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The Church

Vancouver Bible Fellowship is a non-denominational Bible Church that is committed to bringing clear, relevant, Christ centered, biblical, expository preaching through the "whole counsel of God" to the Vancouver area.  

This ministry was born as God impressed on my heart throughout 2001  that East Vancouver and Camas was in need of a Christ centered, biblically based, ministry of the Word.   During this process God was impressing on the hearts of others the same need.  

From this vision and after having began a Bible Study, we stepped out in faith and had our first Sunday Worship Service on 2-10-2002 at Harmony Elementary School.   From the start we have been committed to the proclamation of His life changing Word.    We are a small church  looking forward to the spiritual growth and blessing that God will bring through His Word to our lives  as we grow in Him serve Him together. 

What is our philosophy of ministry?

We desire to be obedient to our Lord by applying a biblical philosophy of ministry that understands that one of the church's primary function is to glorify God through the  "equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" with the two goals of "the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man" (Eph. 4:11-13; italics mine). This is done so that we can effectively "go into the world and make disciples" of Jesus Christ.    Since we are commanded to make disciples,  discipleship is also a  major focus for Vancouver Bible Fellowship.

We do not believe that we are to be focused on bringing the world (seekers and the un-churched) into church to try to save them, although they are absolutely welcome and it is our desire for all to be saved. Rather, we believe we are to be focused on Christ, thus obeying His Word by building up and maturing believers in their relationship with Him through His Word so that they continue in obedience and "go therefore and make disciples" (Matt. 28:19) by His strength.  

How do we all minister and serve?

Another distinctive that we hold to is the reality of the New Covenant that Jesus established with His blood (Luke 22:19-20).  The reality that in our relationship with Christ,  we have been "... granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him" (2 Pet. 1:3).  That as Jesus said, "apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).   And as Paul stated: "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).   Serving God by His strength not ours and with the spiritual gifts He has given us is one of the most rewarding things this life has to offer, because He gets all the glory.

It is also our desire to minister in a biblical fashion.  We do not see a difference between clergy and laity in the Scriptures.  Therefore you will not find a senior pastor at Vancouver Bible Fellowship. Rather what you will find is that the preaching is done by elder(s) who have pastor/teacher gifts.  Likewise, since every believer has been given spiritual gift(s) and has been commanded to use them (1 Peter 4:10-11),  you will find it is our desire to help, exhort, encourage each believer to learn and use their spiritual gifts by His strength to serve one another.   You may or may not know there is great pain, exhaustion, burnout and often bitterness when we serve in our own strength and in areas we are not gifted and equipped to serve in.   It is our desire that you experience the great joy that accompanies serving Jesus by His strength and with the gifts He has given. 

What about leadership?

 In terms of leadership, we believe the local church is to be ruled by Elders ( listen...1 Peter 5:1-4 )  who have equal authority, make decisions both in unity and unanimously under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and who listen respectfully to the views of the congregation. The Elders are assisted by individuals (i.e. deacons, deaconesses etc.) when necessary to carry out the ministry. All are selected according to standards expressed by the New Testament. (Acts 14:23; Acts 15; Acts 20:17-32; Phil. 1:1; Tit. 1:5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-13; 1Tim 5:17; 1Pet. 5:1-5).  Currently  we have two elders.  As God brings those He has chosen to be future elders, we will increase the size of our elder board.    As the Lord wills, we will continue to appoint elder advisors from within our congregation. These are men  who have a desire to be a godly men and Lord willing,  elders.  All elder advisors go through our elder training program.  Elder advisors attend all of the elders meetings and  go through a discipleship process in order to prepare them to be elders if that is His will. 

How does it all come together?

Finally, we firmly believe that nothing compares to "the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:8).  Also, we believe that God has ordained for us to enter into and grow in our relationship with Christ through His Word and that as we  grow closer to Him, we will grow closer to one another (1Thes. 2:13; James 1:18, 21; 1Peter 1:23-2:2; 1John 5:1-4).  It is also clear that Scripture equips us for everything in life (2Tim 3:16-17).    Therefore, we desire that every aspect of ministry be grounded in the Word, so that we would  know Christ in a deeper way, love each other and be equipped for life.   Jesus said,  "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD'" (Matthew 4:4).

We would love to have you join us as we seek to glorify God together in this journey of faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

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