July 10, 2021
We are now fully open again for in-person services, including Sunday school. All are welcome.
July 3, 2021
This is just a quick update. Watch this space for more information, soon!
Some of the rules have been relaxed as the Province of British Columbia entered “Stage 3” of the “reopening strategy.”
Masks are no longer required indoors. They are now just recommended by the government, but not required. This is truly a breath of fresh air!
We have not yet been given access to the downstairs, and pews are still marked off at this time, but that is expected to change by next week. The local SDA is waiting for an announcement from their head office letting them fully reopen. They will let us know when that happens. Until then, they ask that we continue to honour their present requirements.
So, the main change for this Sunday, July 4th is, masks are no longer required.
May 29, 2021
We are scheduled to reopen following the guidelines set out by the government of BC for religious communities on May 30, 2021. The condition set by our landlords for us to reopen is that we follow those guidelines.
If you are unwell or if the present guidelines are not acceptable to you for any reason (we don’t pry!), we ask that you wait a bit longer until the restrictions are further relaxed. Our pastor has given his word as a condition of return that we will follow those guidelines. Our live stream via Sermon.net is working very well on our website. We continue to use Sermon.net to stream to YouTube and Facebook.
We will also continue to stream our 7:00 pm Sunday night and Wednesday night services from the office for now.
Please visit this link for the latest information on the government variance listing guidelines for reopening churches. More information will be added where relevant and when updated. It is not the full unrestricted opening that we wanted, but it is what it is. As renters, we are required by our landlords to follow all the rules, period. The present setup is the best we can get at this time. Yes, they do require masks. We hope this doesn’t last long.
The Seventh Day Adventists, whom we rent from, have taped off pews and put up signs as required for reopening. The bathrooms are open. The rest of the rooms downstairs, including the kitchen, are closed.
Again, if you are sick, please stay home. If you feel you are in a high risk group, based on age, compromised immune system or have anyone in those categories at home, don’t feel guilty about staying home a bit longer. If you have children who cannot sit quietly through a service, please keep them at home or get a babysitter for them. We are not able to set up for active children at this time, due to rules from our landlords.
Children are welcome to attend with their family, but they must sit quietly with their family at all times. We cannot have any running around. The church is set up for a very unusual situation, with taped off areas and strict protocols we are required to follow by our landlords. Your pastor has agreed to these conditions. Please do not try to force him to compromise.
Please try to avoid using restrooms at the church. They will be open, but we do not have the manpower to clean and sanitize after every use. If used, please be sure to wash your hands thoroughly and dispose of the paper towel in the trash can.
There will be no hand shaking, fist bumping, nor elbow tapping at this time. A wave or a bow in greeting is welcome. It’s also good to say hi, just not too closely. People outside your family unit are required to maintain a 2 metre space from others.
Continue to pray for God to use this for His glory!
March 28, 2021
On March 25th, news came out that Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s Chief Medical Officer, had finally relaxed the restrictions that banned “Religious in-person gatherings and worship services,” making it illegal to attend a service at a church or other place of worship.
Unfortunately, the claims are not holding up to the light of the actual facts.
The updated order allows religious organizations to have four services between March 28th and June 30th, after which time they will conduct a review. But those services are restricted to the point of being virtually meaningless to many small churches, including us.
The order allows, with extremely strict measures, 50 people OR 10% of capacity, whichever is less, to meet for a service. That means 7 people, including the pastor, in our meeting place. Furthermore, no congregational singing is allowed, masks must be worn, and no visiting of any kind is allowed before or after the service.
At the same time, it is still legal for all stores, liquor stores, restaurants, and bars to be open, and you are free to attend
- City council meetings
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- Group support meetings
- Business meetings
as long as they are under 50 people!
The facts do not hold up to scrutiny. The vast majority of deaths attributed to the virus occurred among residents of care homes. According to a recent article in the National Post, “There is not a shred of scientific data to justify treating religious gatherings more strictly than other gatherings — watching a hockey game at a bar, for example. The BC Centre of Disease Control reports that fewer then 300 cases have emerged from religious gatherings, less than 3/1000ths of B.C.’s 95,000 cases to date.”
As previously mentioned, the Seventh Day Adventists, from whom we rent our facilities, have been told by their head office that we cannot use their building for services until the order is lifted. They are charging us a reduced rent to keep our right to use the building after the restrictions are removed.
Continue to pray God will soon bring all these lockdowns to an end.
If you have prayer requests, please phone, email, or text them to Pastor Dave.
