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Squamish, B.C.
A new start


At 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002, the doors opened as Cedar Mountain Community Church was born in the Valleycliffe area of Squamish, B.C. Like Valleycliffe Christian Fellowship, which closed down several weeks earlier, Cedar Mountain is affiliated with the B.C. MB Conference and will use the same worship facility on Westway Ave.

The church has a new pastor, Rick Janzen, who accepted a call to help organize the new church. He, his wife Debbie and their four sons aged 4 to 9 (Jonathan, Levi, Samuel and Nathan) moved to Squamish and began work at the beginning of August.

The previous church had been without a full-time pastor since 2000, when Vic and Mary Peters left. Guest speakers, particularly Rudie Willms of Ross Road Community Church in Abbotsford, had conducted worship for the past two years. After reducing to about two dozen adults, the congregation asked the B.C. MB Conference for assistance in calling a pastor, but they soon began working together on a more in-depth strategy called a “church plant” or “restart”. It was felt that starting a new church with a fresh perspective would be a healthy thing.

Janzen comes to Squamish from Abbotsford, where he served as interim worship arts pastor and in a variety of other roles at South Abbotsford MB Church. He has also served with Youth With A Mission in Texas, Mexico and Belize, served three summers at Stillwood Camp and Conference Centre, ministered in two contemporary Christian bands, worked in farm management, and launched companies in the computer industry. He obtained a computer technician diploma from Control Data Institute in Vancouver, studied for a year at the University of Lethbridge and earned a B.A. at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford.

Janzen’s goal is for Cedar Mountain to be a place where people will find “fervent prayer, inspiring teaching, heartfelt worship and life-changing testimony”.

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Last modified November 21, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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