Article by Jodi Ekk
When I think about God leading my life, I often reflect on the words of Proverbs 16:1, “We can make our own plans, but the LORD gives the right answer” (NLT). It’s a reminder that we have a desire (and a practical need!) to think through our lives, to weigh our options and plan our futures.
We can make plans. We should make plans, to a degree. But at the same time, we are instructed over and over in God’s word to acknowledge that his hand is sovereign, and he will give the right and ultimate answer in his ways, in his time.
But this also begs the question: how can we aim to be in sync with the right answer that God will give? And this is a wise question. It reflects a heart that desires God’s kingdom and will to be lived on earth as it is in heaven—the very prayer of Christ himself (Matthew 6:10). At the same time, it is one that we must not be anxious about the answer to. We can easily start to agonize over the question of “what’s the RIGHT path for me?”, as if it is some great mystery we must solve, and in doing so forget the sovereign hand of God.
This is the struggle of Christian discernment. But what my husband Brian and I have learned over our decades of marriage and seemingly endless decision-making scenarios is that when we trust in God and seek to follow his ways of living, the path itself becomes less ambiguous, less mysterious, and less complicated. It doesn’t mean that things are suddenly easy or abundantly clear, but when God’s kingdom—his rule and his reign—takes precedence in our hearts, above the millions of other options competing for our devotion, we have peace to take the next step in our lives.
The first time we truly experienced this type of peace regarding church life was just before Christ City was planted in 2013. Brian had grown up in Vancouver Mennonite Brethren church (the current Christ City building at the corner of 43rd and Prince Edward), and it’s where we met. When we got married and moved into Richmond, we kept gathering in Vancouver because it was what we were used to. When many of our friends left the Lower Mainland—either to move somewhere less cripplingly expensive or to find a church that made more sense for them—we stayed. Although we were both burned out in ministry and felt like we were keeping a church going (and I begged Brian to find somewhere I could simply relax in a pew and have our young kids cared for in a nursery during a church gathering)…we stayed. We stayed because it was familiar and we felt needed. But when our church dissolved and Christ City was gifted the building, we stayed for a different reason: for the first time, we had started to think more missionally about being part of the church. We weren’t staying of familiarity (it was a new thing!) or because we felt the church plant needed us for it to be a success. We considered our ministry fatigue, our stage of life and capacity, felt we had very little to offer when Christ City began, but gave what we had and stayed because we were excited to see what God would do here. We sensed that he was up to something, and we were willing to join in as we were learning to be on mission.
Every week since then, we have had a moment of gratitude on our way to the Sunday gathering. We had little to offer Christ City, but the collective conviction that we were God’s church on mission in our neighbourhoods and workplaces grew within the body of believers. The prayers our previous church had prayed so many years before—for the building to be used for God’s glory and to minister to the surrounding neighbourhood, specifically by being filled with families—were answered in abundance.
As we can see now, almost thirteen years later, God has done an incredible work in growing this church. And although Brian and I have increased our involvement over the years, we have never felt that we were the ones holding things together, so to speak. The momentum has been of the Spirit, and the workers have been many.
So, why are we now leaving Christ City to join the church plant?
At many points in our lives, Brian and I have stopped and sincerely asked God if Richmond is where he wanted us to remain. We know that we are called to be “on mission” wherever we are located, so that’s not been the question. The question is, rather, “Lord, where would we be most effective for your purposes?”. The answer has always been Richmond.
We’ve sought job opportunities elsewhere, considered moving to different countries, thought through hopes and dreams about living closer to my family, but every time we offered up these possibilities in faith, the answer was quite clearly: stay. We have lived in Richmond for 22 years, raised our children there, made connections through neighbours and the broader community, and held jobs there for much of that time. The furthest we have moved during those years is a five-minute walk from where we first lived.
This did not make sense to us in some ways, since we have always been part of the gathered church in Vancouver. But a few years ago, we felt some tension of living in one city but being part of a church in another. We found that the neighbours and community members we invited to church were simply not interested in crossing a bridge on a Sunday.
We considered how this tension might be resolved in our lives—do we move into Vancouver? That idea, for whatever reason, simply did not gain traction. And so we began to pray: that Christ City would extend into Richmond through a church plant, that God would provide a pastor (church planter), and that we would be ready and willing to participate when God called us to.
God has blessed us immensely though our years of being part of Christ City. Brian and I have both learned and grown during our time here, and we are ready to once again offer what we have to a new church, this time in our own city.