Conversation Starters

I recently came across this photo on Imago Dei's website and I think it poses a good question -- how well do we listen and respond to God's invitation to be his Kingdom in our daily lives? For that matter, how well do we listen to the plight of our neighbors as we each struggle with our existence? How prepared are we to embrace the life God calls us to?

The last few years at Emmanuel have seen a heightened attentiveness and desire for meeting the needs of the marginalized in Saskatoon's downtown/inner-city core. Increasingly conversations around these questions and issues seem to have been popping up in all sorts of ways and settings. As a result of this stirring in our collective heart, our community has begun to take a more intentional approach to exploring what this stirring might mean for us beyond our current partnerships. We want to ask God what more he has for us in this time and this place.

Over the course of one month, April 17th-May 17th, 2010 a group of twenty-five people from representing all three of Emmanuel's communities gathered to form a task force with a mandate to investigate what an expanded presence and engagement with the marginalized in the core of Saskatoon might look like for our church family. Those lovely folks worked tirelessly for that month (and some even a little past) and engaged in conversations with various levels of government, other faith communities, community organizations, zoning & bylaw officials, and our friends at the Bridge on 20th to learn about the needs in our city and what is currently happening to alleviate those burdens.

As we explored, the task force not only gathered information but formed new friendships and found beauty and inspiration in surprising places. And as we worked to write the report of our findings we suddenly felt that we would be missing a huge piece of the process if we neglected listening to the individual experiences and lessons learned over that time and the ways that God is speaking into those experiences. And so we thought "what about asking these friends of ours to reflect on their experiences as a way of sharing the excitement we feel about this project?". So here it is -- a storyteller's platform, an educational forum, a vision, a journey. In other words, a blog.