Church Recommendation for Vancouver, BC, Canada

dantitus

Puritan Board Freshman
Hello all.

My family will be moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada from South Korea in December. We will be living on the University of British Columbia(UBC) campus. Could anyone who may be familiar with the area please recommend some churches in the area?

For some background, we are currently attending a confessional Presbyterian church here in Korea. We trace our roots to the Northern Presbyterian Church ion the US during the 1800s. We do an hour of study going through either Westminster documents or the Three Forms of Unity before the morning service. We read either the Apostle's Creed or the Nicaean Creed every service. We sing mostly psalms with a short hymn at the end of the service. Group studies go through a list of mostly traditional authors including the Reformers, Puritans, Princeton, and Dutch theologians.

I am trying to look for a church that may be similar to our congregation in Vancouver but I am having trouble with my search. I found one PCA church, Faith Reformed Presbyterian but am not sure how "confessional" they were. I know PCA can vary greatly. I was surprised that there aren't a lot of confessional Presbyterian churches in Vancouver, let alone Canada. I went through all the NAPARC churches and noticed that there are lot more Dutch Reformed churches in Canada. I am familiar with the 3FU and understand that their theology is mostly identical with Presbyterian churches.

However my brother had once attended a Dutch Reformed church in rural village in Ontario and he had a pretty negative experience. He told me that the congregation felt cold and not very welcoming to newcomers, and he almost felt a bit of racism as the only foreigner in the church. From what I understand a lot of these Dutch Reformed churches are very still ethnically Dutch with closed cultural communities and they like to keep it that way. In fact the closest church from Vancouver I found had 5 elders with "Van" in their Dutch names. So I am not sure if my family would be welcomed.

TL;DR I am looking for a solid confessional Presbyterian church in Vancouver BC area, but I am finding mostly Dutch Reformed churches, which I have never attended and am scared to because of some negative experiences my brother had in a rural church as a ethnic minority. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Faith Presbyterian is pastored by Mark Jones. I am sure it is very reformed.
Thanks, I intend to check it out once we get there. I don't know Mark Jones, but I found his name on the dust jacket of my Reformation Study Bible from Ligonier so I am guessing he is well known. I just looked at their bulletin on their website and they don't seem to sing a lot of Psalms, which I will miss if it is the case (I don't subscribe to exclusive psalmody, but I do believe we are commanded to sing them!)
 
Anyway, you can always try to visit the Dutch churches at least once. The same way a Westerner moving to Korea should not rely on one experience to dictate the whole. One conservative Dutch denomination who has churches in Chilliwack has a Korean pastor in the US.
 
Anyway, you can always try to visit the Dutch churches at least once. The same way a Westerner moving to Korea should not rely on one experience to dictate the whole. One conservative Dutch denomination who has churches in Chilliwack has a Korean pastor in the US.
You are very right sir. Thanks for reminding me of this.

Now that I think about it, I am a bit ashamed that I may have misrepresented all of the Dutch Reformed churches by bringing up a single experience. That was not my intention, I am just very ignorant about the ones in Canada.

I appreciate the theological tradition of the Dutch Reformed and have a fellow Korean friend studying at PRTS at Grand Rapids. I assume you are also part of the Dutch Reformed church (your signature mentions 3FU), so I hope I have not offended you by my poorly worded inquiry.

I think I will visit Faith(PCA) and Maranatha(CanRef) which may be the closest ones when I get to Vancouver. Thanks.
 
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You are very right sir. Thanks for reminding me of this.

Now that I think about it, I am a bit ashamed that I may have misrepresented all of the Dutch Reformed churches by bringing up a single experience. That was not my intention, I am just very ignorant about the ones in Canada.

I appreciate the theological tradition of the Dutch Reformed and have a fellow Korean friend studying at PRTS at Grand Rapids. I assume you are also part of the Dutch Reformed church (your signature mentions 3FU), so I hope I have not offended you by my poorly worded inquiry.

I think I will visit Faith(PCA) and Maranatha(CanRef) which may be the closest ones when I get to Vancouver. Thanks.
I’m a fellow Asian in the Dutch Reformed tradition. No offence taken. Just wanting to assure you.

All the best.
 
Hi Daniel. I grew up in Surrey which is not far from Vancouver and I know the area quite well.

