Our Story

How it began

In 1992, Jay and Kathy Dickinson were commissioned to plant an Abbotsford congregation out of the Langley Vineyard. In August 1992, Jay and Kathy invited some leaders from the Langley congregation to be a part of the leadership team (then called a council) and help them lead this new church plant. There were many people living in Abbotsford, attending in Langley, who had been asking for a church plant in Abbotsford for many years.

We began with leadership meetings, and then began our Abbotsford home groups and Vineyard Vision groups in the fall, even though we were not meeting on Sundays yet. During the fall of 1992 and winter of 1993, we had some Sunday evening gatherings for people who were interested in being a part of this new congregation.

Finally, on March 7, 1993, we had our first official Sunday service at Clearbrook Junior High School (now called CTC). People just kept coming Sunday after Sunday and we grew quite rapidly. There were more Vineyard Vision groups for those who wanted to know about what the Vineyard was, and whether this was a church for them, there were more and more home groups, Sunday School was growing and healthy, and things were very exciting!

However, after a couple of years, things became more difficult and hard to manage. It was the classic struggle of a quickly growing congregation.

After a painful time of disillusionment on both the congregants’ and leaders’ parts, the church just about dissolved. About 30 people including kids were left wondering whether to hang up the “Closed” sign but God wasn’t finished with us yet. He brought Terry and Ruth Lamb as our pastors, and new hope quietly planted itself in our hearts once again.

The next stage

After a few months, it was evident that people still wanted this to be their church, and more people started to come. We struggled along for a couple of years but felt the strong ties of “family”. Eventually it began to grow steadily, and we saw that this was a church with a good future.

In 1999 we began “Love Abbotsford”, an outreach into our city, and it seemed to give our little congregation a voice in the community. This idea grew and other churches got a hold of it and it became a part of the “church of Abbotsford”

After 7 years as our pastors, Terry and Ruth Lamb sensed God calling them to England. In October 2003 Terry and Ruth and their 6 children moved to Canterbury, England with the Abbotsford Vineyard's blessing, prayers and support.

The Abbotsford Vineyard continued to grow in numbers and excitement during the following year as the church was led by the Leadership Team and remaining pastoral staff. We continued our outreach events into the city and began missions trips to Mexico, Haiti and Oliver, B.C. The school gym where we met became very full and there was an expectation for God to meet with us as we continued to worship Him and love those around us.

In August of 2004 we hired Dean and Janine Richmond to join the pastoral team and the church continued to grow during that time. But about a year and a half later the church experienced another painful time as the Richmonds and a large group of people left the Vineyard to start another church.

The group that remained endeavoured to walk in love and forgiveness. The Lord continued to confirm His calling on us as a church body. We continued to reach out to the broken and lost in our city and to other nations as we continued our work with Missions. There was an excitement as God built community within our church family and we learned how to really love each other in authentic relationship. As we lived out the call He had for us, more people kept coming and we grew again! There was an anticipation that God had good things in store for us!

We continue to seek God's will for our lives, for our city and for our church and look forward to all He has for us as we step forward in the mission that God has called us to:to love God and to love people!