VANCOUVER — On a typical Sunday morning, as many as 2,000 people will cycle through the pews at Vancouver’s Broadway Church for what Pastor Darin Latham calls the church’s “one hour, scripted, themed — but inspired — presentations.”
There, amid six screens surrounding an 1,800-seat sanctuary — the neighbourhood’s largest public venue — the casually dressed pastor preaches pithily titled (“Cracking the Bible Code”) services punctuated by movie clips, on-stage performances and, of course, the church’s full-sized rock band.
For those newcomers still learning English, there are United Nations-style headsets plugged into volunteer-staffed translation booths, allowing congregants to hear the sermon in Korean, Mandarin or Cantonese. And if congregants can’t make it to the church’s East Broadway location, they can always tune in to the official sermon podcast.
That’s just Sunday. Wednesdays see the 85,000-square-foot Pentecostal church hopping with classes on everything from “Divorce Care” to “Freed-Up Financial Living.” The rest of the week sees full schedules of Christian sports teams, ethnic ministries, youth programs and a small empire of charitable endeavours, from food banks to seniors’ housing. In the days before Christmas alone, as many as 20,000 locals filed in to see the church’s no-charge performances of the Singing Christmas Tree.
And all this is happening in Vancouver, a city where almost half of respondents checked “No Religion” on their 2011 household surveys. East Vancouver is where organized Christianity goes to die, not to thrive, but Broadway does not seem to have noticed. In the past few years, its congregation has only grown.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/1...sm-grows-and-most-sunday-attendance-plummets/
There, amid six screens surrounding an 1,800-seat sanctuary — the neighbourhood’s largest public venue — the casually dressed pastor preaches pithily titled (“Cracking the Bible Code”) services punctuated by movie clips, on-stage performances and, of course, the church’s full-sized rock band.
For those newcomers still learning English, there are United Nations-style headsets plugged into volunteer-staffed translation booths, allowing congregants to hear the sermon in Korean, Mandarin or Cantonese. And if congregants can’t make it to the church’s East Broadway location, they can always tune in to the official sermon podcast.
That’s just Sunday. Wednesdays see the 85,000-square-foot Pentecostal church hopping with classes on everything from “Divorce Care” to “Freed-Up Financial Living.” The rest of the week sees full schedules of Christian sports teams, ethnic ministries, youth programs and a small empire of charitable endeavours, from food banks to seniors’ housing. In the days before Christmas alone, as many as 20,000 locals filed in to see the church’s no-charge performances of the Singing Christmas Tree.
And all this is happening in Vancouver, a city where almost half of respondents checked “No Religion” on their 2011 household surveys. East Vancouver is where organized Christianity goes to die, not to thrive, but Broadway does not seem to have noticed. In the past few years, its congregation has only grown.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/1...sm-grows-and-most-sunday-attendance-plummets/
