VANCOUVER, British Columbia - On Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 2011, Willingdon Church held their 50th Anniversary Celebration joint service at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The church members invited their family and friends who are not yet believers to participate in this festivity. The entire auditorium was filled with joy and livelihood.
Rev. John Neufeld, senior pastor of Willingdon Church, introduced the history of the church – although the founding 116 members of Willingdon Church are Germans and their mother tongue is German, they’ve chose to conduct all the gatherings in English in order that the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be brought to those in the community.
Today, Willingdon Church has grown into a multi-cultural church, where crowds of people who are witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ flow in unceasingly each week. Neufeld announced in his message that the “Greater-Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) belongs to Jesus Christ”, which were responded with applause from the participants.
Speaking of church-growth, the senior pastor said that the church didn’t have a sudden growth spurt that lasted for 2-3 years, but it grew steadily year by year. Although there were handing down of positions between pastors and elders, the church never stopped growing, which we can see that the church growth is not depended upon man abilities, but upon the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