I would recommend the Vancouver Associated Presbyterian Church (Reformed Presbyterian Church of Canada, a newly formed denomination that is similar to the RPCNA): https://www.vancouverapc.org/

It is not far from UBC (ten minutes by car or 30 minutes by transit), they sing psalms only and I am certain they would love to have visitors from afar as I have visited them a few times and they have been very welcoming. If you would like, I could pass on the elder's contact information to you if you would like.

The only caveat is that they are currently without a pastor.
 
You are very right sir. Thanks for reminding me of this.

Now that I think about it, I am a bit ashamed that I may have misrepresented all of the Dutch Reformed churches by bringing up a single experience. That was not my intention, I am just very ignorant about the ones in Canada.

I appreciate the theological tradition of the Dutch Reformed and have a fellow Korean friend studying at PRTS at Grand Rapids. I assume you are also part of the Dutch Reformed church (your signature mentions 3FU), so I hope I have not offended you by my poorly worded inquiry.

I think I will visit Faith(PCA) and Maranatha(CanRef) which may be the closest ones when I get to Vancouver. Thanks.
I'm in a rural "dutch" reformed church in Ontario (yes, our membership is probably 95% ethnically or culturally Dutch). I'm not surprised that your brother had that experience, but I wouldn't write off such churches. My own wife (who is ethnically Dutch and grew up as the daughter of a reformed minister) has had similar experiences in some churches, I think it's just a combination of people being shy when it comes to visitors or just not being used to seeing someone new, or just not being very good at welcoming newcomers. I'm not excusing the behaviour but it probably isn't because there is a deep seeded racism present in these churches, although I'm sure that in certain isolated individuals there is that.

One of the URC ministers in Ontario was Korean (he recently took a call to a church in backwoods rural BC). Another minister of a rural HRC church in Ontario is Filipino. Recently one of the rural Ontario churches in our area had a student minister from Africa on the pulpit who is studying at the CanRef seminary. Another URC church in Ontario has a minister from Trinidad. So we're not afraid of other cultures, I think we're just most comfortable in our own, which could probably be said of any people in any culture.

As for the Vancouver area, there is also a URC church there that might be worth checking out, in Surrey. I think it's pretty small but don't know much else about it. If you have a vehicle, you'll find more churches once you go inland a bit, is my understanding.

If you're convinced of exclusive Psalmody, then obviously that limits your choices. I do note that the HRC or FRC denominations sing psalms only although some people complain that their psalter's paraphrases take some liberties with the text. Also they use the organ for accompaniment. But to get to one of those churches you'd probably have to drive to Chilliwack.

I hope some of this was helpful.
 
Have you consider Cloverdale Free Presbyterian Church? It's quite far from Vancouver (43 minutes of driving to Langley where the church is), but it's worth attending as a sound and committed congregation. I would attend there whenever I visit the Mainland. Praise God, they have a Pastor installed recently! The congregation had been shepherdless for a while.

It's a shame that there's not a lot of sound church to speak of in Vancouver Island where I live.
 
Hi Daniel. I grew up in Surrey which is not far from Vancouver and I know the area quite well.

I would recommend the Vancouver Associated Presbyterian Church (Reformed Presbyterian Church of Canada, a newly formed denomination that is similar to the RPCNA): https://www.vancouverapc.org/

It is not far from UBC (ten minutes by car or 30 minutes by transit), they sing psalms only and I am certain they would love to have visitors from afar as I have visited them a few times and they have been very welcoming. If you would like, I could pass on the elder's contact information to you if you would like.

The only caveat is that they are currently without a pastor.
Hi!

Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely check it out. The church actually was on my raidar at one point because I mistakenly thought it was a ARPC church, but I didn’t know anything about the actual denomination it was part of (I have just been using NAPARC list as a guide) so I had taken it off my list.

However a PB member endorsement seems to be good enough reason for me to visit. It’s great to hear they sing Psalms. I have gotten used to singing Psalms predominantly at my current church.

Perhaps they will find a pastor by the time we get to Vancouver in December? But even if they don’t I won’t skip on a church just because they are in middle of transition. Thanks!
 
Hi!

Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely check it out. The church actually was on my raidar at one point because I mistakenly thought it was a ARPC church, but I didn’t know anything about the actual denomination it was part of (I have just been using NAPARC list as a guide) so I had taken it off my list.

However a PB member endorsement seems to be good enough reason for me to visit. It’s great to hear they sing Psalms. I have gotten used to singing Psalms predominantly at my current church.

Perhaps they will find a pastor by the time we get to Vancouver in December? But even if they don’t I won’t skip on a church just because they are in middle of transition. Thanks!
I do not know if they will find a pastor by then though I assume they are looking for one at this time.

