a few random thoughts following on from what you said yesterday, Charles.
In town, how do we cater for rough sleepers and the like, who will want rto come in for coffee, as well as for the more (outwardly at least) "genteel"? What will be the aims and aspirations of a coffee bar? Who will be the target group for coffee bar church that Steve's investigating? What is our response to those featured in the U-Tube video?
Rob commented on Friday evening that the socio-economic of the audience was vasdtly different from what we used to get at town centre HBC wind-ups. At "Crowmoor" the profile was far more biassed toward working class and most would have walked to be with us compared with more middle class, drivers at "Claremont". Springing from that, what opportunities are we making for those people to be presented with the claims of the Lord Jesus on a structured, regular basis? Yesterday evening there were two people that I had never met. Were they Christians? How would a non-churchgoer cope with words like Pharisee, circumcision, ecclesiology? This is in no way intended as a criticism of your message, Charles, which I thought was excellent - but we do have to consider how we reach out to those who come in, as well as to those who only come to an event like Friday. Could Seeker Services a la Willow Creek be the answer - or at least part of it?
I realise that I have presented no conclusions or solutions; at the moment I am struggling to find answers and to see what a mission-shaped church will look like when we apply it to ourselves.
Roy some good points there, though seeker services are very resource hungry and I doubt we could do that well enough at the moment I think that we will need to recognise that we are called to minister in 2 different areas and plan our ministires accordingly
a few random thoughts following on from what you said yesterday, Charles.
ReplyDeleteIn town, how do we cater for rough sleepers and the like, who will want rto come in for coffee, as well as for the more (outwardly at least) "genteel"? What will be the aims and aspirations of a coffee bar? Who will be the target group for coffee bar church that Steve's investigating? What is our response to those featured in the U-Tube video?
Rob commented on Friday evening that the socio-economic of the audience was vasdtly different from what we used to get at town centre HBC wind-ups. At "Crowmoor" the profile was far more biassed toward working class and most would have walked to be with us compared with more middle class, drivers at "Claremont". Springing from that, what opportunities are we making for those people to be presented with the claims of the Lord Jesus on a structured, regular basis? Yesterday evening there were two people that I had never met. Were they Christians? How would a non-churchgoer cope with words like Pharisee, circumcision, ecclesiology? This is in no way intended as a criticism of your message, Charles, which I thought was excellent - but we do have to consider how we reach out to those who come in, as well as to those who only come to an event like Friday. Could Seeker Services a la Willow Creek be the answer - or at least part of it?
I realise that I have presented no conclusions or solutions; at the moment I am struggling to find answers and to see what a mission-shaped church will look like when we apply it to ourselves.
Blessings as ever.
Roy
Messy church works well at Queens Road Baptist Church, Broadstairs. http://www.broadstairsbaptist.org.uk/activities.htm
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim for that link very interesting!
ReplyDeleteRoy some good points there, though seeker services are very resource hungry and I doubt we could do that well enough at the moment
I think that we will need to recognise that we are called to minister in 2 different areas and plan our ministires accordingly