Pastoring God's People

For all those who have been commissioned to pastoral roles of all kinds.

When the neighborhood changes

by Ingrid Schultz

First United Mennonite Church (FUMC) in Vancouver, British Columbia, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. The congregation has been in the same neighborhood all these years although we meet in a different building from where we began. In 1955 FUMC purchased our present building from the Baptists, who built a new building half a block away. At that time there were eight German-speaking congregations in this south Vancouver neighbourhood. Our first building, which we sold to another denomination, has changed hands several times and is now a Buddhist temple. Needless to say, our neighborhood has changed a lot in these seventy years.

Changing neighborhood, changing languages

Fraser Street, our commercial center, once catered primarily to the German-speaking residents of this neighborhood. Now its shops and restaurants reflect our growing diversity. Other pastors tell me they are envious of all the great food available just down the street from our church: East Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, and Middle Eastern. The German bakery that has been in the neighborhood since I was a little girl recently got a face lift and now offers coffee twenty-four hours a day. Any time of the day you can find a little gathering of the nations there, including some of FUMC’s German-speaking seniors who like the fact that the coffee is cheaper than at Starbucks across the street.

After twenty years away from Vancouver I’m grateful to be back in my old neighborhood. Being pastor of FUMC allows me to get back in touch with my Russian Mennonite roots, stay connected to the Latino community and build exciting new relationships with the Iranian and Asian communities. Simone Weil wrote: “To be rooted is perhaps the most important need of the human soul.” I see this longing for roots in myself as well as in the newcomers at our English as a Second language (ESL) classes. Students come from twenty-three different countries and volunteers from five sponsoring churches. Some of these students have become a part of our church community. What drew them, they say, was a longing for community, a place to belong. Abbas, an Iranian member of the church, told us at a Thanksgiving dinner: “You are my family.”

The importance of congregational family

That sense of family has always been part of the congregation’s story. Elisabeth is ninety-eight years old and has been a part of FUMC from its beginning. Until recently she lived in this neighborhood and attended both the German and English services on Sunday mornings. (If she could understand Spanish she would have been at our Spanish service as well). I asked Elisabeth why the church was so important to her. She said: “We came to Vancouver with nothing. The church was everything to us. It belonged to us and we belonged to it. It was home.”

Becoming a home for people from different backgrounds and life experiences brings its challenges. Welcoming others in is one step but embracing others is a more crucial one. Coming together around food in the church basement has been an important part of making this church community feel like home. Just as important however is gathering in people’s homes. I’m grateful to live close to the church so I can invite a mix of people over for lunch after the service. It is exciting to see others in the church opening their homes up as well. An Asian newcomer recently said with tears how much it meant to her to receive an invitation to supper from a family at the church.

Our neighborhood has changed a lot in these seventy years.

Our youth worker Shelley, with the help of other young adults, has opened our education building as a place of welcome for youth in the neighborhood. They hang out, do homework, share food, and play games together. It is also a place to do peace building between youth of different backgrounds. Some of these kids are now coming to our youth group. Thursday nights there is a buzz of activity as the youth and ESL students meet in the same building. They have their coffee break together and are learning to know each other. In December our youth will serve at the international dinner for some 130 graduating ESL students. With food from twenty-three countries, the event will be a foretaste of the great marriage supper of the Lamb and a sign of God’s kingdom breaking into our midst. I believe there are many such signs here in South Vancouver. We just need eyes to see them

A sense of family has always been part of our congregation’s story.

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Ingrid Schultz was born and raised in Vancouver. Before moving back to Vancouver in 1999, she served with MCC in Bolivia and was pastor of Comunidad de Fe, a Spanish-speaking Mennonite Church in Chicago