Tithes and offerings can still be made using Tithe.ly, Direct Deposit, by mail, or dropped off at the office (please phone ahead).
February 7, 2021
Although very little has changed since November, it is a new year, so here is the latest (slight) update.
On November 19th, Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s Chief Medical Officer, implemented new restrictions that banned “Religious in-person gatherings and worship services.” It is now illegal to attend a service at a church or other place of worship.
At the same time, it is quite legal to attend
- City council meetings
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- Group support meetings
- Business meetings
as long as they are under 50 people! It’s also okay to go to a restaurant, bar or pub. It is just illegal to attend a worship service of any kind, as well as a small number of other venues they consider non-essential, such as theatres, gyms, and various types of exercise studios.
The Seventh Day Adventists, from whom we rent our facilities, have been told by their head office that we cannot use their building for services until the order is lifted.
We are no longer live-streaming from the church, but all services are now live-streamed from the office, only, until the restrictions are lifted. The SDA are charging us a reduced rent to keep our right to use the building after the restrictions are removed.
Continue to pray God will soon bring all these lockdowns to an end.
If you have prayer requests, please phone, email, or text them to Pastor Dave.
Tithes and offerings can still be made using Tithe.ly, Direct Deposit, by mail, or dropped off at the office (please phone ahead).
November 19, 2020
On November 19th, Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s Chief Medical Officer, implemented new restrictions that banned “Religious in-person gatherings and worship services.” It is now illegal to attend a service at a church or other place of worship.
At the same time, it is quite legal to attend
- City council meetings
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- Group support meetings
- Business meetings
as long as they are under 50 people! It’s also okay to go to a bar, pub or movie theatre. It is just illegal to attend a worship service of any kind, as well as a small number of other venues they consider non-essential, such as gyms and various types of exercise studios.
The Seventh Day Adventists, whom we rent our facilities from, have informed us that we cannot use their building for services until the order is lifted.
We are allowed to live stream from the church, so we plan to live stream our Sunday morning services from there until further notice.
Our Sunday night and Wednesday night services are scheduled to be live streamed as they have been since the lockdowns began.
Continue to pray God will soon bring all these lockdowns to an end.
Tithes and offerings can still be made using Tithe.ly, Direct Deposit, or dropped off at the office (please phone ahead).
We are required to send in an annual report once per year after our annual general meeting. This year, this will be a virtual meeting, coming up shortly.
October 17, 2020
Halfway through October, there is still no sign of the pandemic being declared over. Just as at the beginning of September, we are being told that the numbers are increasing rapidly. Restrictions are again being put in place in many areas of the country.
Continue to ask God to use this for His glory and to bring it to its conclusion. We would all like to get back to as normal as possible. Remember, this is entirely in God’s hands. He is still on the throne and is still 100% in control!
At present, our Sunday morning service at 10:30 am is live in the chapel in Wilson Creek and is livestreamed, as well. The Sunday night and Wednesday night services are still being livestreamed only.
Our livestream on our website here, is being phase out as we move to our new subdomain, http://broadcast.scbchurch.info, which finally offers live chat. We can now all go to our church website for our livestreams AND we can now say hi to one another as we desire.
Note that while our subdomain, https://broadcast.scbchurch.info has an SSL (Socket Security Layer), which is really only necessary for commerce, our livestream to that subdomain from Sermon.net does not yet have SSL. Their owner tells me they are planning to do that, soon. But since you are not using a credit card on that site, there is no risk,anyway.
It is no longer necessary to sign in to live chat. We will be watching to ensure it isn’t hit by internet trolls. Our chat is also moderated, so this gives the moderator a way to block anyone who shouldn’t be there.
We will also continue to livestream to Facebook and YouTube. However, we are having ongoing challenges with YouTube. They continue to change their system (they call it updates), which has caused us to miss more at least two services on their platform. Some pastors have had their accounts closed simply for mentioning abortion or COVID-19. If you say anything that disagrees too much with their very liberal philosophy, there is a risk of losing your account.
So far, Facebook has not given us any major troubles, and their live captioning usually works well. The only issue with Facebook is that their “token” or code for the livestream has to be updated every week or they might not connect.
YouTube does not offer live captioning unless you have more than 1000 subscribers.
We have also been using the Live Church platform on our subdomain. However, it has also been using YouTube for the feed, so if there was something wrong with YouTube, it would not work. This week, we are running a test to see if our embed from Sermon.net will work with it. If not, we will simply move away from it, completely.
