About Sardis

Sardis is a Seventh-day Adventist community in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

We are made up of people from different generations, cultures, backgrounds and experiences. Some of us have been part of church for many years. Others are newer to faith. Some are still exploring what they believe.

What brings us together is a desire to become a community shaped by the life and teachings of Jesus.

We are still learning.

Sardis is made up largely of people who have arrived in Chilliwack fairly recently, alongside long-time residents who have helped many of us feel at home.

Our stories have brought us here from the Philippines, Malaysia, the United States, Toronto, the BC Interior and other parts of Canada.

For some, Chilliwack represents a new home. For others, it marks a new season of life, a fresh start, or simply the desire for a smaller community where we can know people and be known.

And for many of our children, teenagers and young adults, arriving has its own challenges—finding friends, fitting into a new school or community, discovering where they belong, and sometimes learning how to live between different cultures and generations.

That experience of arriving has shaped the kind of church we want to become.

We know that finding your place takes time. So we hope Sardis can be a community where people of every age can settle in slowly, build friendships, share a meal, ask questions and discover whether this might become one of the places they call home. And be patient with us, we are each finding our footing and stumble. And we help each other.

We enjoy food, friendship and faith—often together around the same table.

And we are grateful for the long-time Chilliwack residents among us who continue to teach the rest of us what it means to belong here.

We want Sardis to be a place where people are noticed, listened to and valued.

That means we are learning to:

Care before we correct.
Listen before we assume.
Make room for questions.
Welcome different generations and cultures.
Include people who may otherwise feel overlooked.
Serve our neighbours beyond our own congregation.

We believe our community should be more than attending a weekly event.

It should become a community where friendships deepen, people grow, burdens are shared and everyone has something meaningful to contribute.

You may come from a Christian background.

You may come from another faith tradition.

You may have stepped away from religion.

You may describe yourself as spiritual, skeptical, agnostic or unsure.

You may simply be looking for community.

You do not need to pretend to believe something you do not believe.

We hope Sardis can be a place where honest conversation is possible and where people are treated with dignity and respect.

At the centre of Sardis is Jesus.

We are drawn to the way he lived among people.

Jesus noticed those others overlooked.

He listened to people with complicated stories.

He crossed cultural, religious and social boundaries.

He welcomed questions.

He showed compassion to people who were hurting.

He challenged hypocrisy and injustice.

He called people toward forgiveness, reconciliation, generosity and hope.

We believe his life still has something important to say to the world we live in today.

And we are learning together what it means to follow his way.

We are a people Looking forward the soon return of Jesus bring us to a place all things are made new.

We believe community becomes stronger when every generation has a voice.

Children and teenagers are not simply the church of the future.

Young adults are not projects to be retained.

Older adults are not people whose contribution is finished.

Each person brings experiences, gifts, questions and wisdom that the rest of us need.

We want Sardis to become increasingly intergenerational—a community where we learn from one another rather than simply gathering with people who are like us.

Our faith is lived here.

In Chilliwack.

In the Fraser Valley.

Among neighbours whose lives, cultures and beliefs are increasingly diverse.

We want to pay attention to what is happening around us—to the needs of families, young adults, seniors, newcomers, Indigenous neighbours, people carrying loneliness or hardship, and people who may have little connection with organized religion.

We do not want simply to ask:

How can we get people to come to church?

We would rather ask:

How can we become better neighbours?

How can we listen more carefully?

Where are people hurting or being overlooked?

How might the life of Jesus speak into our community today?

Our name points to two convictions that shape the way we understand life, faith and hope.

Seventh-day points to Sabbath—a weekly rhythm of stopping, resting, worshipping, reconnecting and remembering that life is a gift. Sabbath reaches back to Creation and reminds us that our value is greater than what we produce, achieve or own. It invites us to receive rest, delight in God, care for one another and live more attentively within the world we have been given.

Adventist points forward to the coming of Jesus and the hope that the brokenness of the world will not have the final word.

We look toward the promise of a renewed creation—a new heaven and a new earth—where what has been damaged is restored, suffering and death are gone, and life becomes what God originally intended it to be.

So our name holds together both Creation and New Creation:

Sabbath reminds us where the story began.

The Advent reminds us where the story is going.

Between those two, we seek to live with hope, care for people and creation, pursue whole-person health, value learning, defend religious freedom, serve our neighbours and take Scripture seriously.

Although Sardis is deeply local, we are also part of a worldwide Adventist family.

That means many of us have friends, relatives, churches, schools and communities of faith in other parts of Canada and around the world.

Our connections reach to the Philippines, Malaysia, the United States and many other places represented in our congregation and friendships.

For us, global does not simply mean large.

It means relationship.

It means knowing that people in very different cultures are also learning to follow Jesus, care for their neighbours, raise families, serve their communities and live with hope.

We value those connections because they remind us that faith is bigger than one culture, one country or one way of doing church.

And they help us keep learning from people whose stories are different from our own.

You do not need to have everything figured out.

You do not need the right religious vocabulary.

You do not need to agree with everything before you walk through the door.

You are welcome to come, meet people, share a meal, ask questions, listen for a while and discover what this community is about.

There is a place for you here.