Just over sixty years ago, Connie and Marjorie Pope, two sisters from the Brethren tradition, had a burden on their hearts for the people who lived in their community. Taking note that there was no evangelical church in the Horseshoe Bay area, the two sisters along with their friend, Karen Chalmers, began to develop a vision that remains central in the church today – sharing the love of Jesus with the lost. In 1948, these three ladies began their missionary work of going door to door in the Horseshoe Bay area. The work in Horseshoe Bay was first held in the local Shell Gas Station and would soon grow to over 150.
The number of children attending the Sunday School was growing faster than the supply of teachers. The lack of teachers, however, did not stop the workers from continuing to invite new children. In 1949, Sunday School leader, Margaret Troop called on the house of Alma Moore and invited Alma’s 7-year-old daughter, Carolyn, to attend the Sunday School. A few weeks later, Alma herself started to attend the newly formed adult Sunday School class. A few weeks after they had begun to meet, there was a shortage of Sunday School teachers for the children, so they folded the adult class and made Alma a Sunday School teacher along with the other ladies who were attending Marjorie’s class. Alma, now in her late 90’s, still faithfully attends NSAC.
Due to the number of children attending without parents, and because it was the only Sunday School in the area, transportation was in high demand. As numbers continued to grow, cars were loaned courtesy of Fred Richmond Motors. This helped for a short while, but before long, up to 13 kids would have to pile into a car driven by Elsie Lamb. Later, the purchase of a funeral limo, which was capable of transporting up to 16 children at a time, helped accommodate the large numbers. The day eventually came when a 57-Passenger Ford school bus was purchased.
While the Sunday School saw exponential growth in the number of children attending, it experienced growth in adult attendance as well. While these workers could see many of the fruits of their labours, what remained unseen was the harvest to come. One of the many examples of this can be found in the life of Jewel Taylor. Jewel came to know Christ later in life, but attributes her conversion largely to the crucial seeds that were planted while she attended Horseshoe Bay Sunday School in 1954 and 1955. Jewel still attends North Shore Alliance Church and has many fond memories of her early days at the Sunday School. She recalls Horseshoe Bay Sunday School as having a love for children and describes it as ‘strong and powerful.’
After the Sunday School had been going for a few years, a church service began in the Community Hall sometime in 1960. Friday nights were Youth Night, a kind of club night for kids where stories would be told, games played, and films such as The Rascals were watched. Brethren Church members came as lay pastors, preaching the Word of God from the pulpit until January of 1965. Due to the continued growth, a church building was needed and God provided the old Horseshoe Bay Fire Hall. After much work, the converted fire hall became Horseshoe Bay Community Church. The Sunday School continued to meet in the Community Hall as the Fire Hall was very small.
Horseshoe Bay Community Church never had its own pastor. Instead it saw many different lay preachers, like John Murdie, who ministered in the mornings. The Church had grown to a place where it was in need of the consistency of a full-time pastor and consequently needed to become identified with a denomination. The first Alliance Pastor was the Reverend Ray Hauge, who served the congregation from January 1965 until October 1966. Under Hauge’s leadership, the church was led through the process of becoming a Christian & Missionary Alliance Church – a process that was finalized on April 19, 1966.
Under the new banner of the Alliance and the oversight of the new Pastor, Merl Bowker, the church continued to grow. The Bowkers were replaced by Pastor Leander Penner on August 19, 1968. Shortly after his arrival, Pastor Penner shared his vision for the church with the congregation. The vision was to move the church to a more central location so that they could reach the whole North Shore for Jesus – not just Horseshoe Bay. Penner also wanted to leave the cramped Fire Hall and build a ‘proper’ church. Penner proceeded to use the Sunday School collections to buy property above the Upper Level’s Highway in West Vancouver. The Fire Hall was sold and the money used for the building of the new church on which construction was started in 1969 and completed in 1970.
In June of 1971, Reverend Chester House was called to be Pastor of the work in West Vancouver. The church, however, continued to struggle. The problem was with the location of the church. It was in a secluded spot and the original access from the highway was closed due to the number of car accidents that had been occurring along a dangerous stretch of highway. From September 1972 until 1982, West Vancouver Alliance saw a decade of struggle, with little growth. At one point, Pastor Payne watched the attendance drop to about 35 people, but by the grace of God, the doors remained open. The church never lost its vision of sharing the love of Christ with a lost world.
In February 1982, Gordon Fowler, the Alliance District Superintendent called upon Pastor Arnie Toews to “lead the Alliance work in West Vancouver out of the wilderness.” The name of the church was changed from West Vancouver Alliance Church to North Shore Alliance Church. The vision of church planter, Toews was to minister to all people on the North Shore, not just to those in West Vancouver. The church building was sold in 1984 and the money was put into the bank for a future building. North Shore Alliance started holding its services in a hotel called the Plaza of Nations on the corner of Marine Drive and Capilano Road. It was later moved to the North Shore Community Centre gymnasium. Under Pastor Toews’ leadership, the congregation increased several times to an assembly of more than 200 people in spite of the unlikely location for a church.
