A Manitoba church is going beyond the four walls of the building to reach the community.
After years of praying for a way to serve the community, Pastor Josh Fraser from The Church at Pine Ridge in the RM of Springfield says that it was obvious what the next step was. For the last several months, the church has been running a coffee shop called Lift Coffee & Tea.
Located in Oakbank, Fraser says how the church took ownership of the building is an interesting story. "We started praying that the Lord would give us opportunities and He would show us where to go in the community and how can we reach out to the lost."
After praying for a long time, Fraser says, "At the end of the year, there was a previous church that met in a building in Oakbank. They approached us out of the blue, we didn't know them too well. They said, 'Hey, we would like you to consider taking on this building and giving us ownership of this building. They were just handing it over to us saying, 'Do something with this for the community.'"
Taking the offer to prayer, Fraser says, "We as an elder board presented it to the church. That first Sunday morning that we presented it to the church, one person, came to me and said, 'I've had this idea for a coffee shop ministry for years, just the space is the biggest hang-up.'"
After asking for the Lord's wisdom in prayer, Fraser says that's when the idea of a coffee shop had more weight added to it. "After praying, another person from our church comes up to me and says, 'I don't know if there's anything here, but when we were praying, I could just hear coffee shop.' So this then got my attention." That wasn't the end of him hearing about a coffee shop. "A couple more people throughout the week would say, 'Have you considered a coffee shop?' Not connected at all. The Lord was getting our attention."
He says that as they continue to serve the community, they hope to have classes and social times where others can get to know each other within the same community.
"A big part of the vision is to be a light post in the community and put on events. So Alpha courses directly explore the faith, but there's also a stage here where we're going to be doing music and paint nights, just community-building things as well. We're looking at least once a month to do a community event where people can mingle."
Lift Coffee & Tea is at 777 Cedar Avenue in Oakbank. The full menu can be seen here.