JoinHands: A Story from Windsor Mennonite Fellowship
Mennonite Men has given out dozens of JoinHands grants to new congregations throughout Canada, the United States, and in countries all over the world who wish to acquire a building where they can worship. Many people have been blessed by owning a church building with help from JoinHands grants. Church buildings can make it possible not only for folks to gather for worship and study, but also as spaces to share meals, host community conversations, build relationships, and bear witness to God’s Kin’dom and wide welcome. And we celebrate the many ways that congregations gather. This doesn’t always involve use of or owning a building.
I recently followed up with Windsor Mennonite Fellowship (WMF), a congregation in Windsor, Ontario who received a JoinHands grant from Mennonite Men back in 1993. Though pastor Riley was away at the time, I was thrilled to get an e-mail response from an elder named Nate Hope to share updates about the congregation more recently. Nate came from a Pentecostal background and had worked in construction but now is a church elder at WMF and a full-time social work student working for the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Nate and catching a glimpse of Windsor Mennonite Fellowship, a Mennonite Church Canada congregation just miles from Detroit in the US.
“Our church building was once a laundromat in the neighborhood,” Nate explained. “The congregation was able to purchase and renovate this structure. We created a sanctuary, a nursery, and a kitchen and dining area in the back. It’s a small space, but we’ve made it work. Space is even becoming tight now.”
Nate shared that WMF shares the space with an Eritrean congregation called Shalom Worship and Healing Centre. This sister congregation worships on Sunday afternoons, also utilizing the building for a prayer service and choir during the week. Both congregations take turns with the space, requiring scheduling. There have even been times when WMF held their elders meeting at another congregation’s building because their sister congregation was using the space.
Windsor Mennonite Fellowship has experienced a good deal of change in recent years, especially around the time the COVID-19 pandemic set in. A new pastor came. The congregation developed a statement to become an inclusive and welcoming congregation. Also before the pandemic, many congregants came from Mennonite backgrounds. Many families who moved back to smaller communities where they’d grown up decided to stay in those smaller communities when the pandemic subsided. Meanwhile, many newer folks in Windsor began attending WMF.
“When our current pastor Riley came, he was well-known in town, and a number of new folks began attending who were new to a Mennonite faith. But they felt comfortable coming here, and Riley and others made them feel welcome. Like many churches during the pandemic, we began offering online services and changed our worship format to include 15-20 min sermons and the same amount of time devoted to sharing dialogue afterwards. We have keep that format, which folks appreciate,” Nate shared.
Thank you to all supporters of Mennonite Men’s ministry of helping new congregations purchase a worship space. Pray for Windsor Mennonite Fellowship, for its collaborative sharing of space with another congregation, and the future relationships being deepened throughout Windsor, Ontario and throughout the wider church. If you know of a new congregation looking to purchase a building, inform them about our JoinHands grant program. We continue inviting your support for future grants to new congregations.