There are also two other RPCC churches in the area but they are Chinese speaking, which is why I did not recommend them. I do know that the Surrey congregation has English translation for the sermon and sing English psalms. I have not been to either of these congregations.


If you have an interest in going out further, I can recommend some churches in the valley east of Vancouver but seeing that you are situated at UBC, I would not recommend travelling so far on the Lord's Day when a perfectly suitable congregation is so close.

If you have any other questions about the Vancouver area, please contact me via private message and I will share my e-mail address with you.
 
I'm in a rural "dutch" reformed church in Ontario (yes, our membership is probably 95% ethnically or culturally Dutch). I'm not surprised that your brother had that experience, but I wouldn't write off such churches. My own wife (who is ethnically Dutch and grew up as the daughter of a reformed minister) has had similar experiences in some churches, I think it's just a combination of people being shy when it comes to visitors or just not being used to seeing someone new, or just not being very good at welcoming newcomers. I'm not excusing the behaviour but it probably isn't because there is a deep seeded racism present in these churches, although I'm sure that in certain isolated individuals there is that.

One of the URC ministers in Ontario was Korean (he recently took a call to a church in backwoods rural BC). Another minister of a rural HRC church in Ontario is Filipino. Recently one of the rural Ontario churches in our area had a student minister from Africa on the pulpit who is studying at the CanRef seminary. Another URC church in Ontario has a minister from Trinidad. So we're not afraid of other cultures, I think we're just most comfortable in our own, which could probably be said of any people in any culture.

As for the Vancouver area, there is also a URC church there that might be worth checking out, in Surrey. I think it's pretty small but don't know much else about it. If you have a vehicle, you'll find more churches once you go inland a bit, is my understanding.

If you're convinced of exclusive Psalmody, then obviously that limits your choices. I do note that the HRC or FRC denominations sing psalms only although some people complain that their psalter's paraphrases take some liberties with the text. Also they use the organ for accompaniment. But to get to one of those churches you'd probably have to drive to Chilliwack.

I hope some of this was helpful.

Thank you, this was indeed very helpful.

I am very encouraged to hear about the culturally diverse group of ministers in your denomination in Canada. And I agree with you that what my brother may have experienced at his church was not necessarily rooted in racism. Coming from a equally ethnically homogeneous church in my country I think I can understand people naturally being cautious and even suspicious of outsiders. I guess I and my wife will just have to take the initiative on fellowship, be patient and pray for guidance. I will definitely check out the churches you mentioned. (On a side note the history nerd in me is very curious how such churches like yours came to be - preserving the culture even though my understanding is most of you immigrated to North America years ago.)

I do not hold to exclusive psalmody necessarily but I don’t think I would mind going to a church that holds it. My current church sings Psalms with an organ about 90% of the time (the other times being hymns). I only mentioned this because I know some PCA churches rarely sing Psalms and often use contemporary worship music with a variety of musical instruments. I don’t have a deep theological basis against such, but I feel like if we have Psalms to sing we have plenty already. I would like to attend an OPC church but I don’t think there are any in BC.

I do plan to have a car, so I will check out the URC and FRC churches in the region - it looks like there is one near New Westminster which is a bit closer than Chilliwack. Is HRC the Heritage one? My understanding is that there isn’t any HRC churches outside Ontario in Canada. Joel Beeke actually preached at our church a few months ago, and my pastor is actually on sabbatical in the US visiting them. I also have a friend who is going to their seminary at PRTS. So it would be nice to be connected that way if there indeed is a new HRC church in BC.
 
Have you consider Cloverdale Free Presbyterian Church? It's quite far from Vancouver (43 minutes of driving to Langley where the church is), but it's worth attending as a sound and committed congregation. I would attend there whenever I visit the Mainland. Praise God, they have a Pastor installed recently! The congregation had been shepherdless for a while.

It's a shame that there's not a lot of sound church to speak of in Vancouver Island where I live.
Hi,

Thanks for the recommendation! I feel like Langley would be an hour drive at least from the UBC campus, but it may be doable if my kids get used to the drive.

(I am excited to visit Vancouver Island during our stay in Vancouver - I hear Victoria is a beautiful city.)
 
Thank you all for your recommendations and responses. You have all been extremely generous with your help. I think I have a good amount of churches to look into for the time being. I hope by beginning of next year our family will have found our new church in Canada!
 
