The Coastal Church campus in Squamish opened just over three years ago, but church founder Cheryl Koop says “God was already doing something in Squamish long before 2021.”
“We just want to come alongside and be a support and be a help. Our vision statement is ‘Coastal Church helps make the city a better place’. Well, that flows, and should flow, into all the communities we have a privilege of being a part of,” Koop said.
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The Squamish campus is one of eight locations that the non-denominational church has on the Lower Mainland, located in The Executive Suites Hotel at 40900 Tantalus Road. It offers weekly Sunday services, beginning at 11 a.m., led by Pastor Brian Taylor, and features a video message from Senior Pastor David Koop. There are also a series of programs that worshipers are welcome to attend, at no cost.
Koop, who founded Coastal Church with her husband Dave Koop in 1994, said it wasn’t part of their original plan to expand the church to different locations, but something that happened organically. As more people from Squamish began to attend the Vancouver location, Coastal Church saw the need to provide a gathering spot and place of worship closer to home.
Gina Parry, who joined the Coastal with her husband Jody Parry in 2013, said they used to drive to Vancouver to attend Sunday services, but struggled to attend the smaller groups throughout the week. “So we started our life group in Squamish, and it started with three people…And then once in a while, people would join our life group, but they weren’t a part of the church, they just came to our life group. And that kind of put Squamish on the map.” Gina and Jody are now the campus leaders in Squamish.
Koop said, “they just dropped the idea into our heart…Would we consider just having a service there? Because their friends and family are there they’d like to invite them to church, but they’re not going to drive to Vancouver. And so that’s where we committed it to prayer. Dave and I drove up and we met with the leaders…and we drove around Squamish.”
‘Church is where people come because they need healing.’
As they drove, Koop said they asked themselves “where do you think would be a good place? Where people want to come, where they would be welcome, and where there would be a place to say – I’m so glad you’re here.” Despite the limited space and decision not to have any type of advertising campaign, word of mouth spread quickly. Last weekend, there were over 70 participants at the church.
Parry said, “the best part about connecting with the Squamish community is bringing the encouraging word of faith to people, that there’s hope…that they’re not alone in life and we have a community that will support you and a God that loves them…I think that’s so important in this world where it can feel really alone, even in a small town…They come to church and they feel like this is their family.”
She shared the story of a widow that moved from Calgary to Squamish to stay with her daughter, and ended up joining the church: “she found people that care about her through a really difficult time of losing her husband, that there is support here, and even something simple like her daughter goes away and leaves the dog with her. She has some mobility issues, so everything just stepped up to help her walk the dog. Just a simple thing, but she knows she can count on her community to help her through.”
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Aside from the weekly services, Coastal Church offers a series of programs for its members. “Life Groups are our backbone,” Koop said. “You need two wings to fly. You need to be together with a larger group, which is our Sunday morning service where you gather together, and the other one is the smaller group where you really just do life together with them. The Life Groups are the ones that if somebody’s in the hospital, they’re there. They’re the ones that bring meals when there’s a new baby…so Life Groups are really integral.”
Another program called Alpha is a 12-week course where participants gather for dinner, watch a video and then have small group discussions. “It’s really meant for the searcher, the unchurched, anyone that is curious… In fact, the very first lesson is who is this Jesus? Is he boring, irrelevant, untrue or is he who he said he was?”
When describing the worshipers from Squamish, Koop said “they’re very down to earth.” She said Coastal Church is special because of its authenticity. “We know who we are, and we’re people that have been changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re born again Christians and it’s a new experience for most of the people at Coastal…This is their first experience so there’s a freshness that comes with that.”
Like all Coastal Church congregations, the Squamish campus engages in volunteering and supporting the community, contributing to Christmas food hampers destined for the Downtown Eastside and the Samaritan’s purse program, where they “fill shoe boxes for children in need overseas, and they fill them with items for children that would maybe never have a Christmas gift,” Parry said.
“I really would love to connect more with our immediate community…You want to give back to the people and you want to share the love of God with others by doing acts of service,” she added.
To achieve these goals, they will need their own permanent location, said Parry. “I feel like we’re that plant that needs to be planted into a bigger pot so that we can have more growth…We would love to have Alpha regularly. We would love to reach out to youth, we would love to see prayer meetings and bible studies and be able to have something for everybody.”
Parry welcomes the public to check out the Squamish campus, saying “We’re not scary. We’re easy to be around and there’s no pressure. You can come in, you can check it out, you can leave right away, or you can stay for a coffee after if you want to chat or have a prayer. We’ll pray for you. We’ll give you a word of encouragement…It’s a place of peace, a place of joy, a place of love and acceptance.”
Koop said, “church is like a hospital. Church is where people come because they need healing. They need help. We all need help. We’re recognizing we can’t do this on our own…Everyone feels a little unsettled with what is going on with the world, and we need an anchor, and the anchor has to be bigger than us.”
Wanda says
Jody & Gina are a very caring, genuine and loving couple serving with the Coastal Church vision. These types of people are what make our communities a place you want to call home or stop by and visit.
Brian Taylor says
Great report, a lot of people are talking about it. Thank you to the reporter and to Squamish newspaper. So well done. So helpful.