discussion, prayer, and feedback from the congregation, the Directors unanimously concluded that a 6pm Evening service has the most potential for gospel growth. God has closed a door and opened another one; we are confident that his purposes are good and that he will provide all that we need.
We know that this news is challenging. It means we each are being asked by Jesus to re-imagine the Lord’s Day and the Sabbath. An evening service allows for fellowship, rest, or restorative activity in a different way: either individually, as a household, or with the church family. Remaining at TLC at the centre of a growing city allows for evangelism and invitation, and for things like meals before the service (sometimes) and dessert and decaf after (weekly). We will continue to offer glorious music, youth ministry and children’s ministry, as in the morning. Meeting in the Nave (sanctuary) provides us a beautiful space designed for corporate worship.
This is not a step back or sideways, but in God’s will is a new opportunity to reach out and worship in a unique and special evening service. There are no other Sunday evening services in central Richmond; our conviction and prayer is that God in his Fatherly love will make us courageous and adaptable for mission. We pray earnestly that as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, we will be like Abraham, who, while living in tents, was also “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10).
I personally am praying that we would be surprised by joy, new gospel growth, and fresh creativity to maximize ministry in our new circumstances.
I mentioned at the Annual Vestry meeting that God calls on us to cling to him. The danger on one side is to try to do things our own way, in our own power, and in our own wisdom. The danger on the other side is to coast, to become consumers, self-sufficient and passive. We naturally seek either comfort or control, but our Father desires us to be countercultural, people of ambition and faithful submission just as Abraham was.
In Christ, Risen!
Ven. Sean Love,
Rector
I have a personal notice for you all this morning.
Many of you know that ANiC is looking to elect a new Suffragan or assisting Bishop to our Diocesan Bishop Dan Gifford, who moved to Ontario two weeks ago. The Suffragan Bishop will help out primarily in Western Canada. This week the two candidates will be announced and I am one of them. (Lord, Have Mercy!)
The election will happen at our annual national Synod gathering in Vancouver, in 2 months.
I have let my name stand for this not because I’m seeking it; I’ve said no to many people for a long time. I’m not looking for a new job! But over the past year I have sensed that obedience to the Lord Jesus means stepping forward. There has been much prayerful discernment, with Penny, and others.
The job description of Bishop is to be a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, caring for His church. It involves diligently preaching and defending the Word of God, administering godly discipline according to Scripture, and encouraging and strengthening pastors and congregations in Western Canada.
Now, there’s one thing I don’t know, and one thing I do know.
None of us knows what will happen on November 16th. And so I’m asking you to pray with me for the next two months for God’s will to be done, in a way that blesses you, me, and ANiC.
But what I do know is that God has been very generous to us at SJR. For years we have strengthened the saints beyond ourselves: through Bible in a Day, God’s Big Story, training five Artizo Apprentices, sharing musical gifts, Lay Reader Training, and much more. And so this is not just a me thing but a we thing because SJR must be prepared to release me to bless and serve others. This would mean we would need to pray for a new Rector for the Spring of 2024.
If I’m appointed to this ministry, SJR will still be my home church and you are my church family, and I hope to participate as a member of the congregation, under a new Rector. I’m not moving from Richmond.
Either way, God’s grace is always greater than we can imagine, and we will be blessed.
Rev. Sean Love
