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!

An article from the church website

Tea and Jam for Seven!

20lb of Blackberry and Apple jam is sitting in North Lynn Methodist Church's kitchen awaiting labels. Seven women between 18 and 90 had fun together picking blackberries from the church garden and making the jam. There was lots of chatter, a couple of brews and some VERY purple hands. Amazingly only two of the women had made jam before, although others are now keen to make more!

The apples were windfalls from local trees and the jars were saved from being smashed at the bottle bank while the sugar, although not local, was fairtraded. All of this made for a creative afternoon with both an environmental impact and concern for justice.

Once the jars have been labelled the women are planning to give most of them to neighbours along with a personal invite to share in our harvest celebrations, and with this in mind gift tags with our harvest image and brief information are being made. 

North Lynn Methodist Church website can be found here.

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.