Where Are The Lutherans?

Looking for Lutherans in the inner city of Vancouver B.C. is a bit like playing the game of “Where’s Waldo?” After walking vast portions of the city for eight days and talking with Church people all along the way, I didn’t come across one Lutheran congregation. That doesn’t mean Lutherans have always been hard to find in the urban core of this city. Just today, in the oldest neighborhood of Vancouver, I walked past two large church buildings that were constructed by Swedish and Norwegian Lutherans. One of them is now being used by a Korean Christian congregation and the other one is unoccupied and falling into disrepair. The story is so familiar it hardly needs to be told. The immigrants who founded these congregations abandoned them when the ethnic make-up of neighborhood changed and when they, themselves, had the financial means to move on. In the years that followed, that Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver became recognized as the “poorest neighborhood in Canada.” Sadly, it still holds that distinction today. But, is it and the rest of downtown Vancouver really “Lutheran Free?” If you pay very close attention and wander off the main thoroughfare in the DTES, you will see a small sign on the sidewalk that says “Lutheran Urban Mission Society.” It will not lead you to a church building, but to small rented space in the annex of a low-income apartment complex. In other words, this is not a typical congregation. Rather, it is a holy presence among the most vulnerable people of Vancouver. I spent a few hours with the pastor, walking the neighborhood with him and observing the way in which he has nurtured relationships of trust and care among the people who dwell there. The challenges these people face seem overwhelming to me. But, when I saw how much they are respected and loved by humble servants like him who work among them, I came away thinking: “Where else would I want to find Lutheran Christians than right here, among “the least of these” in whom Christ says he will always be found?