Now came the time to build. Land was acquired at E. 23rd Street and St. Georges Avenue – right across the street from the gymnasium where North Shore Alliance had its ministry. Construction for the new 425-seat North Shore Alliance Church was completed in 1988. During the two years after the building’s completion, Pastor Arnie Toews was successful in fulfilling his mandate of “leading the struggling church out of the wilderness” to its present central place on the North Shore where the church could minister more effectively. In April, 1990, after 7 years of ministry, Arnie Toews left and was followed by Rev. Brian Buhler.
These first years under Brian Buhler were characterized by growth. A second Sunday morning service was added in September of 1992. The following years were exciting ones, as the congregation and staff continued to grow. The church continued its rapid growth, resulting in the birth of new ministries and more community involvement. Another service was added on Saturday evenings in September of 1996. Weekend services alone grew from 600 (in 1997) to 1100 weekly by 2001. At the same time, the Youth and Young Adults each grew to around 300 attending their weekly Ministries.
Church leadership, including elders, pastors, and key ministry coordinators met in November 2000 to seek the Lord’s vision. Having had their building expansion project voted down by the City of North Vancouver, God clearly led the group of staff and elders to a new vision for church planting across the North Shore. This vision was called ‘Give-It-Away’ and developed to include a church-planting model identified as a “Banyan Tree”, where satellite congregations linked to the ministries of North Shore Alliance Church would be planted in the community.
In 2002, Sean Graham was called to serve as the Lead Pastor for what was to become the Cove Community Church congregation, NSAC’s first church plant. In February 2003, Cove Community Church held their first service in the new cafeteria at Seycove Secondary School in Deep Cove. This congregation launched with over 100 people from North Shore Alliance Church committed to attend the satellite congregation in Deep Cove and there were nearly 200 in attendance that first Sunday, February 9, 2003.
In 2005, Darcy Reimer, along with the Alliance’s Canadian Pacific District had a vision to plant a church in Squamish. That summer, Darcy and his family, along with a small group of a dozen or so from North Shore Alliance, were commissioned to plant a new church in this community about an hour’s drive up the Sea-to-Sky Highway from North Vancouver. The River Church began regular public services in 2006.
In 2006, Andy Lambkin and a group of young adults had a vision to plant a number of house churches around the city. In September 2006, North Shore Alliance sent Andy and about 50 congregants to begin this unique work. Now, several house churches have been birthed and consider themselves part of Simple Churches, the third of North Shore Alliance’s church plants.
Each of North Shore Alliance Church’s plants is distinct in nature and these churches form the North Shore Alliance “Family of Churches.” Effective, de-centralized ministry is now happening across the North Shore as a result of these church-planting efforts, and many new lives are being touched with the Gospel in ways the “big church” likely could not have succeeded.
Meanwhile, North Shore Alliance Church began to struggle. In 2004, leadership explored the possibility of having women as elders. In and around that time, the Church faced a number of difficult staff issues, leading to the painful departure of several leaders. This, along with the energy and sacrifice required to plant three churches in four years, sent North Shore Alliance Church into a tailspin. Church leadership became swamped with issues leaving little time for moving ahead with vision. Ministries struggled, attendance dropped, and many core people left North Shore Alliance.
In 2006, the Board of Elders began a leadership review that led to a re-organization of the Church Staff. In September 2006, Brian Buhler stepped down as Senior Pastor and became the Preaching and Outreach Pastor, and formed a new Senior Leadership Team with Dave Sattler (Pastor of Student Ministries) and Shane Gould (Family Adult Ministries Pastor). A search began for a new Lead Pastor who would serve more like an executive pastor to give overall leadership to the Church. In November 2006, a Solemn Assembly was held. With a desire for new transparency and closure of past issues, elders publicly read letters of confession for the corporate sins of leadership. In January 2007, Brian Buhler resigned from North Shore Alliance. After 17 years, a farewell was held for the Buhlers on April 1, 2007.
Throughout 2007 and most of 2008, North Shore Alliance continued to operate in a time of transition. Transitional Pastor, Gerry Teichrob was brought in to assist leadership in finding God’s vision for North Shore Alliance going forward. Even through that time of uncertainty, the Lord continued to strengthen the community. Though many key people had left the church, solid ministry continued. 2007-08 saw a torrid pace of Elders’ Meetings, Congregational Meetings, and the “12 Weeks of Prayer” as leadership sought God’s direction.
In August 2008, Mark Peters was called to be the new Lead Pastor of North Shore Alliance Church for this next era. There is a great sense of newness and hope in these days as NSAC moves forward. God is doing something new with NSAC! As has been throughout her history, God continues to use North Shore Alliance Church, her congregants and her ministries to impact the lost people of her community and the world with the transforming love of Jesus!