(On a side note the history nerd in me is very curious how such churches like yours came to be - preserving the culture even though my understanding is most of you immigrated to North America years ago.)

In what manner their subculture remained Dutch is difficult to determine. Cultures tend to change over time. How those churches could remain ethnically Dutch is actually very easy to explain.

You are only moving with your family and not many other Koreans will follow. However when those Dutch people migrated they migrated in droves. After WWII the Netherlands was in shambles and there was a lot of unemployment. At the same time Canada was in need of people, so many Dutch people migrated. About 4% of the entire population left. (not all of them to Canada; other popular destinations were South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A.)

Many of those migrants faced the same problem as you have right now. Where to go to church? But with enough people churches can be build. And without a high influx from outside, the general demographic of a church will not change much.
 
@Edward Wow this is an amazing map. Not just for my church considerations but for learning about denominations in general. Thank you.

Where was this map originally posted? Did a PB member make this? It must have taken a lot of work to create.
 
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In what manner their subculture remained Dutch is difficult to determine. Cultures tend to change over time. How those churches could remain ethnically Dutch is actually very easy to explain.

You are only moving with your family and not many other Koreans will follow. However when those Dutch people migrated they migrated in droves. After WWII the Netherlands was in shambles and there was a lot of unemployment. At the same time Canada was in need of people, so many Dutch people migrated. About 4% of the entire population left. (not all of them to Canada; other popular destinations were South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A.)

Many of those migrants faced the same problem as you have right now. Where to go to church? But with enough people churches can be build. And without a high influx from outside, the general demographic of a church will not change much.
That’s very insightful thanks. I have so many follow up questions on this topic: why does it seem like there is a greater concentration of Dutch churches in Canada compared to the number of Presbyterian churches in Canada? Is it because the Presbyterian churches in Canada joined the modernist liberals in the United Church of Canada early on in the last century? Is it because the Dutch preferred Canada as they did the American Midwest?

But these are probably questions for another thread in another category haha. I’ll see if I can post one later.
 
@Edward Wow this is an amazing map. Not just for my church considerations but for learning about denominations in general. Thank you.

Where was this map originally posted? Did a PB member make this? It must have taken a lot of work to create.
I believe the map was created by a PB member named Psyche. I haven't seen her around lately on the board, so I'm not sure if she's still a member.
 
I believe the map was created by a PB member named Psyche. I haven't seen her around lately on the board, so I'm not sure if she's still a member.
Thanks for the info. I noticed that the map was last updated in 2022. It such a good resource I thought it would be nice if it was actively maintained or at least in public domain so that somebody else could pick it up if it wasn't. Unfortunately neither seems to be the case.

Edit: scratch that, it seems it is still being updated!
 
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To add to the confusion OP had, the RPCC (former APC) is marked as ARPC. We don't have any congregations in western Canada though we recently received a church in northwest Washington.
Yeah haha even without the map earlier in the thread I mentioned I had it confused for an ARPC.
The church actually was on my raidar at one point because I mistakenly thought it was a ARPC church, but I didn’t know anything about the actual denomination it was part of (I have just been using NAPARC list as a guide) so I had taken it off my list.
If you take out the R for 'Reformed' they are identical so I can see how it would be confusing, considering the ARPC is well-known comparatively. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why they changed their name to RPCC?

Edit: I am a fool, it wasn't the denomination that changed the name, the church joined a different denomination.

I wish the map was still maintained - if it was I would try to send a request for correction. Or if it was a open source project someone, or maybe even I could have forked it and continued to maintain it - I am a bit of a map and database nerd.

Edit: Looks like it is still being maintained, I was mistaken.
 
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Yeah haha even without the map earlier in the thread I mentioned I had it confused for an ARPC.

If you take out the R for 'Reformed' they are identical so I can see how it would be confusing, considering the ARPC is well-known comparatively. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why they changed their name to RPCC?

Edit: I am a fool, it wasn't the denomination that changed the name, the church joined a different denomination.

I wish the map was still maintained - if it was I would try to send a request for correction. Or if it was a open source project someone, or maybe even I could have forked it and continued to maintain it - I am a bit of a map and database nerd.

Edit: Looks like it is still being maintained, I was mistaken.
APC is primarily in Scotland and this was their only North American congregation (now I think they're only in Scotland). Hopefully this will be the end to confusion. That being said, you do have to watch out for denomination names being confusing. The URC is a conservative, Reformed denomination in the US and a quite progressive one in the UK for example.
 
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