By Janet Seever
Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” This is a favourite Bible verse of Lawrence Ko’s. “You need people to build you up,” he says. The Core group at Centre Street Church was where he found community and has been part of the Core young adults since 2015.
About a year and a half ago Lawrence’s faith became real to him in a way he had not experienced previously. At that point, he realized that God sent a gift— Jesus—who died on the cross for our sins. Lawrence was struck by the immensity of it and asked the Lord what kind of person he would be to not accept this great gift.
“By Jesus not having His prayer answered on the cross—take this cup from me— our prayers are answered,” he recalls. “That actually helped me trust in Him more just to get through the tough things of life.”
He reads one chapter a day in the Bible and depends on fellowship with others. “God has never called people to be solitary Christians,” he says. “It’s important to go out and be in community.”
Growing Up
Lawrence was born in Calgary in 1986 and was raised here. His parents originally immigrated from Hong Kong, and they are a fourth-generation Christian family. God has always been part of his family’s life with his father home for dinner every night regardless of his work schedule.
“My parents introduced me to Christ at an early age,” says Lawrence. “I always went to Sunday school. When I was old enough, my parents always made sure I went to fellowship on a weekly basis.” Growing up, Lawrence faced many difficulties throughout school which left him full of anger at the time.
Eventually one day he had an epiphany and asked himself, “Do you want to continue down this path, or do you want God to take this away from you?” he recalls. That set him on the right path and he was able to get his anger issues under control. Around the same time, he was baptized during Junior High School but that was as far as his faith had grown to.
Lawrence studied at the University of Alberta in Edmonton for a couple of years, receiving a bachelor of education in chemistry and general sciences as well as his Real Estate License at the same time. After that, he taught for four or five years at Bow Valley College. While teaching high school upgrading courses, he met a huge diversity of people—single moms and dads, immigrants, refugees, and people who had struggled to pass school. It was a good learning experience in humility in dealing with people who are from backgrounds so different from his own.
In 2014, Lawrence found himself burned out and saw God was closing doors in the teaching department.
His dad wanted him back in the family Real Estate business full time and told him he also needed to figure out his future moving forward. For the first time in a while Lawrence took a step back and prayed and reflected on God was telling him, “You’re done. It’s time for you to move on.”
Working in Commercial Real Estate has Lawrence interacting with a lot of different people from a large variety of different backgrounds.
The majority of Lawrence’s work involves Commercial Property Management; interacting with the tenants and a network of contractors for repairs and maintenance. The company emphasizes on finding tenants who can work with one another as well as building community to build their businesses.
Growing through the Core Group at Centre Street
One day, during Lawrence’s transition out of the Teaching Career, in 2014, the Core leader’s phone number just popped up on his desk. Lawrence didn’t know how it got there but took a chance and got connected with R. Dixon. When he joined that group, his faith started to grow rapidly as the group challenged him continually.
In the first year of the Core, he acted as the photographer to help show people what the group was about. The second year he started organizing events, providing people an opportunity to get together. (Pastor Lawrence is the CSC pastor to this group.)
In the past two years, Lawrence now leads one of the Core Small Groups aside from organizing events along with working with the other leaders in the Core to raise up new ones. God has placed a conviction in Lawrence’s heart to, ensure that he doesn’t become a one man show where everybody relies on him as it’s everybody’s responsibilities to contribute to God’s work. Thus, each year he has done something different which has helped him and others around him grow spiritually in the Lord.
When asked what challenges he has in his life, Lawrence finds that singleness is probably the biggest one. Also–like many young men–he had been struggling with a porn addiction all of his life and now finds that it is at a point where it is manageable. It is always a constant battle that never goes away and one must keep an eye out lest sin creeps back in as all it takes is one little slip.
“The good thing is that I have a community of friends who keep me grounded,” he says, “and that I keep putting God as a priority and not pursuing a spouse as a priority.”
As a final note, “Putting God as a priority means that He will guide your path and give you what you need to get through your day…whether it’s community, relationships, or alone time He will direct your path as He will never give you more than you can handle.”