Church Revitalization through Co-Living Housing

“Vancouver’s twin crises of housing unaffordability and urban isolation spark new opportunities for Mennonite young adults to live together in intentional community. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Timothy Kuepfer Chinatown Peace Church Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

Vancouver is currently experiencing a housing unaffordability crisis coupled with a crisis of loneliness/isolation. Meanwhile Mennonite Church British Columbia (MCBC) is a denomination in crisis as our congregations age and decline in size. What opportunity do the three crises (isolation affordability church) offer to our denomination? What could be a creative way forward for Mennonite Christians who are struggling to survive in an expensive urban center? I plan to visit several urban co-living parishes and based on interviews and research will write a theologically-rooted practical guidebook (and catechism tool) for our Mennonite churches in Vancouver addressing these key questions: What model of intentional co-living housing on our church properties could renew and revitalize our urban Vancouver MCBC parishes? How could an Anabaptist-Mennonite theology of community inform the shape and design of (1) these new co-living spaces and (2) the residents (parish members) themselves? What architectural concepts and designs could facilitate faith-forming life together? What intentional practices of life would form the residents into a vibrant parish? What governance models could be most suitable for faith-centered co-living within our context? What relationship between residents and long-term church members could foster church renewal and how might the church space itself be shared missionally among residents congregation and neighborhood?