Fluid In Motion
A Profile of Waves Church (1/7)
Richmond, BC, Canada
| Imagine... walking into a church service, and
hearing the pastor tell the congregation to "wait a second"
while he orders a drink in the middle of his three-point sermon. Sound
far-fetched? Think again. Waves
Church takes place in a Bubble Tea House -- an ultra trendy and
youthful Asian-Canadian equivalent of the western coffee bar -- and while
pausing during a preaching session, Pastor Dann Pantoja, DID order a Bubble
Tea drink! |
 |
|
|
The very popular Bubble Tea drink, originally an
import from Asia, has steroid-injected tapioca balls, and its diverse flavors range from coffee, passion fruit and ice-cream
shakes. |
Walking into a service at Waves Church is a like
a voyage into
unchartered waters. Words like ‘BiComm,’ ‘H&H,’ ‘Waves
Coaching Team’ and ‘TsunamiSunday’ are cutting edge terms for
Biblical communication or a sermon, a hug and hello or greetings,
pastors are ‘coaches’ and TsunamiSunday stands for Sunday service.
To make TsunamiSundays more interactive, the Waves Coaching Team
sometimes uses LCD projectors or computer presentations to illustrate
sermon points with animation. Often their worship lyrics are printed
straight from their Web site on to transparencies, complete with
hyperlinks and graphics -- all adding to a more engaging service. After
BiComm, people huddle into groups to discuss a relevant question or a
picture that corresponds to the message, and pray together. The service
ends with announcements, offering and a closing song. Informal
fellowship takes place naturally as people chat around tables.
Not only does this Richmond, church-plant in the Greater Vancouver
region envision to reach the generation of people aged 14 years to the
twenty-somethings, or known as Generation-Y, they are also targeting an
under-churched population of Asian-Canadians. "We wanted it to be
Asian-Canadian based because that’s who we are, and then branch out
from there and address the issues of the future, which we call
postmodern issues," Dann said.
|

|
Surf with me and catch a glimpse into this
innovative,
inter-generational, multicultural ministry geared to reaching
Asian-Canadians in the context of their culture. |
Go To Page: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
|