Previous Post – Weekend Linkage #3 – Updated

With the first week of our Blow Out sale for The Dusty Cover behind us, we are gearing up for our last week open.  While it is sad to see it close, we are also excited by the next phase.  It also seems that others have been pretty excited too.  The Winnipeg Free Press did a story on the bookstore on August 2nd, resulting in a FLOOD of people buying several thousand books.  Unfortunately, the story is not online.  However, today Christian Week posted a story online (in print in their Sept. edition).  It sums things up very well.  At any rate, if you are able to get to Winnipeg this weekend, please drop by.

As I consider the future, I filled with both excitement and a little trepidation.  I am excited because God has been so faithful and gracious to help plant Little Flowers Community in large part through the work of the bookstore (read “How Our Church Was Born Out Of Mission” here).  In the few months since we formally started, we have experienced and grown so much together- some tragic, most wonderful.  In truth we had become a church long before we called ourselves a church.  Our plans for the new building are moving forward which is more than I could have dreamed of.

However, I also feel some uneasiness as there are so many unknowns.  I know we all face them, but that doesn’t make them any less daunting.  Our community needs more mature Christians to help us continue to serve in a community that experiences the challenges of poverty, addiction, mental illness, racism, abuse, etc. on a staggeringly high level.  In addition to needing leaders to work along side Kim & I, we also need people who will simply be a part of our community and share the relational task of nurturing the church.  I am very tired, but most of that is learning my own limits and boundaries as a pastor (which is hard when it often means saying no to people who desperately need to hear a yes).

I trust God.  I really do- well, most of the time.  He has always come through for us, even when He was redeeming tragic situations.  We cannot ignore the reality, however, that things don’t always go smoothly and without failure, suffering or loss.  Pray that we will remain faithful in following the path we believe God has laid out for us.

And perhaps you might be a part of that journey yourself.  You never know… unless you ask.

Tags: Books, Church Planting, Community, Missional

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Books, Church Planting, Community, Missional, Third Place. 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.