Revitalized congregation reflects changing neighborhood
Once in danger of dying, Tenth Avenue Alliance Church takes its place in a needy city.
By
Debra Fieguth
ChristianWeek staff
VANCOUVER–A few years ago Tenth Avenue Alliance Church in the centre of Vancouver was in danger of shutting down. A once-robust congregation of 800 had shrivelled to no more than 100. Most of its members had either moved to the suburbs or simply switched churches.
But over the past year and a half the church, like its refurbished neighborhood surrounding City Hall, has experienced a regeneration. There are healings, dramatic conversions and baptisms, prayer meetings several times a week, concerts that attract several hundred people and a Saturday night service that reaches the disenfranchised and disillusioned.
The new vibrancy is due in part to the youthful energy of senior pastor Ken Shigematsu, who was barely 30 when he took the job 18 months ago. But Shigematsu, who credits a small number of faithful praying members with the church’s survival, is more concerned about growth in depth than growth in numbers.
"I wouldn’t say we’re market-driven," says Shigematsu. "But God is drawing a number of non-believers." Between 350 and 400 people now attend Tenth Avenue, including those who prefer the less "churchy" approach at the Saturday Mosaic. Among the recently-baptized are a woman whose husband died of AIDS (he, too, was baptized before he died), a former Satanist who built bombs to destroy churches, and an actor working in Hollywood. A woman whose beliefs would be described as New Age told the pastor that "the problem with your church is you talk about this Jesus person too much." She came to the church because of a concert and became a Christian two months later.
Tokyo-born Shigematsu was raised partly in North America, attended Gordon Conwell Seminary in Boston and planted a church in California before becoming pastor of Tenth Avenue. Among the first graduates of evangelist Leighton Ford’s Arrow leadership training program in the U.S., Shigematsu recalls Ford telling him not to let his youth hold him back.
Ford also reminded him that "God is an artist. He won’t lead you to copy someone else." So while his Mosaic service might include drama sketches, movie clips or other elements equated with a Willow Creek seeker-sensitive style, the church is decidedly eclectic: there’s a blend of believers from east and west (reflecting the city’s make-up), an intergenerational mix, a Japanese fellowship and a separate Filipino church.
The church is also more charismatic than most other Alliance congregations, and its music director is a former member of the 1970s pop group The Commodores. Checo Tohomaso, who also leads the Vancouver Outreach Community Soul Gospel Choir, many of whose members are not Christians, is largely responsible for the popular jazz and gospel concerts that have brought in up to 900 people. Some of them come from the neighboring homes when they hear the music from the street.
Broken pieces
The concerts made Shigematsu realize "we didn’t have enough impact on the lives of hurting people." So in April he and Tohomaso began the Saturday night Mosaic. The name was chosen, he explains, because it symbolizes broken pieces of different colors coming together and making something beautiful. In his talks, he starts "with a perceived need, but we also point unabashedly to Christ."
Shigematsu’s desire is that the church continue to be a house of prayer. "I really credit anything good that’s happened here to God’s people," he says. "In the story of the church we have a renaissance of prayer."
He also wants Tenth Avenue to be a house for the poor. Earlier this year a homeless man died outside the church. Although an elder had opened his home to the man, he kept wandering back to sleep outside the church. It turned out he had been a pastor. Offering shelter to the homeless and desperate is "a real opportunity to be a more redemptive presence."
The neighborhood around Tenth has changed over the last decade. The homes have been remodelled and repainted in rich colors. Their prices are now out of reach for most working-class people. The prostitutes who used to work just blocks away have been moved to another part of town.
And a block away from Tenth Avenue Alliance Church, the stone building that once housed a vibrant charismatic church now houses condominiums. Shigematsu is thankful Tenth Avenue has not suffered the same fate, but he knows his church isn’t yet meeting the enormity of need in a changing, hurting, sometimes confused city.
"My personal hope," he says quite matter-of-factly, "is to be a round-the-clock church."
DEBRA
FIEGUTH PHOTO Ken Shigematsu: "In the story of the church, we have a renaissance of prayer." |
