Archive for February, 2012

What Would the Lord Change About Our Neighbourhood?

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

What Would the Lord Change About Our Neighbourhood?

A question that shapes our activity in the Downtown Windsor Collaborative is imagining what the Lord would change if he moved into our neighbourhood. Each street varies in its needs and the downtown has a diverse set of people, industry, and socio-economics. However, there are common denominators, and we sense that God gives us direction through the United Way’s Community Wellbeing Report of 2009. The document shapes the strategies of organizations receiving UW funding. It has focused agencies in their activities. The summary identifies five priorities for a healthy community, including basic needs such as housing and food, health, children, employment, and revitalized neighbourhoods.

Our efforts of renewing the city are shaped by addressing these priorities. One of our strategies that we are currently working through is using social enterprise to provide employment training, while establishing a presence in the business core.

We are working with the University of Windsor’s Business School in developing a business plan for opening an eatery at a recently closed location in the business district. In the eatery will be a training school for kitchen staff. After completing a six-month course, our network will help in finding long-term employment in the food industry. Participants will come from those currently on Ontario Works.

In addition to this school at the eatery, we have longer-term objectives of being a positive presence and citizen of the downtown business district, establishing a missional Christ Community tethered at the eatery, and being a launching pad for creative engagement of the population living in the core.

Our engagement takes place through informal relationship building, as well as intentionally planned programming. We anticipate the eatery, will be a “third place” (home is a first place, work is a second place) for the four nearby condo complexes and the numerous office workers in the core. Over an extended time, our staff will see relationships move from familiarity to acquaintanceship to friendship. We imagine our intentional programming will include gatherings bringing people together such as once-a-month cooking, games nights, Alpha, and The Marriage Course.

A critical principle in creative engagement is making it the neighbourhood’s turf. It will be incredibly gratifying to see the eatery become a gathering place for local residents, anticipating they will view the restaurant as “their neighbourhood place.”A second principle in this experiment is exploring creative ways of funding ministry. We are building this based on a business that we hope can provide ongoing operational cash flow. The initial capital investment to launch will be a donation.

This week we are negotiating the lease costs and time frame. This will be critical for ensuring operational sustainability. The project might not proceed if unprofitable. But the exercise of defining successful objectives and creative engagement has been invaluable and can serve us well in future endeavours.

Bob and his wife Margo, launched and serves through the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative – building friendships that renew the city – one neighbourhood at a time.
www.bettertogetherwindsor.ca http://lifebettertogether.blogspot.com/

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Confidence in the Dark

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Confidence in the Dark
It was snowing heavily that night. The road was slick and the centre markers visible only some of the time. Snow banks and telephone pole tops were the main markers on the twisting road. It was more than prudent to be driving well below the speed limit.

A couple of times the tops of telephone poles deceived as they crossed the road and concealed a sharp bend. So I approached this curve in the snow banks extra cautiously, all the time wishing that I could see what was around the bend.

My caution was justified. As I rounded the curve I saw a red flare and one of those emergency triangles—just in time to carefully apply the brakes. But my caution wasn’t enough. To avoid colliding with the road grader that was stuck in a drift in front of me, I had to bury my Volvo in the snow bank just short of the grader.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to see around the corners? Or to be able to see in the dark? Not likely in this life, but there is One who can do both.

F.B. Meyer tells of approaching a narrow harbour mouth in the dark as a passenger on a boat. Meyer became alarmed that the captain was not slowing down even though the harbour mouth was a rocky and dangerous. When he challenged the captain about his lack of caution, the captain pointed out three lights on shore. If he approached in a way that the three lights were lined up, he knew that he was heading into the harbour safely. He could proceed confidently and at speed.

Meyer, never one to miss an application, likened the captain’s wisdom to the wise Christian. There are three lights believers can use to guide them, even in the dark through dangerous passages. One of the lights is God’s Word. The second is the inward prompting of the Holy Spirit and the third is the wise counsel of trustworthy followers of Christ. Without all three lined up, it is not safe to proceed through the dark or dangerous passages of life—at any speed.

So what is the corner you can’t see around? Is it plans for a ministry initiative? Is it trusting someone to assume more responsibility? Is it financial uncertainty because of offering levels? Is it understanding what season your ministry is in? Perhaps it’s about a move, or family issues or whose counsel to take when the not everyone agrees.

As leaders, we need to be serious students of God’s Word and stay close to Him so that we can experience the guidance of the Counselor that Jesus promised in John’s gospel. We also need to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters who will tell us the truth and hold us accountable.

It may be a time to stay put, to reconfirm the lights or simply to wait for the lights to line up.

Whatever your situation, trust Him who can see around corners and in the dark.

Bruce Fournier is the Executive Pastor at Lincoln Road Chapel in Waterloo, Ontario and a founding VMC board member. His interest is helping people become all they can be in Christ. He and Beth, parents of five grown children, enjoy grand parenting and working together at Lincoln.

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