Administrative History

The Killarney Park Mennonite Brethren Church is an offspring of the Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church in British Columbia. The Vancouver Mennonite Brethren Church and the Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church had purchased land to join forces and plant a third Mennonite Brethren church in Vancouver. This plan, however, failed. Instead, Vancouver MB built Willingdon and Fraserview built Killarney Park. The church building was finished in 1961 and was dedicated on June 18, 1961. The congregation began with 178 charter members and Herb Brandt was called to be the first leader. He was officially called into full-time ministry in January 1962 until 1970.

In 1971, Bob Roxburgh was hired and he served until 1974 along with Ron Penner – who took on more responsibilities after Bob left. Brian Friesen succeeded Ron Penner to become full-time youth pastor.

Wally Gripp came to the church in 1975. He too served for a three-year term. Both he and Brian left in 1978. The church then found Jacob Quiring who served as part-time interim until June 1980. Dietmar Neufeld took leadership until 1984. The load of being the sole pastor was quite heavy, so a co-pastor, Raymond Bystrom, joined him in 1982. As of 1985, Bystorm was the lead pastor of the church, assisted by Jake Klassen, the minister of music and worship.

In 1985, the church had decided to hire to interns to work with the youth. They were Randy Klassen and Lis Bach. Several years earlier, BC churches were also encouraged to adopt a “sister church”, so Killarney Park adopted Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship. They were a group without a facility at the time. Killarney paid the interest on a loan for them for three years.

The Church has been a part of the BC and the Canadian conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches since 1961.

In 1979, membership stood at 344 and, as of 2004, there were 134 members with approximately 162 attendees.

Leaders to the congregation include the following: Herb Brandt (1961–1970), Bob Roxburgh (1971–1974), Dan Friesen, Wally Gripp (1975–1978), Jacob Quiring (1978–1980), Dietmar Neufeld (1980–1984), Raymond Bystrom (1985–1987), George Warkentin (1990–1992), Gordon Stewart (1992–1994), Ken Peters (1995–2010),  David Chow (2010–2020).