Harbour Community

Harbour Community We are a community living to saturate Nanaimo with the Gospel. We empower lives of mission.

"We love our dream of community more than the actual people in it, and in the end, everybody loses."Have you ever caught...
06/01/2026

"We love our dream of community more than the actual people in it, and in the end, everybody loses."

Have you ever caught yourself holding your family, your friends, or your microchurch up to an impossible standard of perfection? It’s a subtle way we keep people at arm's length.

This month at Harbour, we are leaning into "The Messy Table." We are letting the dream of the perfect community die so that real, gritty, honest love can take its place.

Check out the blog for this week's reflection, and pick one of our three community practices to try out before we gather this coming Sunday: The Agenda-Free Dinner, The "I Need Help" Text, or the Burden Takeover.

📖 Read the full launch post here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/the-messy-table-loving-ideals-or-people/

There is profound grace in the dormant seasons.Our spiritual lives go through seasons just like the natural world. Yet, ...
05/25/2026

There is profound grace in the dormant seasons.

Our spiritual lives go through seasons just like the natural world. Yet, we live in a culture that demands constant productivity. When we are expected to always be bearing fruit, finding ourselves in a "winter" season of drought or burnout can feel like a massive failure.

But winter is an invitation to rest and let the ground recover.

This week, we are challenging our community to do a "Growth Audit." Spend 15 minutes identifying what spiritual season you are currently in (spring, summer, fall, or winter), and then write yourself a literal permission slip to rest in it.

📖 Read our full Week 4 reflection here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/god-in-the-wild-spiritual-seasons/

Are you feeling more like a vibrant summer or a dormant winter right now? Let us know below. 👇

Every act of love, justice, beauty, and creativity we pour into our neighbourhoods is never wasted.This week for our "Go...
05/18/2026

Every act of love, justice, beauty, and creativity we pour into our neighbourhoods is never wasted.

This week for our "God in the Wild" theme, we are shifting from observing creation to actively restoring it. We are challenging our community to take a garbage bag on your daily walk and pick up litter along your street or local trail.

Treat this not just as a civic duty, but as a physical, tangible act of cosmic restoration. We are not just waiting around for the world to be fixed; we are called to roll up our sleeves and participate in the healing.

📖 Read our full Week 3 reflection on stewardship here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/god-in-the-wild-cosmic-restoration/

Which trail or park are you walking this week?

We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, yet the places we live so quickly become our ordinary.We often los...
05/11/2026

We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, yet the places we live so quickly become our ordinary.

We often lose the wonder of Vancouver Island by viewing it strictly through a scientific or recreational lens: as a resource to be studied, or a playground to be consumed for entertainment. But what if we viewed it as a revelation?

This week for our "God in the Wild" theme, we are exploring what it means to step out of the monotone and into colour. We are looking for the Divine in the wild with fresh eyes.

The Challenge: Try "The Silent Afternoon" this weekend. Spend three continuous hours outdoors with zero digital input and zero agenda. Do not hike for exercise. Do not explore for entertainment. Simply exist in the wild without consuming it.

📖 Read our full Week 2 reflection here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/god-in-the-wild-monotone-to-colour/

Where is your favourite spot in Nanaimo to just sit and exist?

If God is only present in the spectacular, then most of our actual lives will be spiritually empty.We easily find the Cr...
05/04/2026

If God is only present in the spectacular, then most of our actual lives will be spiritually empty.

We easily find the Creator in the towering forests of the Island or the crashing ocean waves. But what about in the grocery store line? What about when you are folding the fourth load of laundry for the week?

This week for our "God in the Wild" theme, we are looking at how a 17th-century monk named Brother Lawrence learned to practice the presence of God right in the middle of a chaotic, noisy kitchen. He realized that the mundane wasn't an interruption to his spiritual life; it was the very arena for it.

We are bringing the Cathedral into the kitchen sink this week.

📖 Read our Week 1 guide and try out "The Kitchen Liturgy" practice here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/god-in-the-wild-kitchen-sink/

Who is doing the dishes in your house tonight? Tag them below! 👇

Nanaimo has been called one of the least-religious metropolitan areas in the country, but that is often confused for bei...
05/01/2026

Nanaimo has been called one of the least-religious metropolitan areas in the country, but that is often confused for being the least spiritual. All around us are people desperately searching for truth, meaning, and connection in the hustle and bustle of their earthly struggle.

