Adventures in emergence

2010-03-29T16:14:00.002+02:00

I guess this will be my last official posting as I really need to start writing the assignment. Well there was a different feel again this month. Some new people along one of the non-christians came back which was good. A new person took part. All fairly encouraging although getting people involved felt like pulling teeth at times. We had purposely not prepared many songs, so at times it felt really hard work. There were some good conversations that arose though. Little by little I guess.

With the encroaching deadline for the essay one is forced to ask some of those reflective questions. How did it go? Was it a success? Are there things that could have been done differently? How effective was it?

But how do you begin to measure success and effectiveness. Were their people who engaged with Bare Soul who wouldn't have engaged with any other christian activity? An almost definite yes. Has it brought those people closer to the kingdom? Well that is something only Jesus can answer - I would like to think so even if it is breakdown preconceived ideas of what christianity is about. Has it been effective in transmitting the gospel? Well you could have a big 'ol discussion on what the 'Gospel' actually is but I would probably have to say no in all honesty. Not that that couldn't be done at a later point in time. Has an effective community been built. Well that takes time but again I would probably have to say no! Again that could still develop. Was it a worthwhile activity to take part in? Yes. Is it church? Well you'll have to read the essay to get the answer to that one.

Well this is Dave signing off.

Let the Adventure continue!

2010-02-19T17:15:00.002+01:00

February's Bare Soul on Love was definitely different. I felt very under prepared especially music-wise. At the start there were just a group of Christians there and I thought why am I doing this, especially as I had been talking to quite a few people who said they would come and then didn't show? Later the Landlady and Landlord joined as did a couple more non christians. The contributions were varied from a piece on the science of hugging to a Christian poem (that wasn't particularly good and quite jargony) to a fantastic poem written by one of the non-christians on Desire, Attraction and Love. There was some great art work displayed, and I sang a song that I had written ages ago.

There were also candles set up in a heart shape and people were invited to light a candle for some-one they loved and spend a minute thinking about them.
Towards the end a local musician came and joined us - after chatting with the landlady he went up and lit a candle. He then got up to sing a couple of songs explaining that it was the 4 year anneversary of his sons suicide. The songs he sang were special to him. It was a really touching moment.

After we had finished another couple came and joined us and again the Landlady encouraged them to light a candle for someone they loved. By this time both the landlady and landlord were totally hammered. Trevor the landlord was telling us how he had just resigned from 5 masonic lodges (although was still a member of his mother lodge) and Catherine his wife explained that it was because it was lent, they had talked about what they should give up and, as it was taking so much time, they decided the lodges had to go!!!

Though not many of the people I had talked to about the evening turned up, it had stimulated some really interesting conversations, culminating in one guy coming to 'regular' church last Sunday and another revealing that he had been abused by his priest! There is definitely something going on here.

I am trying to think through how to develop the community side of Bare Soul. It is great having a once a month gathering but it feels like there should be something else. I would love to see it become a community for those in the arts.

2010-02-12T22:45:00.002+01:00

Well it is nearing that time of month again. Bare Soul has a lurrrvve theme this month. I've had a few interesting conversations over this last week. One was in the bar where it is held where the landlady was persuading another guy to come along next wednesday. She is not churched though holds some christian beliefs but she is a great evangelist.

Another conversation was with a friend who said she had been in the bar and heard one of the guys who works behind the bar telling people who were interested in coming that it was religious and we were trying to trick people into a 'God thing'. He is an ardent atheist but at the same time something is going on with him. It got me thinking about opposition and how we deal with it. It is so easy for us to have a really defensive attitude and get annoyed when we're trying to build something up and others are trying to pull it down. But actually God is bigger than that. It is him who builds the house (ps 127:1). It is our job to bless and God's job to build.

Another conversation was today, I was chatting through with a friend about what we could do for the next one. I was suggesting a quiz and her reply was 'do nothing'. She rightly reminded me that the whole idea was for the evening to be led by all those there and pointed out that the more I did now that was from the front, the harder it would be when I've left (I'm finishing here at the end of September) for anyone else to take over. Why do I/we have such a need to control from the front? Are we scared of what might happen? Do we doubt that the Holy Spirit can work to lead people ( even those that aren't fully signed up christians)?

Well I will let you know how it goes on Wednesday.

Is it church?

2010-01-21T10:39:00.003+01:00

Well it's the morning after the night before. I was just reflecting and thinking through last night. I still feel really hopeful and excited about the project or do I dare call it Church! What is church? I question that I have been trying to answer for the last 10 years. I've come to the conclusion that church is (or at least should be) a God-centred community. Well there was definitely a sense of community last night, partly due to the venue which is such a warm and welcoming place, with Landlords that are so friendly (they are really behind bare soul and pushing it at any opportunity even though they are not church -goers) they are definitely people of piece - to use some good evangelic jargon. Anyway, community, the other great feature was that most people already knew someone there, whether through my gospel choir or a neighbour or a regular at the bar and people were talking to one another.

The God-centred bit is a bit harder to quantify I don't know everyone's motives for being there, one guy was just there by accident. Though all the songs we sung were 'secular' (not that I believe there is such a thing, only creativity that honours God or creativity that does not) as a band we were worshiping through them. People's poetry also reflected a god-wards focus even if it was not explicit.
Some may argue that to be church there needs to be some teaching or discipleship, which I would agree with. Last night there were some fantastic conversations going on around the theme of hope. A friend of mine had the idea of putting questions on beer mats. This went down brilliantly. I had long discussions with one guy about 'does there need to be an external spiritual force for us to have hope'.
The element that was possibly missing was prayer. I had planned to have a minutes silence for the victims of the Haiti earthquake where people could pray/think about/send out positive vibes to the victims. But I forgot! Oh well.
So I think I can safely say we now have a church. I'm thinking of setting up a facebook group so people can interact between months hopefully that will become a bit of a online creative community.

2010-01-21T00:40:00.002+01:00

Just had our second evening we're calling it Bare Soul. The theme was Hope. A number of people took part. There were a number of Christians there but also a number of non-christians. The night went really well. Two of the non-church people took part, one wrote a poem that was awesome, the other sang a Guns and Roses song. It was such a cool night. The quote of the evening was from one guy called Peter who said " I came in a confirmed atheist and I'll go out a confirmed atheist but you really blew my pre-conceptions out of the water, you've really uplifted me. It was fantastic to hear such good music." We sang R.E.M, Westlife, Eric Clapton, BeeGee's and Rembrants. As well as poems and songs one lady brought some art and another a cake. Hopefully we made a real impact.

2009-12-26T12:57:00.004+01:00

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.

2009-12-17T18:48:00.002+01:00

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

2009-12-10T12:35:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-06T14:36:00.002+02:00

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

2009-09-09T11:39:00.002+02:00

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?)

2009-09-03T11:57:00.003+02:00

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

2009-08-25T10:32:00.002+02:00

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.

2009-06-05T17:49:00.002+02:00

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

2009-05-14T15:33:00.002+02:00

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?

2009-05-13T20:09:00.000+02:00

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.