I have set aside July 20-24 and August 17-21 to meet with those of you who may be called to the Sunnyside downtown site. Before I go on vacation (Monday) I’d like to fill August 17-21 with appointments. Please email kronberg@sympatico.ca if you are interested. During those conversations, I will update you about the site, hear your thoughts and questions, find out where your gifts and interests lie and pray with you for wisdom and direction.
It has been a joy to meet with several of you this week. “This is exciting!” is the phrase I have heard most. I think so too. At present, 11 have confirmed they will go downtown, 8 are very interested, and 15 are wondering.
It is not too early for you to make your intentions known. The first launch team meeting of 60-80 people is scheduled for Sunday, September 27 at 12:45pm. The downtown congregation will start to form that day. I haven’t heard from a lot of families. Keep in mind, as you discern your ‘place’, there will be children’s Sunday School and nursery at the downtown site.
It’s time to pull out the stops a bit and celebrate the benefits of establishing a Sunnyside congregation downtown! (These benefits are relevant to Sunnyside Grosvenor too.)
Relational Benefits – When a medium-size group of people comes together in Christian unity with a common vision and mission in mind, spiritual friendships grow.
Faith Benefits – Obediently moving forward when much is unknown has a way of forcing reliance on the Lord. Faith grows as we take risks and experience God’s faithfulness.
Unexpected Surprises – God shows up in the most unlikely places. You think you are making a big sacrifice and you find unusual joy.
Enlarged Heart – There’s nothing like prayer-walks and intentional relationship in a yet-to-be-determined place downtown to expand your heart’s capacity to love people that you hadn’t considered before.
Opportunity to Serve – An initiative like this requires all hands to be on deck! Every kind of spiritual gift is needed and there is no such thing as being redundant. It’s a forum in which you can practise living in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Kingdom of God Expansion – We can expect as we, by faith, move into a neighbourhood and love as the body of Christ is meant to love, the kingdom of God will come (on earth, even as it is in heaven). People will become followers of Jesus. Ongoing transformation will happen.
I believe the benefits will outweigh the costs! I’d be interested in hearing what benefits or costs you identify. Please feel free to contact me for further conversation kronberg@sympatico.ca.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Save the Dates
Some of you like to see that there is a real plan in place. This email is for you. I give you these dates while saying at the same time that the Lord is God and He is ultimately in charge. So these plans need to be held with open hands.
Those of us who are part of Sunnyside Downtown hope to have our first official worship service on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010. That seems pretty far away but in order to start strong next April, the Sunnyside Downtown Launch Team should become a real group of people by October or November 2009.
The Launch Team will be made up of 60-80 (or more) of you who think God is calling you to the Sunnyside Downtown campus. As a Launch Team, we will begin to meet monthly, starting Sunday, September 27 at 12:45pm in the church basement over lunch. Other Launch Team meetings are scheduled for: October 25, November 22, December 6, January 24, and February 28. If you have any inkling that you may be part of this team, please enter the dates into your calendar now. Some of you who intend to stay at Sunnyside Grosvenor may like to participate in Launch Team meetings (especially the first one or two) to be prayerful and supportive (and eat good food). You are welcome!
What will the Launch Team do at these meetings? We will share meals together thanks to the hospitality of Ellen Kelly and team. We will consider our gifts and decide who God is enabling to do what. We will divide up responsibility for the downtown site (before it physically exists) and begin to take action, as needed, according to our gifts. We will build relationship with each other. We will take prayer walks downtown. An interested sub-group will confirm and secure our location. We will figure out how to best initiate relationship with and communicate our existence to the community downtown.
What will the Launch Team not do? We will not get people to do things that they have neither the gifts nor grace to do. My experience with missional teams is that when people do only what God asks them to do, when he calls them to do it, there is divine energy and inspiration (grace) for the task. The Launch Team experience should be a grace-filled experience, not a tough slog.
At present I’ve heard from 28 of you who have varying levels of interest in being part of Sunnyside Downtown. If any others would like to sit down for a coffee with me this summer I’ve cleared the weeks of July 20-24 and August 17-21 for one-on-one discernment conversations and prayer with you. (No worries! There is much freedom to both make decisions and reverse decisions about being part of the downtown site.) Just give a shout at kronberg@sympatico.ca. There is still time, particularly during the day, the week of July 20-24. The week in August is wide open.
When our staff meets in August we will begin to put some more dates on the calendar. We will look forward, even into 2011, and schedule ‘celebration’ dates. Those are times where we will be purposeful as the whole of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church, Grosvenor and Downtown sites, to notice and celebrate together what God has done. Also, we will be intentional about putting ‘church-wide connection’ events into our calendar in order to ensure that we have opportunity to gather as the whole community of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church many times throughout the year.
As always, please feel free to email me at kronberg@sympatico.ca with any of your opinions, input, or concerns. It is good to hear from you!
Those of us who are part of Sunnyside Downtown hope to have our first official worship service on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010. That seems pretty far away but in order to start strong next April, the Sunnyside Downtown Launch Team should become a real group of people by October or November 2009.
The Launch Team will be made up of 60-80 (or more) of you who think God is calling you to the Sunnyside Downtown campus. As a Launch Team, we will begin to meet monthly, starting Sunday, September 27 at 12:45pm in the church basement over lunch. Other Launch Team meetings are scheduled for: October 25, November 22, December 6, January 24, and February 28. If you have any inkling that you may be part of this team, please enter the dates into your calendar now. Some of you who intend to stay at Sunnyside Grosvenor may like to participate in Launch Team meetings (especially the first one or two) to be prayerful and supportive (and eat good food). You are welcome!
What will the Launch Team do at these meetings? We will share meals together thanks to the hospitality of Ellen Kelly and team. We will consider our gifts and decide who God is enabling to do what. We will divide up responsibility for the downtown site (before it physically exists) and begin to take action, as needed, according to our gifts. We will build relationship with each other. We will take prayer walks downtown. An interested sub-group will confirm and secure our location. We will figure out how to best initiate relationship with and communicate our existence to the community downtown.
What will the Launch Team not do? We will not get people to do things that they have neither the gifts nor grace to do. My experience with missional teams is that when people do only what God asks them to do, when he calls them to do it, there is divine energy and inspiration (grace) for the task. The Launch Team experience should be a grace-filled experience, not a tough slog.
At present I’ve heard from 28 of you who have varying levels of interest in being part of Sunnyside Downtown. If any others would like to sit down for a coffee with me this summer I’ve cleared the weeks of July 20-24 and August 17-21 for one-on-one discernment conversations and prayer with you. (No worries! There is much freedom to both make decisions and reverse decisions about being part of the downtown site.) Just give a shout at kronberg@sympatico.ca. There is still time, particularly during the day, the week of July 20-24. The week in August is wide open.
When our staff meets in August we will begin to put some more dates on the calendar. We will look forward, even into 2011, and schedule ‘celebration’ dates. Those are times where we will be purposeful as the whole of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church, Grosvenor and Downtown sites, to notice and celebrate together what God has done. Also, we will be intentional about putting ‘church-wide connection’ events into our calendar in order to ensure that we have opportunity to gather as the whole community of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church many times throughout the year.
As always, please feel free to email me at kronberg@sympatico.ca with any of your opinions, input, or concerns. It is good to hear from you!
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