David Goa
Rethinking the Ekklesia-with-David-Goa_Eden Jersak.jpg

Eden Jersak

I am pleased to be joined by Pastor Eden Jersak for this on-going series of conversations on the Ekklesia. I am privileged to call Eden, and her husband Brad, friends and have spent many rich hours in conversation with them in their home in Abbotsford.

Eden’s understanding of the church as a place of welcome, as a place where you can always add another leaf to the table of fellowship is striking.Eden grew up in the bosom of a Mennonite community. Belonging was woven into her childhood. Her mother and other women were leaders within the church. She treasured the piety and pacifism of the church and its politics of caring both for its own and for others. She attended Briercrest Bible College from 1982-1986, met her husband Brad at the College, and, after settling back into the Frazer Valley of British Columbia and joined by another couple, they planted a church called Fresh Winds Christian Fellowship in Abbotsford. Their expectation was that it would grow into a church for the Gen X folks who wanted more than their home churches offered. It became a gathering of the working poor, people with various challenges, and those Eden calls prodigals. For the last few years Eden has co-pastored The Bridge Church, a gathering place for many who have found “no room in the inn” in the many and varied evangelical churches in the Frazer Valley.

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In Conversation with David Goa

 
 

I am pleased to be joined by Pastor Eden Jersak for this on-going series of conversations on the Ekklesia.

I am privileged to call Eden, and her husband Brad, friends and have spent many rich hours in conversation with them in their home in Abbotsford. Eden’s understanding of the church as a place of welcome, as a place where you can always add another leaf to the table of fellowship is striking.

Eden grew up in the bosom of a Mennonite community. Belonging was woven into her childhood. Her mother and other women were leaders within the church. She treasured the piety and pacifism of the church and its politics of caring both for its own and for others. She attended Briercrest Bible College from 1982-1986, met her husband Brad at the College, and, after settling back into the Frazer Valley of British Columbia and joined by another couple, they planted a church called Fresh Winds Christian Fellowship in Abbotsford. Their expectation was that it would grow into a church for the Gen X folks who wanted more than their home churches offered. It became a gathering of the working poor, people with various challenges, and those Eden calls prodigals. For the last few years Eden has co-pastored The Bridge Church a gathering place for many who have found “no room in the inn” in the many and varied evangelical churches in the Frazer Valley.