Multiple ministries have come together in a 'Kingdom Collaboration' to serve people in downtown Winnipeg.

The four ministries serving out of the building on Furby Street are The Wave Church, Encounter Life Ministries, Adult & Teen Challenge's (ATC) Freedom Church, and Agape Table. 

Pastor Marty McLean along with his wife Rose run Encounter Life Ministries and have for four years. 

"We've had different locations since we started," says McLean. "We were always looking towards downtown because our focus is to reach out to the 70,000 Indigenous people living here in the city of Winnipeg. That's always been the vision of our church."

McLean is originally from a community two hours north of Winnipeg called Pinaymootang. 

"One afternoon I felt led by the Spirit to call Pastor Duane Siemens of The Wave. I shared my heart with him, the vision of our church, what we've been doing, and the outreaches we've been doing over the past year. He said that he felt we needed to work together."

It only took a week before Siemens offered the space for Encounter to run their services out of the building. 

"By the leading of the Lord it was just like a piece of the puzzle was being put together, and we both recognized that. We both call it a Kingdom Collaboration, and it truly has been."

While each ministry offers something to the public, they can fill gaps where another ministry is lacking or simply unable to meet a certain need. There are multiple church services at different times, they offer help for people battling addictions, and they offer services and items for people facing homelessness.

"Agape Table is there. Having them there and collaborating with them is such a wonderful thing," says McLean. "We're a small church that is growing but these ministries are willing to help right off the bat. We deal with many people facing addictions and now we're connected with Adult & Teen Challenge and Freedom Church. There's a wonderful unity happening."

ATC's Freedom Church

Terry Thiessen is the Ministry Pastor of ATC Central Canada. He helps oversee four Freedom Churches, three in Manitoba and one in Thunderbay, Ontario. Their Freedom Church in Winnipeg operates out of this building.

Freedom Church

"ATC has a long relationship with The Wave Church, even going back to when it was called Waves of Glory," says Thiessen. "We have been partnering with them. Pastor Duane Siemens has had various coaching roles, and our men attend The Wave church many a Sunday morning. We have had a strong and affectionate relationship with this church."

Thiessen shares that much of the credit for the ministry's collaboration goes to The Wave Church and Pastor Duane. 

"We want to be an absolute force for the community and Pastor Duane has had that heart for many years to make maximum impact with the real estate that you have. It was a great fit for us."

The separate ministries work together in sharing the gospel with people. 

"There's not one of these [ministries] that we haven't had a direct hand with. We had an outreach team at Encounter Life and we've also had Pastor Marty and his team minister at Freedom Church on a Sunday night. With The Wave, we've done the same thing." 

The unifying of forces is what makes this collaboration one that stands out, according to Thiessen. 

"It's not so much identifying the different roles that we have but understanding the difference all of us offers makes for an absolute beautiful mosaic of the gospel. It helps the community to see that organizations that might function differently from each other can really symphonically create a nice musical piece together and serve the community. That's what it's all about."