willow park Church,
Kelowna, B.C.
By Charlene de haan
dreaming of the day when hunger, abuse and poverty are gone and the love of Christ is known across the city: members of willow
Park Church serve the working poor and homeless.
”runaways. We’re all runaways,” says Mark Burch, lead
pastor at Willow Park Church, a Mennonite Brethren
congregation in Kelowna, B.C.“The DNA of every
human is a runaway. Some are just closer on their way back
home.” In response to this key idea, Burch and his church
make it their job to put out the welcome mat for a homecoming party.
Walking, Talking Billboards
Burch admits the mental shifts the congregation members need
to make to develop an outward focus are ongoing but he reports that already about 75 per cent can articulate their mission:
learning to love people, follow Jesus and serve the world. The
goal is that every follower will be speaking into other people’s
lives, sometimes without words – moving congregants beyond
simply “doing church” to “being church.”
Many have caught the vision of being “walking, talking,
living community billboards” for the kingdom – attracting
some newcomers by offering a genuine welcome into a net-
work of relationships and drawing others, especially people
dissatisfied with popular secular lifestyles and beliefs, by
demonstrating an appealing alternative.
Many weeks there are roses on the altar to celebrate
people coming to faith. Recently four roses celebrated Alpha
members choosing to follow Jesus. Celebrating such life
changes is indeed a sort of homecoming party.
God’s Values in Our City?
Burch looks forward to the day when the entire Kelowna
area is deeply impacted by the values of God’s kingdom
reign. Four campuses (different worship sites) already seek
to make God’s values more tangible in the community.
Burch and his leadership team stress that God is already
ruling and reigning; God’s reign is not merely a future event
to wait for. So they dream of their city without hunger or
abuse. They want to help ensure adequate jobs and available housing. They imagine a city void of drugs and the sex
trade – because no one is buying!
