(originally posted at www.missional.ca)

I recently had the chance to tell the story of how Little Flowers Community was born in our West End inner city neighbourhood. As I recalled how it all happened, I was struck by how blessed we have been to arrive where we are. Out of seven years of mission to our neighbourhood, humbly attempting to learn what it meant to be part of the community, a small, unique church has emerged. What is most beautiful to me is that we did not really have a design on this outcome (though we sensed the momentum in that direction), but rather were approached by the group of people who had become our family and asked to help them be a church together.

For those of you familiar with Little Flowers, you will know that we are not a typical church. Made up of primarily people from our community, we meet every Sunday night at the mission house (an old now restored gang house) for a potluck and time of worship and fellowship. Again, it is not typical, so when I use the words “worship and fellowship”, it lacks the organization, polish and social civility of most churches. We are rough around the edges, to be sure, but a group bonded into a genuine community. That means, of course, that our community life isn’t only on Sunday nights. Many of us share life together in intentional community, while others live just blocks away. We have shared gardens in our backyard, do community shopping runs at Costco to save and live simply, and generally spend much of free time together. Like I said, we are more of a family than anything else.

As the pastor, I have found a vocation that is the rewarding roles of my life. It is also, however, the most demanding. I have already had to step back from many of the day to day aspects of our other ministries to give it the time it needs, including (in part) the closure of The Dusty Cover. Even with these changes, it has become very taxing. When we began this ministry, we knew that God would have Kim & I lead alongside others, hopefully another couple. We have prayed for this for some time, but have not seen it answered yet. That is what I am writing about today. We are putting this out as a Macedonian call.

I don’t want to sabotage this effort, but I also want to be clear from the start. This is not a paid position. Kim & I receive no funds for pastoring this community. Anyone who would come would need to be self-supported, either through other jobs or missions support. We also have a strong values that our leaders must live in the neighbourhood. We know that these two requirements eliminate a lot of options for people. However, we also know that God is faithful to provide for those He has called to His purposes.

Some of you may be in a position to answer this call, so we ask you to prayerfully consider what God might be saying. Feel free to send us (in comments, emails, etc.) any questions you might have. Those of you who are not in a position to answer this call, we would ask that you pray with us. We also would like to ask you to consider spreading the word. As I said, this is a Macedonian call for sisters and brothers in Christ to join us in our life and mission here in the West End of Winnipeg.

Will you join us?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 9:47 am and is filed under news . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.