Joe Manafo

Vulnerable yet Invincible

Last Sunday, we planted a church. The festivities started around 11:30am, formally ended just after 2:30pm and the last of the participants left around 6:00pm. Our house was full of laughter, reflection, the crashing and banging of kids and the smell of a home cooking.

We spent time telling our stories, recapping where our spiritual journies had brought us and what we’d learned
about God and ourselves while on our travels. The point? To begin to discover who God’s thrown into this mix; to better understand where we’ve come from so that we can begin to see where we’re headed; and to take notice of God’s fingerprints on all of it. We spent some time in Psalm 8; we prepped ourselves by also reading this article by Eugene Peterson and governed the conversation with a 1950’s microphone (a la conch from Lord of the Flies). We used the imagery of the rings on a tree trunk that in a way read as a diary of its healthy and lean years and how it’s covered and protected by an outer shell, and how in a way, we’re pretty much the same. (BTW, I had some logs out front as people walked in, a big one on the coffee table and one as the center piece at the food table too…’til sarah yanked it off ‘cuz therre wasn’t enough room.) We concluded our time by affirming our faith by standing with the Christians of centuries past by reciting together the Apostles Creed.

Sarah commented afterwards of how different this was compared to what we’ve always done on Sundays. Was this really church? Or was this really church? Either way, as utterly vulnerable as I felt I also had this overwhelming sense that there’s nothing stopping us, and that endless opportunity lies before us.

I’m so thankful. What a great bunch. Good people with God conscious motives. What an interesting mélange. Sarah and I intend to have everyone over individually (or as a family) for dinner over the next six months. Nice and slow. One at a time.

Yet still I fight the modern impulse of wanting everything now, delivered in an efficient and logical manner. I want to speed things up, get ‘a move on’, and really flex our muscles…but then I remind myself how truly backwards that is in Kingdom measures. God, help.

A big thanks to all the well wishers who I’ve been in contact with over the phone, email or in person. Your encouragement goes a long way. Please keep praying for us.

And to theStory: I’m so glad that we’re in this together. And though we don’t know exactly what’s up ahead, I’m confident in God’s leading and providence. We’re gonna have a ball…

Here are a few shots from the day. You can see more by surfing over to Nathan’s Flickr page and read about it from his perspective here.

In other news…

Over the last two months we’ve been poking arond to find some space to hold our formal gathering times, and it looks like we’ve finally found a winner. Central United Church here in Sarnia (which btw, finds it’s origins as a Methodist congregation!) has an impressive building with the main sanctuary dating back to 1882, but also sports a fine chapel that was built sometime in the 1950’s. It seats about 100 if you include the balcony, and has a warm feel with all the wood and the floor to ceiling stained glass. To make a long story short, the chapel is barely used and Central has agreed to rent it to us on a weekly basis for $45 per Sunday! Actually that’s a lie. The regular cost is $45 per Sunday, but since we’ll be regular renters, a 25% discount applies…you read correctly…that means we’re looking at $33.75/week in rental fees…$135 a month! And we can leave all our gear in there since it’s not used during the week. How cool is that?

Thanks to Nathan for the pix below, and of course for allowing me blogging rights to publish it first. I owe ya one…and if you want to see more, go here.

Filed by Joe at September 11th, 2006 under Ideas to Share, Church Planting