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.