Based on a True Story » theStory

Lent Service – Proclaim

Nathan Colquhoun — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:40:04 +0000

As I mentioned before, we are working with some Anglican churches in Sarnia to have some Lent gatherings together. We had our first gathering at 2pm and it was excellent. Thanks to all the Anglican ladies that showed us how to have a discussion! We are following six marks of mission of the Anglican church of Canada, the first one being Proclaiming the good news.

There is another gathering tonight at 7pm, come out if you can!

Here is the prayer I wrote to start us off.

God, you have called your church to witness
You have called us to proclaim your good news
You have called us to live this good news
You have called us to bring this good news into bad news places

Lord of Mercy, we fail daily at our calling
Forgive us as our trespasses, as we try and forgive others
Give us strength to live as you have created us
Give us love for those that we don’t think deserve it

Through Christ you are reconciling the world to yourself
Through Christ you are unfolding your plan of salvation
Through Christ you are drawing all men to yourself
Through Christ you are freeing all the oppressed

God, may we seek peace in all of our actions
May we seek to share your love wherever possible
May we seek to proclaim what we are living
May we seek to proclaim to everyone

Thank-you for giving us this responsibility
Thank-you for giving us hope
Thank-you for hearing our cry and repentance
Thank-you for hearing our joy

Be with us and prepare us for this gathering
Be with us and prepare us for Lent
May we learn what it means to proclaim
May we proclaim well with your strength

Amen.

Ecumenical Lenten Gatherings for Lambton County

Nathan Colquhoun — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:17:38 +0000

Growing up Pentecostal I was scared of liturgies, sacraments, common books of prayers and funny hats. I spouted of the regular indoctrinated statements of any good charismatic; assuming these churches had no spirit, and didn’t have the Holy Spirit. Slowly, as I read, and as I come to grips with my understanding of Christ and his church, the traditions began to make sense and take on more meaning. I find myself wanting to participate with the global Church with these rituals and help them become marks of our community as well. So over the last few years of being back in Sarnia I’ve started to build relationships with some unlikely candidates. I figured I would just go to the Sarnia Evangelical Pastor’s lunches and do my best to be in relationship with the other evangelical pastors in the city. I went, and I tried and I didn’t really find myself in a place that made sense. But as chance would have it, I moved across the street from St. John’s Anglican church in the South End of Sarnia and have gotten to know their minister, Nick Wells, and slowly as he starts introducing me into a world I barely new existed, I have come to grow very fond of my new friends. So out of these relationships we have decided to partner together for the Lent season. We’ll be doing services at different locations throughout the city, each location being lead by a minister that isn’t from that congregation. My hope is that we at theStory make an effort to make these services a priority, not just to set aside time for Lent, but to get to know and experience a different side of our faith and relationships with folks that have gone before us.

One Of These Things Is Not Like the Others

Nathan Colquhoun — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:30:28 +0000

This was our First Friday exhibit we setup tonight. Thoughts?

Guest Post: theStory, Sarnia: A Ridiculously Abbreviated Reflection on Chapter One

Nathan Colquhoun — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:22:03 +0000

This is a guest post by Joe Manafo. Joe and I started theStory (a church in Sarnia, Ontario) four years ago together. Since he has given up on some aspects of technology (oddly, Twitter is is chosen method of communication, @joemanafo) and doesn’t have a blog, he needed to get this off his chest. It highlights a lot of the ups and downs we’ve had over the last number of years and his struggle to be where he feels he needs to be. My take is different, as I didn’t move my family, with two children away from two well paying jobs to plant this church like he did. Nevertheless, this is part of my story as well, so I’m happy to post it. Enjoy.

We’ve been chasing the dark now for a little over four years. Well, if you include the months of planning, conversations and online back and forths, we’re unofficially nearing the five year mark.

Since the beginning we’ve held to the notion that the local church is God’s pilot project for the New Jerusalem – his greater intention, his end goal as it were, for all of creation. Healing. Wholeness. One final swoop in setting wrongs to right. So without giving it a second thought, we decided to establish our roots in a location that most would consider inopportune: an atrophied downtown where more storefronts were boarded up than open for business. Nevertheless, we considered the opportunity as golden.

This is not to say that we were without our challenges. On some days it seemed like our detractors were lacing our plot of land with salt in an effort to ensure that nothing would ever grow from it. Locally, a group of justifiably concerned business owners and realtors threatened to petition city hall to change the zoning by-laws so that a church could not legally take up residence. But even before that, the first organization we courted to help us in our new adventure scratched their heads in confused disapproval. “Sarnia?” the man in charge quipped, “Why would anyone…” Then, pulling down a chart and with pointer in hand (I’m not making this up) he proceeded to literally point out the ‘top church planting cities’ in south western Ontario. Sarnia wasn’t on the list. After an insulting barrage of facts and figures, it was awkwardly obvious that we were in disagreement. Looking back on it all, it was the best thing that could’ve happened to us at that time. Any blame or finger pointing has become unnecessary. None of us could have foreseen what was really coming together.

