Further ideas on "not church planting"

Some of the things we are initially committing ourselves to do in Barrie include:

• Committing ourselves to the city. We have been nomads for quite a while, and have learned that the biggest danger of being a nomad is feeling that we cannot commit to a place or, more importantly, to relationships within a given place. As such, we feel that it is very important that we commit ourselves to staying in Barrie for the long haul.
• As we're committing ourselves to the city, we also want to get to know the city. Some of our ideas include:
• going around the garage sales by bicycle this summer, choosing one area each week to focus on
• taking each of the bus routes throughout the city, noticing the houses, the people who use the bus, the ease of getting from one neighbourhood to another, or into the city centre
• taking a picnic and eating down by the beach as often as possible - building relationships over the sandcastles, in the lake and at the park
• print a large-scale map of the city and put it up in the study, separating the city into different areas and praying for them one at a time
• going around to as many of the local churches as possible and getting to know who they are, what ministries they are involved in, and how they perceive what is happening in the city
• attending the weekly farmers' market, and getting to know the "regulars"
• meeting the local homeschooling networks, and getting to know, through them, what is available for children, and building relationships across the city through homeschooling events
• my personal favourite - baking up a big batch of cookies and taking them around to the neighbours on our street to introduce ourselves when we first get to Barrie - and continuing to do so as the houses on our street go up and new people move in
• organize weekly bar-b-q's for the street during the summer
• build relationships with public health nurses, midwives and other doula's through my work in completing my doula course