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Q: What is the history of Love Winnipeg
To find the beginning of the Love Winnipeg adventure requires digging into a bit of history. About 20 years ago a group of city-pastors began meeting to pray and stand in the gap for our city. Out of their prayers came the City-Wide Prayer Network and Winnipeg’s March for Jesus, which set the pace in our nation for Jesus marches and ran for a number of years. March for Jesus eventually morphed into Prayer in the Park, an evening of praise, prayer and celebration for all believers held at Rainbow Stage. At the same time that Prayer in the Park was gathering believers for prayer, one of the cities young adults, Juergen Hamm and his team, began calling the youth and young adults of our city to go out and make a difference in their communities through random acts of kindness. They had heard about the Love Your City initiatives coming out of Abbotsford (www.loveyourcity.com) and wanted to see something like that happen in our city. That first year they had great success in firing up the youth and young adults in many churches to make the love of Jesus practical. Their hope and prayer was that the Love Winnipeg model would catch on and more churches would participate. The next year, their prayer was answered as the city-pastors, with their March for Jesus and Prayer in the Park experience, and the Love Winnipeg team, with their year of experimenting met at an intersection with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s Celebration 2005 initiative. The convergence resulted in a new Love Winnipeg planning team being formed in 2005 which took our city into its first fully city-wide adventure with 66 local churches and ministries participating. The following year, 2006, saw 77 groups participate. In 2007 & 2008 over 90 churches participated and we are praying to pass 100 in 2009.
Q: Who can sign up for Love Winnipeg?
Certainly entire churches and para-church organizations can sign up for Love Winnipeg, but expressing commitment and signing-on isn’t restricted to these. Smaller gatherings, like small groups, youth groups, men’s or women’s groups, young adult groups, Bible study groups and Sunday School classes can also sign on and throw their hat in the ring. The only shared doctrinal statements that link us are found in the Apostle's Creed, and we ask that each church, ministry or group identify themselves as those who adhere to this creed.
To sign up for Love Winnipeg, simply go to the Register page. We will send you further information and resources to help get your Love Winnipeg initiative going.
Q: What does it cost to be an official Love Winnipeg church or ministry?
There is no set fee to be part of the Love Winnipeg adventure. Although we do have a lean and mean budget…there are some costs associated with making Love Winnipeg a reality that amount to about $20,000. We won’t hound those who sign up, but we sure would like for each of us to take a bit of the responsibility and contribute as we are able. Presently, no single Love Winnipeg church gives more than about $1500, while many give between $400-600 and some $100-200. In 2006 of the 77 churches and groups that signed on to Love Winnipeg, about 25 gave financially. For 2008 we will need to do a little better than this and we do ask that every church or ministry contribute something in accordance with what they are able.
Q: What kinds of expenses does Love Winnipeg have?
Our 2009 budget is set up to cover the costs associated with getting the word out (advertising and promotions), resource development, web development. Our commitment is to keep our budget very modest…and our impact very significant!
Q: Who are the key organizers of Love Winnipeg?
The key organizing team is a wonderful blend of city-leaders from all sorts of different church flavors, ministries, and denominations. You can take a look at the list of organizers by name and the ministry they work with by going to the LW Org Team link on the home page.
Q: What is the Pastor's Pulpit Exchange?
The Pastor’s Pulpit Exchange is an amazing Sunday in
June when a pastor from one church will swap pulpits with the pastor from another church for that day. The Pastor’s Pulpit Exchange is a rich experience for churches and a profound expression of our unity as leaders. In the past we have had close to 40 pastors switch pulpits. Sometimes they switch within their denomination…other times you will find a pastor from a more reserved church switching with the pastor of a charismatic church down the road. Or a pastor from a funky new emerging-church switching with a pastor from a church with over 100 years history.
Pastor’s are not ‘assigned’ to churches, but churches that wish to participate have the opportunity to choose, negotiate and make sure that the fit is going to work. Participating churches remain completely in control of their pulpits.
For more information on the Pastor’s Pulpit Exchange, or to explore the possibility of participating this year, please contact Bruce Adams from Kilcona Park Alliance Church, bruce@kilcona.org or 222-7384.
Q: What if I have more questions?
If you have more questions that are not answered on this website, please feel free to email us and we'll do our best to answer them.
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