Again, if you go to any site and find it isn’t working correctly, go to http:broadcast.scbchurch.info or to https://www.scbchurch.info/live-broadcast, which does not have live chat. Our livestream goes there before it goes anywhere else.
Many churches in Canada and the United States are facing a return to major restrictions. So far this has not happened in BC. Pray it does not. Remember, churches who rent like we do must follow the rules set by their landlords.
Please support your own church! We have protocols in place that make it possible for all of us to meet in the chapel quite legally and safely. The building is disinfected on Sunday mornings prior to the service and everyone coming in must sanitize their hands upon entering.
Traffic flow is in the main door and exiting via the wheelchair ramp at the front of the sanctuary. Please arrive on time, as the door is locked after the service begins. At present with staff available, this is the only way we can meet our landlord’s requirements.
Every other pew is roped off (with tape) and only three people who do not all live in one household are allowed to sit in a pew. All who live in the same household can sit in a single pew and are asked to do that to ensure seating for others.
If you have never been to the church, please contact us ahead of time to ensure there is a seat available. We would love to meet you!
We are told not to neglect gathering together to worship God and encourage one another, and especially in this time as we get so close to the return of Christ. “Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering; (for he [is] faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23 – 25
I am concerned that by the time this is all over, if the Rapture has not occurred, that many churches across this land and around the world will have closed for good. I do not want Sunshine Community Baptist Church to be one of them! But I am the preacher, the pastor, Christ’s under-shepherd at this church. A shepherd does not drag anyone to church.
Seriously, prayerfully consider coming back to church in person, if you have not already. We may not have this freedom for long!
September 5, 2021
As we enter September, there is still no sign of the pandemic being declared over. In fact, we are being told that the numbers are beginning to increase rapidly, as many are no longer willing to social distance or wear masks. This is especially true among young adults.
Pray, asking God to use this for His glory and to bring it to its conclusion. We would all like to get back to as normal as possible. But we are being told by our government that we will not be able to do that until the majority of the population has been vaccinated. Unfortunately, there is no evidence at present that such a vaccine will be successfully developed, at least in the foreseeable future.
At present, our Sunday morning service at 10:30 am is live in the chapel in Wilson Creek and is livestreamed, as well. The Sunday night and Wednesday night services are still being livestreamed only.
Our livestream is available on our website here, and is also on Facebook and YouTube. We have also been using the Live Church platform on our subdomain. However, it uses YouTube for the feed.
Many churches in Canada and the United States are re-opening with certain restrictions and requirements in place. Some jurisdictions will not allow churches to meet in their meeting places, at all. Pray especially for California, where the government is heavily fining churches for meeting, while allowing almost every other gathering place to open almost unrestricted, including large malls and big box stores. They are also allowing massive protests and even appear to be encouraging them.
Please support your own church! We have protocols in place that would allow all of us to meet in the chapel quite legally and safely. The building is disinfected on Sunday mornings prior to the service and everyone coming in must sanitize their hands upon entering.
Traffic flow is in the main door and exiting via the wheelchair ramp at the front of the sanctuary.
Every other pew is roped off (with tape) and only three people who do not all live in one household are allowed to sit in a pew. All who live in the same household can sit in a single pew and are asked to do that to ensure seating for others.
We are told not to neglect gathering together to worship God and encourage one another, and especially in this time as we get so close to the return of Christ. “Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering; (for he [is] faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23 – 25
I am concerned that by the time this is all over, if the Rapture has not occurred, that many churches across this land and around the world will have closed for good. I do not want Sunshine Community Baptist Church to be one of them! But I am the preacher, the pastor, Christ’s under-shepherd at this church. A shepherd does not drag anyone to church.
Seriously, prayerfully consider coming back to church in person, if you have not already. We may not have this freedom for long!
June 4, 2020
You can now watch our live stream on our platform at Sermon.net. At this time, live captions are not available on that platform. We are now using Sermon.net, rather than Restream, to stream to YouTube and Facebook.
We are on schedule to reopen on June 7th at 10:30 am for our morning service. We will only have one service at the church per week for now.
The Seventh Day Adventists, whom we rent from, have taped off pews and put up signs as required for reopening.
There will not be any Sunday School at this time. Social distancing is still required by the BC Health authorities and children generally have a very difficult time with that, especially in a classroom setting.
March 22 2020: We had our first live stream service due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of it, we were no longer allowed to use the chapel in Wilson Creek.
June 2 2015: The Golden Avenue Quartet from Golden State Baptist College in Santa Clara, California, came to visit and sing for us at 7 pm at the chapel in Wilson Creek. What a blessing to hear these young men sing! Their chaperone, Pastor Oxendine, is also the dean of students at Golden State Baptist College. We were blessed by a short message he gave on the fear of God.
