About me

Pastor John Neufeld

johnbneufeld@hotmail.com

250-251-7948

I hope you will be blessed by what you find here. I want every reader to know that our goal is that many more will come to faith in Jesus and enter into a fellowship with our heavenly Father and experience forgiveness, joy and life which is really life, and then join themselves to a family of believers who love Jesus and love each other.

My heart for our local body of believers, here at Burns Lake Community Church, is to see Christ worshiped in all aspects of our lives including our homes, schools, work places and relationships. We also strive to freely offer up any gifts that the Lord has bestowed on us to further our great commission; that of leading people to Christ and teaching them to live a life of obedience to Him.

My messages and teaching are based upon the Bible, but have been influenced by many other pastors, authors and teachers. In my younger years I read much material by A.W. Tozer, Watchman Nee, and David Wilkerson. In recent years I have learned much and borrowed from Calvary Chapel pastors such as Chuck Smith, Jon Courson and David Guzik. Other significant influences on my life and teaching are Charles Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, Jack Hayford, John MacArthur, and F.B. Meyer. If you appreciate simple preaching and teaching, I hope you’re blessed by these messages. John

Personal Testimony

Godly parents raised me. While living in the Peace River Country, at Rock of Ages Bible Camp, I heard of my need of a Savior and received Jesus into my life. Instantly, a desire to read God’s word, and honor Him, was planted in my heart.

Due to my Dad’s changing work, I was exposed to a variety of evangelical churches in the various towns in which we lived.

During the time of the “Jesus Movement”, while living in Abbotsford, BC, in the late 1960’s, a hunger for God was stirred up within me, and I began to earnestly seek Him in a deeper way. That hunger intensified as I read His word and met with other “fired-up” Christians. It was then I was introduced to the baptism in the Holy Spirit and sought the Lord for a new fullness in Him. It came as I laid hold, by faith, that God had granted my request and, indeed, had poured out His Spirit upon me. Fullness of joy lifted me from some early years of deep introspection that had produced in me something akin to depression. The love of God lifted me out of a seemingly bottomless pit of inferiority and fear (Psalm 40:1-3).

After volunteering for 2 years in Quebec, with a Christian ministry, the Lord blessed me with the discovery of Donna (my wife) in La Belle Province, and opened the doors for me to begin preaching in a little Baptist Church, in the tiny village of Dixville, Quebec.

For over five years the people graciously endured my preaching and leadership, and, I gradually discerned that God was calling me to pastoral ministry. I approached the leaders of two different denominations and was told that I needed more education. I now was married and had a child. The path of education seemed too arduous. So, I began farming the old family raspberry farm, back in Abbotsford BC, hoping to find my way to pastor once again.

Early into my time of farming, I earnestly sought the Lord about His call on my life. On three different nights the Lord got my attention, speaking to me, confirming His call to pastor. This experience was so dramatic I immediately expected the Lord would, in equally dramatic fashion, show me the next step. He never did! At least not in the way I seemed to have anticipated. Therefore, I continued to farm and do other work for about 15 years---waiting.

Finally, I realized that I needed to take a step of faith to see God’s call fulfilled, or I would go to my grave having missed His call. We had three children when I returned to Bible College and then Seminary.

While at Seminary, I kept telling myself that someday I would tell young men (and women) that the call of God and a diligent study of God’s word would be adequate for them to become pastors. Of course, that goes completely against the grain of our present-day church culture.

At last, with Seminary complete, the Lord led us, to northern BC, to pastor in the town of Burns Lake. I pastored a denominational church for six and a half years and then did the unthinkable. We started a new fellowship in the same town where I had pastored.

As dramatically as God had confirmed my call to ministry, 20 years earlier, He clearly was directing us to start a work in the same town where I had lived and ministered. At the risk of being labelled the bad guy among many acquaintances, we knew “we must obey God rather than men”. Our experience reminds me of Gideon’s obedience at the risk of having the whole town, including his own family, turn against him (Judges 6).

An old brother in the faith (who was visiting in Burns Lake, from Phoenix, Arizona) warned me of the consequences, but when I told him we had God’s clear leading, he urged us to “make it a Calvary Chapel”. When we proceeded, before we had even registered as a charity, he handed us $3000 US, as our first offering.

Twenty one years later, as this is being written, we are continuing to meet as a church family. My wife keeps being amazed that we all still “like each other”. God has added those He wishes to be with us. Five years ago God blessed us with a building, formerly a denominational church. A small number of people left in that building joined us and signed the building over to us.