14 Jan Vietnamese Church Starts at Guelph UB Church

Brian Magnus (right), senior pastor, Parkwood Gardens UB church (Guelph, Ontario)

The Parkwood Gardens UB Church (Guelph, Ontario) is planting a new Vietnamese Church. A grand opening service was held on December 30, 2012.

Parkwood Gardens took six months in 2012 to pray, research, and plan for God’s future for the next five years. In our research, we discovered that the Parkwood Gardens neighbourhood of Guelph was quite unique. Of the 120,000 people who live in Guelph, 8900 live in our neighborhood, and the top language spoken after English and French is Vietnamese.

The vision team prayed to know how to connect with this large demographic right in our community. Within a week, we were connecting with a group of 25 Vietnamese neighbors who were looking to plant a church, not even realizing that they were the largest minority group in the neighbourhood!

The church plant will be a partnership between the United Brethren Church in Canada and the Christian and Missionary Alliance denominations. The C&MA has a number of Vietnamese churches near Toronto, and will work towards finding a pastor for this new church. Parkwood Gardens UB will host the church and provide local oversight and fellowship.

Over 200 Vietnamese people attended the Grand Opening service, including the 25 in the core group, about 20 Vietnamese neighbours, and many friends from other Vietnamese churches.

Please pray that God will raise up the right pastor for this church, and that this partnership will lead to many Vietnamese people coming to faith in Christ Jesus.