Our Story
Every life tells a story. Something beautiful happens when multiple stories come together to see change.
Our City
We live and serve on the traditional lands of the Snuneymuxw people. The first Europeans entered the harbour of Nanaimo in 1791. The city received its name officially in 1858, to match the name of the local indigenous people.
Today, Nanaimo is home to over 100,000 people and is one of Canada’s fastest growing metropolitan areas. It is also Canada’s least religious, according to the 2021 census.
Nanaimo is home to many wonderful faith communities. The broader population has demonstrated a desire to engage in spiritual things, but not attend a church service. Many people in the community have never had a spiritual conversation with a disciple of Christ. Some have been invited to come to a church event. Few have actually attended.
One Dream
Harbour Community was birthed from a desire to see Gospel saturation in Nanaimo. Having participated in communities that excelled in inviting others to ‘come and see’ the programs and events in the church building, but with little success, the shift to being present in the community and participating in the life of the city is natural.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic provided the push to begin experimenting and exploring what forms a new community could take. Meeting in homes, with deep conversation, open discussion, and shared life emerged.
The Church is not contained to four walls, but meant to shine out into the world, demonstrating how God changes humanity through our love and community. There is a place for you at our table.
individuals live in Nanaimo
individuals in the regional district
%
of people identify as Christian
Your Story
Everyone is searching
In every neighbourhood, workplace, and network of life, people are hungry for community. Our modern world is always connected, and increasingly shallow. Loneliness is a growing epidemic as individuals are emotionally isolated from those around them. Harbour Community is an invitation to live on mission and participate in how God is already working around you.
Traditionally, you might expect that to mean pamphlets, targeted Gospel presentations, or inviting them to an event where someone else can tell them about the Good News. It’s high barrier, high risk, and littered with broken relationships. It’s anxiety inducing, and it expects that you do all the work.
Jesus asked over 300 questions in the Gospels. He answered less than 10. People came to Him because of the way that He lived, the way He lived out the Kingdom of God before them. All of humanity is invited to follow after him, apprenticing in His ways.
Harbour Community exists to foster safe harbours in every aspect of life. We call people to come live on mission, find healing from past wounds, and when they are ready open their lives, homes, and hearts to the hurting world around them. We are a community to apprentice in Jesus’ ways, walk alongside you in the hard journeys of life, and support you in fulfilling the ways God invites you to join what He is already doing in your networks.
Where We Started
These are the ANcient Ways
Many Christians owe their lives to faithful communities that have lived in familiar ways. Sunday church services, a whole set of programs for the family, and seasonal events to reach out into the community. Year after year, the church remained incredibly busy, but the actual lasting impact on the surrounding community was small.
The church of 2000 years ago began with a few faithful individuals, and despite their lives being constantly under threat grew exponentially in the following centuries. The followers of The Way of Jesus transformed empires with radical hospitality, and a way of life that forced others to ask questions about why they were different.
Even today, we are not the first who have walked these roads. There is a growing movement of those exploring living like the Early Church. Organizations like Soma, KC Underground, 1Body Church, and countless others have demonstrated this in the Western world. Thinkers like Alan Hirsch, Jeff Vanderstelt, Damian Gerke, and others have ignited our imaginations. We walk in the footsteps of those who dare to dream of a Church living out the truths of the Gospel in community that looks radically different than the world around us. A community marked by their love for one another, and for others.
Join the Story
Who will demonstrate hope to your neighbours?
We believe that it is the calling of every apprentice of Jesus to live their lives faithfully in service to Him. Through community, we learn more about Jesus’ teachings, and in community we learn more about Him. You may be skeptical, or not even sure if you believe — and you are welcome here to learn and grow at your own pace.
Faith develops over coffee, around dinner tables, and in deep friendships. It is not a performance, nor an event that we attend occasionally. It is a calling to a new way of life.
The story of Harbour Community is dynamic and changing, because new voices are always being added to the conversation. Do you have a network of people or area of culture that needs Gospel saturation? We believe that God has put that burden on you for a reason, and wants to help you grow in maturity through spiritual formation. From maturity and a loving, supportive community we send you to go foster reconciliation in the world around you.
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