See More Art Installations… Trying to keep up with the monthly First Friday’s downtown Sarnia, this month, we put together an installation called #IdleKnowMore The installation was Lead by Dallas Willms (our current intern), and playing off the hashtag #idlenomore in regards to the First Nations protests and unrest. Instead of taking a side, we […]
First Friday: #IdleKnowMore Art Installation Read More »
See More Art Installations… A book has been written. For the last six years I’ve spent most of my time with theStory. theStory is a 6 year old church plant in Sarnia, Ontario. Myself along with Joe Manafo and Darryl Silvestri began this church from a few years of conversations and a desire to see
…And We Will Become A Happy Ending Read More »
See More Art Installations… With the arrival guide of street preachers downtown theStory wanted to offer some lightheartedness and clarification to the situation. There was way too many folks asking us what was going on, getting upset at their message (or the way they were presenting the message). So we setup four of these little
Street Preacher Survival Guide: A Downtown Sarnia First Friday Installation Read More »
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
Lent Service – Proclaim Read More »
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
Ecumenical Lenten Gatherings for Lambton County Read More »
See More Art Installations… This was our First Friday exhibit we setup tonight. Thoughts?
One Of These Things Is Not Like the Others Read More »
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
Guest Post: theStory, Sarnia: A Ridiculously Abbreviated Reflection on Chapter One Read More »
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
theStory Is On The Map For Sarnia First Fridays Read More »
See More Art Installations… 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
The Values Experiment: Sarnia First Friday Event Read More »
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
Empty Spaces at theStory with Emily Brown and The O’Darling Read More »
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
The Bishop comes to Sarnia Read More »
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.
New theStory Website Read More »
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
I was trying to withhold this post for quite a while now. I didn’t think it would ever get to the point. But we are here, and I’m happy we are. Last October, a few friends of mine from FRWY taught me this game. We played it one time and it was a lot of
Settlers of Catan and theStory Read More »
For the record. The building I talked about here, that would make a beautiful addition to the mission of theStory has just dropped in price. It was listed at $240,000 and now is listed at $180,000 and the real estate agent just called us and said that if we could make an offer around $150,000
Building Price Drops $80,000 Read More »
Along with church planting is dealing with shattered dreams and ideals. Whether they are dreams of a few days or dreams of a few years, they all don’t, if any go as planned. Since we have started thinking about planting theStory we have tossed around the idea of having a storefront in downtown Sarnia as
Buildings and Dreams Read More »
It is odd, encouraging and a bit scary to me that more people all over the world that read occasionally on the internet have a better idea of what’s going on with our church plant (theStory) than my neighbour does. In fact, I don’t think my neighbour knows that I’ve started a church. There are
theStory Inside the City Read More »
“I don’t want you to organize some amazing thing on Sunday for me to experience this as church.” These are the words that poured out of a girl at our second meeting as a new church plant. These are the words that as a team that has been planning this church plant for almost two
Starting Over After Two Weeks Read More »
After it was all over, Joe, Darryl and I were sitting there and I looked at them and I said “well, we did it, we just planted a church.” (theStory) I don’t have a clue what that means. I don’t know how to plant a church. I don’t even know if that’s what we are