Well the first one is over. And went suprisingly well, I think. It turned into a little bit more of a pub gig than I expected but that was cool. There was loads of people there though not many of them specifically for the 'service' but that gave it a nice feel. Most joined in the carols (occasionally with alternative words!) but was a really good atmosphere. It was mainly singing carols and other Christmas songs such as 'have yourself a merry little Christmas' and 'Snow is Falling' which it was. I had made a big stollen cake which was passed round and I had got loads of christmas crackers and put a christmas blessing in with the joke and hat. We had a couple of poignant poems and two readings from the street bible. I did a short two minute talk about counting our blessings at Christmas. Over all seemed to go down very well. The guy who played bass and isn't a christian really enjoyed it as did the owners who are sort of nominal christians. Catherine who is the artist who has all her nude paintings in the Bar had even painted a madonna and child which is the first non-nude she had painted in years.

I'm not sure this will be the model for future months it was a bit too front led but I think that was appropriate for this one. There were not as many people involved as I would have wanted but hopefully that will increase with time. One question I have is how we build community? I'm not sure I have any answers just yet. I 'll just have to see how it progresses in the new year.

The
Bare
Arts
Brewery





Here are a few pictures of the art gallery/ bar where we are launching the church on Wednesday. It is a great opportunity to do something so near Christmas as people are a bit more open to spiritual stuff at this time of year. Some of the team had a meeting over breakfast in a local cafe and were discussing how best to picth it. We are going to use a mix of Carols and charty christmas music. Some of the musicians I gig with are going to play including a couple of non-christians. I've invited people from the choir I run and an article has gone in the paper as well as the bare arts sending stuff out to all their regular punters.

One issue that we discussed was how to include prayer in a non-threatening way. We decided to have bits of paper on the tables that people could fill in if they have any prayer requests. Also, it's a little cheesy but hope it will work, having crakers on the tables - in with all the normal stuff you get in there slip in a christmas blessing.

It is interesting that I was really cautious about calling it a service (what we are hoping to achieve is far more of a community than a service) not to put anyone off or make it sound too churchy. But the owners of the bar were perfectly happy calling it a service on their promotional stuff. I think sometimes we can be a bit too apologetic about what we're doing.

Well we see how it is goes

Well here is the tree that we used to start planning the church.
Roots = Vision and values
Christ Centered Spirituality
non religious
Inclusive
Community
Honesty
Creative
To reach non-church people with the gospel relevantly

Trunk = Context + Style
Bare Arts Bar
Arty
Music
middle class (the people who already go there)
non-church
Simultaneous Expressions
Less directed

Branches = Activities
'Worship'- painting
poetry
music (chart well known)

Teaching - Story
Discussion

Response - ? not worked out yet

The final part is the leaves which are meant to be the outcomes but we didn't want to start by being pescriptive. We wanted the people who came along to determine it's direction.

Our opening night is 23rd December which is getting very close. 'Help'.

Church in a nude Art gallery

Well, whilst the previous idea is still a possibility a new venture has presented itself. We have been offered the use of a bar which is situated in a nude art gallery (all abstract and quite tasteful). Once a month on a Wednesday evening. I already gig in this bar occasionally and know some of the regulars quite well. I am teaming up with a musician and another guy I know we got together to start planning. It was tempting to start with what we thought the gathering would look like but instead we used a model I had learned on a course based on a tree. The roots are vision and values, the trunk the environment and who you are trying to reach then the branchest are the activities and the leaves the outcome. We discussed that we did not want to set up another service but try and reach non-church people in a relevant way. I will try and post the tree!!

People

I've put together a list of possible people to invite and it is going to be interesting. There is an alcoholic, a guy who had an experience of God on an acid trip, a guy who found jesus when a Christian wrestler died and somehow through that found God, a catholic/buddhist a gay couple and some other interesting people.

The question is where do you start, by gathering the people and creating something or creat something to gather the people. ummm!!

Breakthrough (maybe?)

I may have had a breakthrough. For a number of months a friend of mine has been talking about setting up a house group as part of his church for people on the fringe of church or so I thought. Talking to him last night about his ideas for it he is looking more at planting a congregation for those that are seeking or on the fringe of regular church. The more we talked the more it seemed our thoughts and ideas coincided with one anothers. When we talked about the possible shape of what it might look like our ideas were to have a mixture of meeting in homes and somewhere like a pub. Be very interactive in the way things are taught/learnt - allowing a place for people to really question. Allowing people to be 'naughty' not sitting around giving the right answers but allowing space and saftey for people to be really 'real'. We both want to try and limit the involvement of churchy christians as much as possible. We agreed that the one of the best ways to bring people together would be to focus outwardly on some social action project (the area we live in is fairly activist, militantly green, anti war, ex hippy kind of place). There are questions around when in the week. There is also the question of affiliation. He is attached to an anglican church I work for the methodist circuit we both get really annoyed with the ecclesiastical structures of both but both feel the need for some covering (or in my case to justify my job). Possibly by making an ecumenical project (hate the terminology but it keeps some people happy) it means that we don't have to follow the protocols of either denomination.

There are still a number of questions: What does corporate worship look like with non-churchy people. How can we get the blessing of the established churches without them interfering? How do we start? Where is located - if in one place at all (there are three small towns it would cover)?

We have decided to go away and pray and come back in a couple of weeks. Also make a list of people we could potentially invite/have significant contact with.

ummm

There is another lady I know who is involved in choir and also attached to a church which I thought she didn't go to much anymore. She would have been an ideal person to plant a church with. But on talking to her she is more involved than I thought. The last thing I want to do is take people away from existing churches as this does nothing to actually build the kingdom.

It seems that every door I push is being slammed in my face. (I don't know why I just used the door thing as I hate that analogy).

I think my next move is to make a list of all the people I've had significant contact with, who maybe interested in exploring doing church.

I've had a few ideas about what the church might look like although I want to hold onto them quite loosely as it would be better for it to be shaped by the people rather than dictated by a leader.

Well all the best laid plans of mice and men. I talked to one of the key people from the choir and she didn't think it was a good idea at all. Thinking about it the people I would want to involve all work and would struggle to get somewhere to eat even if it was to eat.
Back to the drawing board. I was really excited after cliff but now i'm on a bit of a downer about it wondering what to do. I'm sure God will bring something along. I want to plant a church responsibly which means doing it with someone else as I only have a year left where I am.
My other issue is when as it will have to be during on the day or possibly on a tuesday night. I am really good at finding reasons not to do things.

a cunning plan

Well the plan at the moment is to work with some of the people from gospel choir, possibly having dinner before rehearsals and chatting about spiritual stuff. Sounds simple enough but how do you invite people to something like that? Do you make it very low key and just introduce the spiritual stuff on the sly or are you very upfront at the beginning with the risk of putting people off? Do you try and lead or let the group take the lead. When do you start?

Well this is the beginning of the journey of planting an emerging church. I'm not sure where to begin or what to do. I need inspiration. Maybe I should pray, probably a good place to start.