Bookstore closes while new church blooms
WINNIPEG, MB—The Dusty Cover, a used bookstore in Winnipeg's West End, recently closed its doors. But this is not a typical closure due to financial problems. Instead it marks a new beginning for members of a church that was born out of the business venture.
Jamie Arpin-Ricci, co-director of Youth With a Mission (YWAM) Urban Ministries Winnipeg, opened the bookstore a year-and-a-half ago on Sargent Avenue in Winnipeg's inner city. It was a non-profit community initiative intended to give people a safe and comfortable place to gather where they could purchase used books and enjoy wireless Internet while sipping fair trade coffee.
"The bookstore isn't closing because of financial difficulties but because of a lack of volunteers," Arpin-Ricci says. "Getting volunteers is not something we expected to be easy; people are busy. But it wasn't a failure at all, because as a result of the bookstore we planted a church."
The Little Flowers Community was born out of a partnership between YWAM Urban Ministries Winnipeg and Mennonite Church Manitoba. About 20 people who got to know each other through the bookstore now gather for informal services at Arpin-Ricci's West End home every Sunday evening where they share a meal and join in prayer, praise, reflection and Bible study.
In addition to helping the Little Flowers Community church to grow, Arpin-Ricci also plans to launch a new business next year in the inner city.
But rather than open another bookstore, he envisions creating a "community living room" where people can have a space to meet. It will also serve as a setting for the new church, which is quickly outgrowing its home-based locale.
"We are putting The Dusty Cover in the dry dock for a season to reconsider what we are doing," he says, adding that books will be secondary in the new multi-purpose facility.
But like The Dusty Cover, the new venture will be backed financially by a group of local Christians, who for now are anonymous. "They are explicit that they see this as a Kingdom investment," Arpin-Ricci says.
The group plans to acquire an apartment building in the community with retail space on the main floor. In addition to providing quality low-income housing and a Christian presence in residence, they want to convert a section of the commercial space into a community centre for Little Flowers, community programming and outreach.
Arpin-Ricci hopes he will be better able to recruit and retain volunteers for the new centre by hiring a paid staff member to serve as a volunteer coordinator.
In the meantime, Arpin-Ricci will continue to run a weekly kids program out of The Dusty Cover's former location on Sargent. The owner of the space, New Life Ministries, is allowing the program to continue until new tenants begin leasing that building.
And until the new facility is established, the Little Flowers Community church group will continue gathering at Arpin-Ricci's house.
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