If you are exhausted from the relentless grind and heavy demands of this season, come catch your breath in the quiet of the wild.

Before there was a Bible, a printing press, or a church building, there was creation. God's first language was dirt, water, gravity, and light. We live in a Cathedral of fir trees and ocean, and when we slow down, we take in the very character of the Creator.

This May, Harbour Community is stepping out of the building for our new monthly theme: God in the Wild. We are learning to let the rhythms of nature teach us about our own spiritual seasons.

Our first weekly practice guide drops this coming Monday! 📖 Read our full reflection on "God in the Wild" to prep for the month here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/god-in-the-wild-first-cathedral/

Who are you planning to get outside with next week? Tag them below! 👇

We often treat our faith like an academic exercise—something we do with our heads. But some of the most profound moments...
04/27/2026

We often treat our faith like an academic exercise—something we do with our heads. But some of the most profound moments of the first Easter didn't happen during a sermon; they happened at a dinner table.

This week, we are closing out our month on the "Physical Resurrection" by reclaiming the table. We’re moving from consumption to connection, treating our meals not just as pit-stops, but as sacred spaces where "New Creation" breaks through.

Join us in our weekly practices:
💡 Ask a meaningful question tonight.
🍷 Practice a quiet communion at home.
🤝 Invite someone with a different perspective to your table.

Read the full reflection and get the practice guide here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/sacrament-of-the-ordinary-table/

Learning to read a room is an ongoing process. Many of us have relationships in our past that fell apart because we push...
04/20/2026

Learning to read a room is an ongoing process. Many of us have relationships in our past that fell apart because we pushed a little too hard, or fell into destructive patterns that tore people down rather than building them up.

Seeking reconciliation for those moments is incredibly hard work, and it's not always welcomed.

Because it is so hard, it is incredibly easy to choose the familiar comfort of the grave. We default to cynicism, bitterness, and self-protection.

But the Resurrection is an active invitation to turn away from those default settings. We can look at our broken relationships with naive optimism and pretend they don’t hurt, or we can recognize the brutal reality of the pain, and choose not to let it have the last word.

This week at Harbour Community, we are taking our theology and applying it to our actual, daily lives. We are intentionally breathing life into spaces that have gone cold.

📖 Read this week's practices (including "The Forgiveness Text") here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/resolving-conflict-broken-relationships/

Where do you need to breathe life into a cold space this week? 👇

For a long time, I operated with a simple philosophy: let other people worry about the money and the physical needs, and...
04/13/2026

For a long time, I operated with a simple philosophy: let other people worry about the money and the physical needs, and I will focus on "spiritual" things.

But I didn't realize the danger of that mindset. I had become entirely comfortable separating my faith from the gritty, physical realities of the world around me.

If Easter means that God is in the business of restoring the physical world, then what we do with our physical resources matters profoundly. Our time, our money, and our energy are not just secular assets; they are the exact tools we are supposed to use to bring glimpses of the "New Creation" to our actual neighbourhoods.

In ancient teachings, Jesus tells a story of a servant who was given resources but buried them in the dirt because he was afraid of taking a risk.

It is risky business to play it safe.

This week at Harbour Community, we are taking a risk. We are using our resources to tangibly invest in the people around us.

📖 Read this week's practice (and how to use your dinner to bless your street) here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/investing-in-your-city-faith-resources/

When I was growing up, I loved visiting our family farm in Saskatchewan. We'd see the land frozen in winter, tilled in s...
04/06/2026

When I was growing up, I loved visiting our family farm in Saskatchewan. We'd see the land frozen in winter, tilled in spring, and harvested in the fall.

That farm taught me a vital lesson: there is simply no rushing the growing cycle.

Yet, how often do we try to rush the process of renewal in our own lives? We want the "New Creation" to arrive instantly. We want to sterilize all the pain, fix the broken relationships immediately, and bypass the waiting.

But growing is a messy business. Sometimes the soil is hard. Sometimes the weeds threaten to choke out the crop entirely.

Last month at Harbour Community, we focused on internal, quiet practices. But because we believe God is restoring the physical world, our practices this month are moving outside. We are getting our hands in the physical dirt.

If you are feeling frustrated by the weeds in your life right now, you aren't alone. Pull up a chair and join us.

📖 Read this week's practice here: https://harbourcommunity.ca/livingitout/sowing-in-the-weeds-spiritual-growth/

Have you ever tried to rush a season of growth only to realize it just takes time? Let’s talk in the comments. 👇

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