Attendance at many churches in Port Alberni has been decreasing over the years, as congregations have shrunk while the city’s population has remained level.
But Nori and Shelley Anderson intend to buck the trend and re-open a church in Port Alberni that has been closed since the 1970s.
This is a homecoming for Shelley, née Massop, who grew up in Port Alberni. She remembers attending service at the Evangelical Free Church in the 1970s when her father, Joe Massop, first became a Christian.
(Joe, Shelley’s mother Muriel and Paul Pley make up Sacred Harmony Band, a traditional country gospel band that performs regularly around the Alberni Valley.)
“That’s the first church I attended when my parents embraced the faith,” Shelley said.
The church eventually closed due to dwindling numbers.
“We have been called by the Evangelical Free Church to re-plant a new church. It’s neat for me because I have memories as a little girl going to that church. It’s an overwhelmingly beautiful thing to come back to where your roots are.”
Her family moved 25 times by the time she turned 18, “but we always came back to Port Alberni.”
Nori is a welder by trade, having spent 13 years in heavy industry before entering the pastoral ministry. “That was the same kind of path my Dad had,” he said.
“That taught me a lot about loving people, serving people, working with people. That’s so valuable with the pastoral ministry.”
The Andersons met while attending bible college in Saskatchewan. “From there, God led us into pastoring for four churches in BC, Alberta and Indonesia,” Nori said.
Nori is the pastor, although both have been to seminary. “We function a lot as a team,” says Nori. “We both have a specific calling to the ministry.”
“I’ve had a call to this work since I was a little girl,” Shelley adds. “We do it all together, which is unique as well.”
After stops in Alberta and Fort Saskatchewan, the couple was most recently in Bali, Indonesia, where they were pastoring an international church for two years. “It was a very organic, simple ministry,” says Shelley. The couple had been approached by the Evangelical Free Church of Canada two years ago about re-planting the church in Port Alberni, but plans were already underway for their trip to Bali, so they went overseas.
They returned to Canada this year, and moved to Port Alberni on Aug. 1.
“We are glad that they are in Port Alberni, a community that they love, and that they are engaged in planting a church there,” said Rev. Rob Stewart, district superintendent for the Lower Pacific District of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada.
“Shelley’s family was very positively impacted by the EFCC church that had been in Port Alberni, and they hope that they and their work will have a positive influence on the people of the community in the years ahead,” he added. The Andersons intend to start their mission small but purposefully, and have started a Life Together group.
“We want people to feel like they’re part of the family. We want to create a place where people feel loved, accepted, celebrated,” Shelley said.
“And grow in their faith and their journey with Christ; but we’ll do it together,” Nori added.
“We want to teach our kids right from the beginning that the Christian faith isn’t just about a bunch of information, it’s loving and serving people like Jesus did,” he added.“
Information is important, but that information has to move us to love and serve people.”
The Andersons are hosting an information session on their Life Together program and the Evangelical Free Church on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Echo Centre. For more information, please call Shelley at 1-780-297-1251 or Nori at 1-780-257-1274, or e-mail nori.shelley@gmail.com.
Everyone is welcome.
Life Together sessions will be run out of a home at first, with the intention of establishing a church at a permanent location in the future.
