‘I was pastor to a lot of people who didn’t attend church’

WINNIPEG, Man.—It was December 27, 2001, when Amie and I first put our key into the door of our house on Burrows Avenue in Winnipeg, Man. Over twenty years later, we see how God has guided, sustained, provided for and renewed us.

We came to the North End as church planters commissioned by a partnership between the EMC, EMMC and CMC who would partner with Inner City Youth Alive (ICYA) to start a church with youth and families in this community.

The resulting faith community was North End Community Church.

Having children brought new challenges and changed the way we did ministry. We learned new rhythms and new boundaries. Many of our friends in the North End have loved and prayed for our children. As our daughters have grown up, they have found their own ways of connecting.

Around 2009 I realized I was pastor to a lot of people who didn’t attend church while the church we had planted was losing momentum. We had strong relationships in the community, and I was involved in meaningful ministry, but it didn’t seem to result in an established church. We felt called to continue living and serving in the neighbourhood and I began a role on staff with ICYA as one of the community ministers.

As a community minister, I continued walking with individuals and families I already had relationships with. I also had new opportunities and formed new friendships—including with gang-involved youth and young men. My work focussed on community-building and mentoring young adults, contextual Bible studies, pastoral care with families and supporting friends on their healing journeys.

I have had the privilege of working in some exciting partnerships with other community and Indigenous leaders including the School of Urban Leadership and the Ma’wa’chi’hi’to’tan Journeying in a Good Way conferences.

In 2018 I began a new role as ICYA’s Director of Leadership Development. I work with our team to nurture health and growth in our staff and to disciple, mentor and empower young emerging leaders.

We are blessed to have been invited into so many lives and stories: by children, grandmothers, teens, single moms and dads, and new parents, by residential school survivors and grieving families, by gang members and people in addictions, by committed Christians, skeptics and spiritual searchers. Some of these friendships have been sustained over one or two decades. And we have mourned the loss of some of these precious lives. In all these relationships we have striven to model Jesus and point to his love and power.

We have encountered God already at work. Being allowed into these lives, encountering God’s fingerprints of beauty and grace in unlikely situations has often felt like walking on holy ground.

As we look back on these 20 years, we are grateful for support through prayer, encouragement and generous giving. This is incredibly humbling—all glory to God!