2014 has gone by in a blur. Many changes have happened in the lives of many of us. It has been a year of trial. God’s grace is what keeps us going. The Lowes, missionaries to Thompson, Manitoba, visited with us in November, and the Rheimers, missionaries to Liberia, visited us in September. It is a blessing to see young, committed Christians answer God’s call.
2013 was a busy year, with many changes as many of the children who have grown up in the church have gone off to college. Time slips by very quickly. The pastor’s dad was struck and killed by a car in July of this year, while his youngest daughter was married in August. It has been a bitter sweet year. Praise God the pastor’s dad was a saved man.
2012 has been a busy year, with a number of speakers and missionaries making the trip to the Sunshine Coast to speak and share with us.
October 2012
The annual church Thanksgiving dinner was held at the church after the morning service on October 14.
September 2012
September 12: Brother Robert Mickey Jr., missionary to Kenya and the Regions Beyond, presented an update on their mission in Kenya and the surrounding countries. This church is privileged to be able to be a part of this ministry. God is doing great things through this work. Brother Mickey was able to spend several days in Gibsons to get caught up on some important paper work for the ministry, and he and Pastor Dave were able to spend some very pleasant time together.
August 2012
August 25: Brother Niles Loewen and family, missionary to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, parked their HUGE trailer in Pastor Dave’s driveway in preparation to preach for us and present their mission the following day, August 26th. The Loewen family was able to spend several days in Gibsons, letting the kids enjoy the good weather after their classes, and giving them a chance to pick some blackberries and make some blackberry jam to take with them. The church has decided to send monthly financial support to this mission.
August 12: The church picnic was held at Langdale Heights RV Park & Par 3 Golf Course after the morning service. Everybody had a great time, with lots of food, great weather, a lot of participation from all ages on the golf course, and a short service at the end of the day.
July 2012
July 22: Missionary Jason Church and family presented their burden for Calgary, AB, in the morning service.
Pastor Dave and Kathy traveled to Oklahoma City on July 10th to visit their new grand daughter and her parents. They were very blessed to have enough airmile points provided by a family member to cover the airfare!
Brother David Bueckert, missionary church planter to PEI preached the messages on July 15th, while Pastor Dave and Kathy were away.
June 2012
Richard Larson, long time friend and in regular attendance, who attended every service he could, including Wednesday night in Gibsons, over the last few months, after years of denial, suddenly began to really dig in, determined to settle things once and for all. His eyes, ears and heart were opened, and he was suddenly on fire for the things of God as he was miraculously saved. Sadly for us, but gloriously for him, he graduated to heaven only a very short time later, on June 27. Pastor Dave preached the memorial service hosted by Christ the King Community Church in Gibsons, on July 7th.
June 24th, Brother Adonis Malazo and family, missionary to the Mountain Province in the Philippines, preached all the services. It was a great blessing to have him and his family share their burden for the people of the remote Mountain Province. The church has decided to send monthly financial support to this mission.
The church picnic, also scheduled for this day, was cancelled due to chicken pox in the church family.
July 22, Pastor Dave and Kathy are very pleased to announce the birth of their newest grand daughter, Julia Kathleen, to Nathan and Jenny (Cottrell) Harris!
April 2012
We celebrated our annual Communion service on Wednesday, April 4th. Communion is something we do in remembrance of our Lord’s death for our sins.
March 2012 – Missions Month
March 24 & 25: Brother Jake Friessen and family, missionary to the Mennonites in Mexico, arrived on Saturday in time to enjoy a meal at the pastor’s home, and preached the morning services. It was a privilege and a blessing to spend time with them and hear of their burden for the Mennonite people of Northern Mexico.
March 11: Brother Edwin and Nancy Cahill of Mercy and Caring Children’s Homes in Kitale, Kenya, were here to give us an update on the work, there. Several members of the church, including Pastor Dave & Kathy, and Pastor Emeritus Steve & Liz Swires, have foster children there. It is a real blessing to see these children growing up happy and healthy, and knowing Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
February 2012
Brother David Cloud of Way of Life Literature made a very fast trip on his way back to Asia from Florida. It was a blessing to have him here and have him preach in our morning services on February 26th, after which we were able to share a very fast meal with him, as he needed to catch the 2:30 ferry to make it back to Seattle before inclement weather could close the I-5. It was important for him to be in time for his trans Pacific flight home.