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Every other month, young adults gather for a time of worship, teaching, and intercession at Open Space.
The heart behind Open Space is "to play a part in revival. We believe that young adults need to get down, start praying alongside the Manitoba church," Isaac Josue, head director said.
The ministry moves around the city to different churches, such as Calvary Temple and The Meeting Place giving young adults the opportunity to ask God to move.
Josue started the ministry two years ago after he said the Lord moved in his heart. "I grew up a pastor's kid and went through the normal pastor's kid testimony, where I walked away from my faith. And the Lord just really woke something up in me that gave me a desire for Him. One of the prayers in my heart was 'Lord, I want to serve you. I want to see revival. I want to see a move of Your spirit.'"
At the time, he said he was just coming back to faith. "I didn't have much of a Christian community. I remember feeling like I was praying to a wall all the time, like I was hitting the ceiling. I remember going into Collide, months after praying, 'Lord, let me be a part of what You're going to do in the city. God, give me a heart of David. Speak to me in a way I can't deny.'"
Little did he know that the phrase, Heart of David, would play a big role. "Heart of David was something that really resonated with me and this girl that I've never met before comes up to me at the Collide Conference. She lays her hands on me and she says, 'Hey, I feel like the Lord's trying to tell me to tell you He's giving you a heart of David. He's speaking to you right now. He's going to use you.'"
After the conference, Josue gathered together with a few friends from Steinbach and started a worship night. "They love Jesus, and we're like, 'Hey, let's throw a worship night together.' We started praying, and then the doors kept opening."
As the ministry has expanded, the mission remains the same. "We want to play a part in revival."
Josue has seen firsthand what God is doing through Open Space, as well as other Winnipeg ministries. "The larger view is the place that we've played in seeing what God's doing in the city with Collide, Bread We Break. Numbers are going up right now and just seeing our impact in playing a large part of what God's already doing, but individually just hearing stories of people's faith being revitalized, people coming to Christ. We've had a fasting group, and a lot of us have formed our community around Open Space. It's amazing to see what God's been doing, and just been a privilege to collaborate with different people."
Leading Open Space has grown Josue's own faith. "My maturity as a Christian has grown and slightly staggered. I feel like there are things that I've had to encounter and work through that maybe when the ministry first started two years ago, I wouldn't have been ready for. The Lord has given me patience, resilience, and grace for other people."
As Josue is coming back to faith, he said he has new curiosity for how ministry is done. "I think when you first come back to the faith, there's a zeal that you have. You know what the truth is about the faith and I think the Lord just gave me a curiosity for how different people view different things in ministry. And then helping me understand that even when I don't feel like it, even when I don't see how He's moving, He is and that He has such a larger picture than I do in the moment."
The next Open Space event is the Gen Z Rally on June 1. "At an Open Space night, we have some community time where we just hang out and then hop into worship. There's a teaching, and then we center our nights around intersession and praying for the province. Usually we have some specific prayer points than we get back into worship."
For this event, there is one difference that Josue is looking forward to. "We have a group called The EveryHeart Movement coming from Grand Rapids, MI. They're associated with MBL Worship. They go to different regions and we're one of the cities that they're going to be visiting. They collaborate with local ministries and evangelize. They empower the local church."
Josue is excited to team up. "They're coming up to Winnipeg to do a week of ministry on June 1. until the end of that week. We're starting off the week with them before they get into ministry to pray into what they're going to do and rally people from Gen. Z to seek God and to encourage people to share the Gospel."
The Gen Z Rally is at The Meeting Place, 139 Smith Street in Winnipeg on Sunday, June 1. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. before the event starts at 6:30 p.m.