Doing small things for the bigger picture
SARNIA, ON—Nathan Colquhoun is technology savvy, media-literate, and knows how to stir people to action.
While in his first year at Tyndale College and Seminary he started Canon 25, the school's first student newspaper. He was one of four friends who founded Epiphaneia, which spearheaded a series of Emerging Church conferences. Now at 27, he co-owns and runs a graphics and web design company called Storyboard Solutions. Last fall, a web site he co-created made international headlines by flagging concerns over former president George W. Bush's planned talk at a fundraising breakfast for Tyndale.
But Colquhoun says when it comes to changing the world for Christ, he's learning the value of being small and local.
"I'm growing in understanding that faith is something you work out locally in community," he says. "Small communities of people who care about each other are vitally important. Being rooted somewhere and building trust in the people around you.
"Just being in my community and staying here for the rest of my life is the best thing I can do as a Christian for the world. Building relationships with my neighbours. Raising my kids in a way that they're going to care about the world the way that Jesus cared about the world."
In 2007, he co-founded a church called theStory (sic) with co-pastor Joe Manafo. The church started out in a living room in 2007. Then in 2008, they bought a downtown storefront.
"The church is awesome," he says. "It's a lot of families from around Sarnia. We try to make it really comfortable for people to just walk in off the street."
Worship and teaching have an interactive flavor, says Colquhoun, and there's a potluck every week.
"It's a pretty tight knit community of people," he says. "A bunch of us moved into the same area and we 'do life' together."
He and Manafo started Storyboard Solutions when they founded the church to help support their families and the ministry. The business recently incorporated and now has six partners. The media company does web site, video and photography work, as well as event and project management.
"It's been another great way for us to get involved in the community," he says.
He and his wife purchased a nine-bedroom home. They have three friends living with them now, and an open house for people who need a place to stay.
He has also stepped down from Epiphaneia.
"Not that I didn't love it," he says. "But I felt there was something 'separate' about it. I'd go and sit next to all these people I didn't know for a day, and then come back to Sarnia where I had all these relationships with people who were hurting.
"I used to be drawn by the impact of a grand movement. Getting all these people together in a room and making them believe the same thing, having books and blogs, stopping Bush from coming to Toronto. But I think the world is actually changed through these small local communities who love their neighbours, and when their neighbours are hurting they bring them dinner.
"Now, we're just learning what it looks like to be a Christian in Sarnia right now. In everything I do, being the church in the world, being the kind of person who is shaped by Jesus, the scriptures, and the Church.
"I don't care if I'm known out in the world. I care about making a difference here."
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
