If you've got broadband, have a look at
http://www.riponleeds.anglican.org/videos_qt_welcome.php
the diocese of Ripon and Leeds have put some really good 2 min videos on their website of fresh expressions of church in the Diocese. The videos all give a good flavour of what's being done, and each one made me think 'hmmm, could we do that'?
the videos cover
- 2 village churches getting together in 1 building so that the other building can be redeveloped as a village hall and community centre
- a rock service on a Saturday night
- a youth cell church, with cells at a number of parish churches which get together as a 'cluster' of cells for worship and teaching
- a Saturday evening all-age service, meeting 5-7pm with childrens activities, worship and food, which has drawn in lots of people for whom Sunday morning wasn't a good day
- a creative magazine-style service with a strong ethos of participation and interaction
Each one looked good, appealed well to its chosen niche, and every single one is the kind of thing which could be done well by the church in Yeovil if we worked together. One of my farewell acts in Yeovil was to be in an Oasis tribute band, so I'm up for the idea of a rock church... I've also been preparing our monthly cafe service this evening, and having seen the video of the Saturday evening church am wondering (again!)whether Sunday morning is the best time. Once you start thinking outside the box of 'it has to be on Sunday morning, we have to have liturgy, we have to sing Kendrick/Wesley/Redman, it has to be in a church building' it's hard to stop.....
Have a look, and I'm serious about the rock church. I might just get on and buy that guitar I've been thinking about..
It's always good to have a look at what other churches are doing and I would agree that many of these are things that we COULD do, but probably what we need to do is find out what we SHOULD be doing and for that we need to seek Gods guidance.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether sometimes we seek God's guidance by trying things out and having a go?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on whether inertia counts as guidance: do we keep on doing what we currently do until God tells us to do something else? When I look at the state of the church and the massive mission challenge we face, I find it hard to conclude that what we are doing is what we should be doing. In the words of the Stranglers, 'something better change'. Maybe it's about how we discern what that change should be - is it by prayer and fasting, is it by experiment, or is it by both (or something else).