Newcomers and faith

Possibly some of the women are talking more about their faith in their daily lives. I say this because over the last couple of months they have brought 3 different people to worship on Sundays, one of whom is attending regularly.

By a fascinating set of circumstances, one of these is a woman we prayed for regularly during 2009-10 when she was seriously ill, and the other 2 are neighbours of a family who are also beginning to attend Sunday worship.

It seems ironic that work aimed at developing Church beyond the walls of Sunday and the institutional structures may be resulting in fresh interest in approaching God through traditional worship.

Although the women have invited at least 2 people to join them on Thursdays this has not yet been productive. I guess this is a good thing as the women are going to be at the ecumenical Lent course for the next month so our more normal meetings are suspended. I am also minded that the period of transformation we seem to be in on Thursdays may be at a stage which requires stable membership. My decision to attempt to work with this group and support transformation probably requires the women to feel secure in a new identity before they will successfully offer hospitality to new members.

© Dave Walker

Goodbye Gospel 'n' Chips

I think Gospel 'n' Chips has had its day.

Our decision to meet if 3 or more people where available means we were initially dented by the holiday season. This was followed by people waiting for conversations with the new minister around his thoughts. The group was always going to be a summer group and the nights will close in before this time of indecision has passed. At the moment talk is of a prayer meeting taking over both this and another mission focused group I have been enabling. With the inevitable dark evenings I feel I am best to focus on the longer term work.

Is it sad?... perhaps...., but we have had good times and learnt about ourselves and God. More than a dozen people have spoken to us during the last couple of months and several have shared our physical food. The gospel reading has been highlighted in the wider church community due to the cards we have made. I vividly remember one member saying 'I feel alive when we get outside into the community, this is what being a Christian is really about'. We have grown together on this adventure, had fun, and gained insight into the importance of eating together.

I want to file this away as a good experiment. When we did something at the edge of the groups comfort zone we grew and had fun. We might plant a similar seed next year, but I hope we will plant a new one.

....and.... I was getting fed up of fish 'n' chips every week!

Neighbourliness and cherries

We're sitting around on the grass having just finished our fish and chips and we've just been talking about a man up a tree. Now, although this is supposed to be 'gospel and chips' his name wasn't Zaccheus. He was up a tree opposite, and we had noticed him in the gap between the flats and the houses.

One of the neighbours comes across the road towards us carrying an old plastic bag.

'Do you like cherries?' he says, 'I've just been picking them and I saw you here and though you might like some.'

I would love to say we shared our food in return, but it was already finished. We did share a few minutes of conversation, including answering his questions on what we were doing sitting there.

I feel a certain magic when people come and join in conversation with us like this, but the bringing of a gift had more power. It has made me think about what we are offering the people around us by our existence as Church here. I remember how last year we had blackberries going to waste in the garden and we didn't share the bounty of God's grace in creation. I didn't know that I wanted to eat cherries today, but I have been inspired and lifted by the gracious gift from our neighbour.

Here we are looking for ways to share Church with our community, and I find myself reflecting that it is one of our neighbours showing us the way.