“As we’ve stepped into the church planting journey, we’ve seen God bless our church in so many other ways, and we’ve seen His provision,” says Paul.
Korean Baptist Church of Vancouver first stepped into the church planting journey by supporting other church plants, eventually sending out their very own church plant, Vancouver Follow Church, in 2022. Since then, they’ve planted two more churches — Coquitlam Dreamers Church and Vancouver Glory Church — and have no plans to stop anytime soon.
“I continually remind our church when preaching on Sundays that church planting is another form of evangelism,” Paul says. “Now, our congregation has grabbed onto that idea, and they are excited about continuing to glorify God through church planting.”
What Korean Baptist Church of Vancouver didn’t expect was how much their church would grow when they started planting other churches. The congregation of 70 members that Paul met in 2014 has now grown to 400 strong, with around 120 children gathering each Sunday.
“This certainly wasn’t my plan or out of my own ability. All our church did was preach the gospel and plant churches, and now our own church has grown dramatically,” Paul says.
With more than 69,000 Korean speakers in metro Vancouver1, the opportunity to reach this community remains great. As Korean immigrants come to Canada seeking job opportunities and education for their children, many also start looking for a Korean-speaking community, which leads them to churches like Paul’s and their church plants.
“In the past three years, we’ve seen a lot of unbelievers come to our church,” explains Paul. “So we’re seeing that there is an opportunity to provide the gospel.”
When Park Hyun Jun first started attending Korean Baptist Church of Vancouver with his twin daughters, his wife Chung Pu-ryum wasn’t interested in coming. However, after learning about Pastor Paul’s testimony of coming to Christ at 24 years of age, Chung Pu-ryum finally decided to give the church a try. She first came to a newcomers’ welcoming party, then accepted Christ several weeks later at the church’s gospel presentation class.
Susan Oh was a practicing Catholic the first time she came to Korean Baptist Church of Vancouver. When she accepted Christ after hearing the gospel at church, her daughter and son-in-law weren’t happy. However, even after Susan returned to Korea, she continued to pray for her family. One Sunday not long ago, Paul met Susan’s daughter and son-in-law at church. “Immediately, I knew God had sent them,” he says.
“These kind of stories are happening over and over again,” he continues. “Before we started planting churches, our church never had that many newcomers visiting so often. But now, a lot of unbelievers are curious about our church.”
As Korean Baptist Church of Vancouver used their building as an incubator for new church plants and then sent out planters from their church to start a new work, their reach has expanded to nearly 500 Korean-speakers in their community.
“Without Send Network, we couldn’t do this,” says Paul. “But with Send Network helping provide support and training for our planters, we’ve been able to plant a church every year.”
To learn how your church can join in God’s mission to expand his kingdom through church planting and to discover how Send Network can help, register for a Send Network Gathering near you.
1 Statistics Canada. “Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population.” Statistics Canada, 2023.
Published August 8, 2024