The roots of Green Timbers Covenant Church go back to 1943, when a Covenant Church was organized in the Fraserview area of Vancouver. Unfortunately, that congregation closed in 1964, but funds from the sale of the property were held in reserve for the beginning of a new congregation. However, Green Timbers still enjoys the presence and participation of some of the people from that original Vancouver ministry.

By 1971, fellowship meetings were being held in Surrey and North Delta, with the support of Covenant leaders from both Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In 1972, those Covenant groups became aware of another group meeting in Surrey, The Green Timbers Christian Fellowship, whose families had a Mennonite Brethren background. The Mennonite group had already purchased a United Church building on 88th Avenue where it had met since 1967.

In 1972, the Covenant fellowship groups and the Mennonite Brethren fellowship decided to join together in a common ministry in the Surrey area, and the first service of the combined groups was held in March, 1973, with long-time Covenant pastor Albert Josephson coming to Surrey as the developer pastor of the new congregation.

The current building on 88th Avenue was completed in 1977, after fire claimed the original United Church building. In 1981, the congregation welcomed Rev. Wally Coots to its staff as the first full-time assistant pastor in the Canada Conference of the Covenant. Rev. Coots helped build a strong youth ministry which established Green Timbers as a leader in family-related ministries in the Covenant.

1987 saw the expansion of the Covenant ministry in Surrey with the beginning of Emmanuel Covenant Church in the White Rock area as a church plant from Green Timbers. And in 1994, the first phase of another new ministry was completed: the opening of 32 units of Senior Housing in Covenant Village. The original housing has been expanded and today, Covenant Village operates as an independent corporation.

In recent years, the area around the church has changed dramatically, and new cross-cultural outreach efforts have been tried with a parking lot program for children and youth, community events like carnivals, and ESL (English as a Second Language) classes offered to people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

But the impact of the congregation has been felt far beyond the local neighbourhood. Green Timbers has produced at least five pastors who serve in various places throughout North America. Besides those pastors and leaders coming directly from Green Timbers, the church has supported several students from Regent College through pastoral internships.

(Based on One Hundred Years: The Evangelical Covenant Church in Canada, edited by Keith C. Fullerton.)

Back to top

The Evangelical Covenant Church is rooted in historic Protestant Christianity and the revival movements which swept Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and flourished in North America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Therefore, we hold several affirmations.

• We affirm the centrality of the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, as the authoritative Word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct.
• We affirm the necessity of the new birth for entrance into God's Kingdom and we stress the importance of continued growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• We affirm the Church as a fellowship of believers. Membership in the Church is based on confession of personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
• We affirm the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit empowers the life of the Church, guides its mission, and supplies gifts needed by the Church and its members to exalt Christ.
• We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ. Through faith in Christ we are free from the power of sin and enabled to respond to God's grace with lives of obedience and faith. We do not insist on uniformity in all theological views, but we do resist individualism which disregards the teaching of Scripture, the historic creeds of the Church, and consistent Christian tradition. We also believe that part of living in the freedom which Christ provides includes fulfilling God's call to live as responsible members of the Church.

Back to top

Senior Pastor | Secretary

Andy Sebanc, Senior Pastor

Andy has recently moved with his family to this area from the States(Colorado) in May after he was invited to serve as the lead pastor of GreenTimbers. He and his family are thrilled with the opportunity to serve God at Green Timbers and in Surrey, BC. They say what's not to love about the Vancouver area, other than the house prices.

Like many others, Andy has an undergraduate degree (biology) he has never used having "switched" career directions (assuming he ever had one) after college when he became a youth pastor in Seattle. While in Seattle he fell in love with Lori and church ministry. So, they got married and moved back to Chicago for seminary. Since then he has served churches in Massachusettsand Colorado and had the privilege of being a stay at home dad for an year and half. In the midst of all that, he is pursuing a second master’s degree (non-profit management) that he doubts he will ever use either.

Andy, Lori, Jozi and Mattias are thrilled to be back on the west coast of North America near family, mountains, trees and the ocean. They love to spend time outdoors hiking, biking, bird and butterfly watching, playingsports and canoeing. They usually are toting around their English Setter, Maddux, with them in their adventures. If they aren't in the outdoors, and often when they are, some of their favorite activities involve friends, laughter, conversation and good books. As they are getting to know Surrey and the Greater Vancouver, they are excited about the multi-cultural setting in which they have been called and can't wait to further explore the Vancouver area, especially the great restaurants and the great outdoors. The life-long baseball fan (Royals, Cubs, Mariners and the Red Sox) promises to do his best to learn the ins and outs of hockey. Go Canucks!!

Back to top

Elizabeth Sung, Secretary

Elizabeth was raised in a Christian family in Taiwan and was baptized at the age of 17 in the Presbyterian church.

It was on a heavily snowing Sunday in January, 1996 that Elizabeth first came to Green Timbers Covenant Church. On that day, all the churches but Green Timbers were closed due to the weather condition. Since then she has been part of the congregation.

Elizabeth thinks the ministry of Green Timbers is important because we are located at a diversified community, in terms of its ethnicity and religion. There are many opportunities to reach out and to spread the gospel to those who might have never heard about Christianity in their own culture. She has learned to trust and let the Lord guide her life; she also wishes others can experience the kind of blessing she has experienced.

Elizabeth and husband Frank have two sons, Steve and Andrew.

Back to top

• Steve Sung, Chair
• Anne McGoran, Vice Chair
• Tim Fretheim, Secretary
• Sonja Bacon, Director
• Glenn Ellingson, Director
• Don Swanson, Director

Back to top