A good friend of ours, displaced Canadian David Fitch (professor, church planter, and author of a book that continues to influence our work) made an offhand comment during an impromptu visit near the beginning that went something like this: “It’s going to take at least four years for you guys to get your bearings. And if you can make it to five years and beyond, then you’ll begin to see some of the fruit of your hard work.”

At the time, we dismissed the comment fairly quickly. Four years? Maybe he was kidding. Maybe we’d given him too much credit. But now, four years later, we realize that he was dead on. In short, this is what the low hanging fruit is looking like these days:

*Sacred Space + Community Venue: Of all the key copies that we’ve made for our physical location, more than half belong to people who are not part of our worshipping community.

*Fight. For the Right. To Participate: Recently, it was our downtown neighbours who, without our knowing, petitioned on our behalf for us to be included in a local cavalcade of arts and culture exhibitions.

*50/50 time: Our lead team has commissioned me as the lead pastor to spend 50% of my paid hours in functions and relationships that are outside of internal church responsibilities.

*I Do: 1/4 of the weddings I officiated this past year were for people who had no previous connection any church and for the most part felt disconnected from God.

*Mission Impossible: In our Sunday worship gatherings, we’re beginning to find balance in having varying people from varying points of view at varying points in their God journey to worship and commune together. This has been (and continues to be) no small feat.

*24/7 & Intentionally on Sundays at 10:10am: We’ve created an environment where the following could be overheard at any time: Question without penalty; Every kid gets an instrument!; What do you think?; Stay for the potluck even if you didn’t bring anything; Did that guy just drop an F-Bomb in church?; Who’s the pastor here?…no seriously; Where have you seen God at work recently?; Love God, Love Others, Tell His Story.

For all this I am very thankful, and on most days, I feel encouraged and validated. However (and in full transparency) my fears, doubts and ego chase me down daily. Like the hallucinations in the film A Beautiful Mind, my collective worries hang out with me on a regular basis. We’ve become old friends, but I wish they’d just leave me alone.

Transitioning from full time professional clergy to pastor/planter/part-time stay at home dad/bi-vocational misfit was a greater challenge than I had anticipated. Today my income is lower than my very first youth pastor gig. Early on, like a flashing red Bat Phone, job offers from other churches would come in with the promise of a new challenge. Everytime, I would proudly decline. Today it feels like that line is attached to a dusty fax machine. No one uses it much anymore. I sit by it hoping that it will light up again. Not that I’m actively looking for a way out, but the thought of escape prompts my already over active imagination. Don’t get me wrong, I am fully invested in what theStory is all about and am aware of God in the life of our community, but I’ve come to despise what this experience has coaxed out of me. Go ahead. Read between the lines if you like. It won’t bother me. This isn’t news. Sometimes I wonder if this church is more about what God wants to do in me than through me. At least that’s what it feels like.

So as chapter one closes for theStory and we transition from being a church plant into a healthy, established church, I am ever hopeful. Hopeful for what has begun and for what is ahead. There is certainly no shortage of ideas and dreams. My best prayer is that our hearts and legs will hold out as we continue the chase.

Joe Manafo

Fall 2010

theStory Is On The Map For Sarnia First Fridays

Nathan Colquhoun — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:31:15 +0000

We’ve been trying to get on the map for First Friday’s for over a year now. Since we’ve been downtown Sarnia, we’ve been wanting to participate and help out with everything that is going on. The First Friday art walkabouts are one of the bigger things that happen down here. So every month, stores stay open late and display art, installations and music. We are now on the map and will be participating with the even every month. Needless to say, we are excited! Below is the map for the June First Friday. We are having Shari come down from Kingston to display her art for our first night!

The Values Experiment: Sarnia First Friday Event

Nathan Colquhoun — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:34:35 +0000

theStory is starting to get involved in the First Friday cultural walkabouts. It’s basically a night once a month that all the downtown storefronts stay open late and have art exhibits, concerts and other fun things to do. For March we built something that we call a Values Experiment. You can read the write-up on theStory website here and see the results here. The basic idea is we hung questions out for people to answer that would cause them to think about money a little bit differently. Typically our culture reduces almost everything down to money. So what happens when we take it one step further and start putting dollar values on our values, religion and beliefs? It makes things a bit awkward but it certainly gets you thinking. There was a number of people who came through the installation and we got pretty good feedback all around. People would write their answers on a sticky note and put them into the money bags. The results were excellent and pretty funny, I’ll post them below. Thanks to Ryan for the photos.

Empty Spaces at theStory with Emily Brown and The O’Darling

Nathan Colquhoun — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:26:58 +0000

One of the things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time with our space here downtown is use it as a venue. This past weekend was our first show that we hosted. I got Kevin to open up and he did a swell job along side of Nic Swales. Now the next two bands I had never heard of, but I must say I was blown away. Both of them were amazing. It was an honour to have them play for our first show here. Troy has a bunch of pictures that he took from the night here, they are great! Too bad he left early and only got the opening acts. His loss.

