About WBC
Our Distintives
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Contemporary: Our worship style is contemporary. Not just the music but the whole worship is not a traditional liturgical style. Preaching is relevant and applicable to our everyday living.
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Contagious: We believe in lifestyle evangelism. Instead of holding periodic evangelistic rallies, we encourage Christians to live out their faith in their everyday life and be living witnesses to the people around them. We also witnessed in the past that members bring their friends and families to the Lord through their own living testimonies.
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Commitment: Westsiders are people with high commitment to the Christian faith and to one another. Their commitment level is reflected in the time and money spent in ministries. The majority of our congregation is very serious about their faith and are loyal followers of Christ.
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Community: We strongly believe in building a biblical Christian community. Small groups of people with similar backgrounds and needs will enhance the practice of Christian love on a regular basis.
Building a community of God, fulfilling God's commissioned ministries.
Our Mission Statement
Our Core Values
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W = Worshipping God in a culturally relevant context (Rev. 4:11)
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E = Evangelizing through one's lifestyle and the whole Christian community (Romans 1:16)
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S = Sharing our love through small groups (Heb. 10:24)
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T = Teaching the Word of God as the authority of life (II Tim. 3:16-17)
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S = Sending people into the world to fulfill the greatest commission (Acts 1:8)
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I = Integrating faith into everyday life and being His witnesses (Col. 1:28)
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D = Developing new models of ministries strategically for the furtherance of His kingdom (Matt. 28:19-20)
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E = Equipping the laity to do the work of the ministries for the functioning of the whole body (Eph. 4 :11-12)
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We believe the Scripture is the inspired Word of God. It is inerrant and is the authority for our faith and everyday living.
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We believe that there is only one true God in the universe. He is the creator of the whole universe.
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We believe in Jesus Christ as the only Savior of humankind. He is born of the virgin Mary and is sinless. Thus His shedding blood on the cross can save us from sin. He rose from the dead on the third day and ascended to heaven and is now sitting on the right-hand side of God.
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We believe that men are sinners and cannot save themselves. But through repentance and acceptance of Jesus, sin can be forgiven and receive eternal life.
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We believe in the Holy Spirit who dwells in the heart of all believers enabling each believer's everyday living.
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We believe that the church is ordained by God and is consisted of born-again believers. Through their lives, God can be glorified and His mission on earth fulfilled.
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We believe that Jesus Christ will come again in glory and in power. He will judge all the living and the dead
Our Doctrinal Statement
Our Story
Westside Baptist Church was a direct church plant project that the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada started in September 1990 among the Chinese community on the west side of Vancouver. At first, the size of the congregation was only 5 people including the pastor and her husband, but we witnessed how God miraculously led people from different backgrounds to our church. First, a group of young students from UBC started attending, and then some new immigrant families joined. Through their network, their family members, relatives and friends were attracted to Westside by the love from God we shared. On May 3, 1992, Westside Baptist Church was officially chartered, and by that time, membership had grown from 5 to 42 within a short 20 months.
At first, we rented a space at Fairview Baptist Church on West 16th Avenue for our gatherings, but very soon that small 500-square-foot room could no longer house our congregation of over 70. In 1994, after a long search process, we moved our Sunday Service to Columbus Centre at Granville and 66th, while our office and fellowship gatherings remained at Fairview. We did not fully leave Fairview until 2000 when we rented a commercial unit near Columbus Centre to launch our Education Centre ministry and house our office.
In 2002, the space at Columbus Centre became insufficient to accommodate our growing congregation. Therefore, as a temporary measure, we decided to offer 2 worship services on Sunday mornings to accommodate the growth. In addition, we began to proactively look for a space suitable for our long-term development. Finally in 2003, after a lengthy process of applying for the change of building use with the City of Vancouver, and with the generous support of the congregation, we successfully purchased our current building on Ash Street. We started worshipping at this location in July 2004.
In the early days, Westside employed the traditional fellowship group ministry model. We grew from the original Orchard Fellowship to the later Timothy, Barnabas, Moses, Joshua, Mark and Daniel age-based fellowship groups. In 2001, we made a courageous move to switch to the Small Group model, hoping to foster deeper relationships between members for more effective outreach.
In September 2012, we introduced the AWANA children's ministry on Friday evenings to systematically equip our growing number of young children with biblical knowledge. In September 2013, we completely revolutionized our children's ministry on Sunday mornings, renaming it “CitRUs” and adopting the “Orange Strategy” which emphasizes small groups, collaboration between the church and parents, and faith-life integration.
In 2000, we had a ministry breakthrough with our first short-term missions trip. Our destination was Victoria. We handed out Gospel tracks on the University of Victoria campus and in Chinatown, and we hosted an evangelistic rally. In 2008, we had our first international missions trip to Mexico City for 10 days. In 2010, with the assistance of Lifestyle Ministries, our members went on 2 missions trips to Sichuan, China. In 2012, we also sent a short-term missions team to Romania to proclaim the Gospel to the local Chinese. These trips gave us memorable experiences and deepened our understanding of missions.
In 2012, as we celebrated our 20th Anniversary, we also faced a new challenge. The Canada Line brought many new residential development projects to our neighbourhood, and a population boom in the thousands was to be expected. This was a golden opportunity for outreach. Furthermore, with the growth of our second generation, we saw the need to give birth to an English congregation in May 2012. The English congregation serves people from all ethnicities and backgrounds for the advancement of God's Kingdom. In 2019, we reclaimed the space in the basement that was previously rented out and renovated them to become a gallery and art studios. These new spaces provide much-needed room for our expanding ministries.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Vancouver. We were forced to shut down our Sunday Worship Services on-site in March, and started conducting our worship and other ministries online. It was not until July 2021 that we were able to gradually resume our ministries on-site. While many churches in North America struggled in this crisis, both in attendance and finances, our brothers and sisters continued to faithfully serve the Lord; we experienced no shortage of God’s provision.
Starting in 2021, a wave of new immigrants from Hong Kong began rushing into Vancouver. We organized new ministries to support these immigrants, including settlement services, hospitality units, support groups and classes, and even a furniture warehouse. As a result, our attendance and membership has grown drastically.
As for our pastoral team, from the beginning, the denomination called Pastor Gladys Tsang to lead Westside, and she was ordained in 1992 on the same day that Westside was chartered. In 2001, Gladys' husband Anders finished his studies at Regent College, and was called by Westside as an Associate Pastor. He was later ordained in 2004. In 2009, due to Pastor Anders’ health issues, long-time member Alan Yu, who was working in a parachurch organization at the time, assumed the position of part-time pastoral intern to assist in the pastoral work. Then because of the growing needs of the ministry, Pastor Alan was called to become Westside's third full-time pastor in 2011. He was later ordained in 2014. In 2019, Pastor Anders officially retired, but continued to serve as a part-time interim pastor while we searched for his replacement. In 2022, Pastor Mark Wong, who had previously joined us briefly as a pastoral intern, returned to become our fourth full-time pastor, serving in the English congregation and in the youth ministry.
Looking back on our 30+ years of history, we are most thankful for the many fruits of the Gospel. The power of the Gospel has not only changed individuals, but entire families. Many of our members who used to come to worship alone now come every Sunday with their families. Many of our once youths are now married and have families and children of their own. Many of the "spiritual babies" who were born again at Westside have now become mature leaders in our church.
In the days ahead, we pray that the Lord continue to pour out blessings to our neighbours through Westside, and may we become a blessing to even more people.