The first was Miss Emily Brown. All of her songs seemed to have come from real places in her life. As she played through her set she explained where her songs came from and why she wrote them. Of course for me this helps make the music for me. She isn’t just singing about the night before but issues of culture and history. Her music was soft and lovely and she had a wide range of instruments that she played. Then she finished her set with her singing only accompanied by a music box. It was a really powerful show. Plus, she was just super nice and kind to be around. Check out her stuff on My Space.

Next up was the O’darling. This was a show that also was super impressive. They had three ladies leading the pack and they sang together great. What really brought them together was their band of musicians who knew how to accentuate the girls as opposed to drown them out. One was on a trumpet, one on guitar, one on stand-up bass and the other on drums. Their music was soothing, beautiful and always had me intrigued. They even sang one song in French. Props to these guys for having fun while they were playing too. These guys are definitely worth checking out.

The Bishop comes to Sarnia

Nathan Colquhoun — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:47:32 +0000

Bishop Keith Elford came to Sarnia this past Sunday to ordain Barb Peterson and also joined us for our Sunday morning gathering at theStory. He wrote about us in his latest bishop notes which was kinda cool. What is very different about planting a church with a denomination is that you are usually partaking on something very new and different than what the denomination has previously been doing for a long time. So you have this nagging at the back of your head that you might not fit (which drives a lot of new church planters away from planting with a denomination at all). We have never felt this with the Free Methodists, they have always been extremely encouraging and excited about new opportunities to try something different. Here is his letter that gets sent out to all the pastors in the denomination.

Yesterday morning, Donna and I worshipped in the healthy community atmosphere of theStory, a Free Methodist church plant in downtown Sarnia, ON. Now in its third year, this church plant led by Joe Manafo and Nathan Colquhoun, meets in a storefront location where it has high visibility in the arts and film section of the city. They regularly open their doors to community groups and provide space for bands to practice and work space for local artists. During the week, there is a lot of drop-in traffic (and conversations with) not only curious people passing by but also with neighboring storeowners. As they told stories about relationships that they have been developing, it was clear to me that this community of believers is being salt and light in their neighborhood.

Yesterday morning’s worship experience was beautiful in its creativity and simplicity. While Pastor Joe spoke about the tables where Jesus sat and met all kinds of different people, a communion table made out of a door creatively drew us into the reality that the bread and wine is a doorway into intimacy with Christ. He reminded us with stories from the New Testament about how regularly Jesus went out and often met with undesirable people bringing the good news of grace and forgiveness to them. You’ll see a picture of this table in the Photo Gallery along with pictures of the group as they eat together – something that happens weekly.

Next door, there was a healthy group of lively children meeting in an attractive space that has been developed for them on Sunday mornings, but is used, like the meeting area, in many other ways by the community during the week. With deep appreciation, Pastor Joe talked about the ways that the New Horizons FMC just a few blocks away has been a source of encouragement and financial and practical help. They are already beginning to dream about planting another church in another neighborhood in Sarnia.

New theStory Website

Nathan Colquhoun — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:27:25 +0000

We have a new website for theStory. This one is a lot more functional and user friendly. The website will now manage our library that we are trying to start that will host everyone’s books and not just books in a central spot. The site will also manage all the ATIC things we are trying. We also have started to incorporate forums for our lead team. I’m pretty excited about this one and hopefully will help us do what we are trying to do down here.

The New Space

Nathan Colquhoun — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:49:32 +0000

Nov 1 we signed the papers and got a new space for theStory. We got it right downtown where we wanted to be. It’s been completely renovated from floors to ceilings to fire code and we couldn’t be happier. It’s two storefronts side by side. You can see the picture below. We have a sign on order and should be up before Christmas and that will go on the big grey wall there.

The space on the left is where we hold our main Sunday gatherings. It’s 3200 square feet. Right now it’s full of freshly gathered thrift store couches and a small sound system for our gatherings. I also do all my office work out of the front of this space for Storyboard Solutions too. This way it guarentees that someone is always around and gives us a face with the building downtown. We have a lot of ideas for this space, they are currently being developed. The back area is going to be turned into a massive kitchen for our potlucks and parties. We’re hoping to set up a wall to block off the office space and make it a little more secure. Our hope for this side is to give it as much of a living room feel as possible. Making people feel like at home, so they can use it like their home is a big priority for us.

The left side is where the children meet on Sunday mornings. It’s 2200 square feet with a nice long strip of carpet down the middle. We are holding our first local concert here on December 14th so we are excited to get into that scene also. We are still debating what to do with this side. Part of us wants to make it the more commercial side of theStory where it would stay a profit venture so we could sublet/rent it out to bands, yoga instructors, artists, recording studios and whoever else to use at any times.

We pay $1375 a month for both space plus GST, tax and utilities which equals about $2000 a month. It’s a great space to have and will really serve us well in this community to connect with this side of Sarnia. Joe and I are already loving being able to be here during the day as people walk by and we get to just strike up conversations with people we never would have met if we weren’t here. So here is our space, and we are excited and feel blessed beyond anything to be here.

Theologians and My Space