Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 October 2004 12:15:43
Last night my husband and I went to present a proposal at the church leadership meeting, a surreal experience which was made all the more weird by the fact it was quarter to ten at night and I had spent the last two hours in the pub with my colleagues.
But, despite my babblings, they were actually very positive, which means we can start thinking seriously about running the once-a-month Sunday evening service we've been wanting to do since we came back from Greenbelt. We're thinking liturgy, visuals, alternative worship (and of course, tealight candles and Moby since you've all pointed out to me that they are essential). Our church leader (who has just started reading a book on Emerging Church - bless his cotton socks) is already thinking labyrinths and other complicated-sounding advanced stuff. I reckon don't run - or in the case of a labyrinth, wander - before you can walk.
Now it has been approved we can talk about it properly wth the people who've expressed an interest in doing this with us and we can really start to get excited. Most of all, I am hoping this service will be a healing for people who still feel horribly jaded by the church split we went through last year (which didn't really touch Mr Fishsoup and me, because we hadn't been around for long enough but was unusually horrid and tearful). People keep saying things to me about "the hole we have dug ourselves into on Sunday mornings" and that they find it difficult to worship god in the way and time we have. I'm praying that if we can offer them a respite from that kind of stuff (front-led worship with guitar- same songs every week) then they can come to it fresh and appreciate it again on Sunday mornings. Also, maybe, hopefully, it will speak to people who aren't familiar or happy with the usual stuff we always do and new people will experience God's love through it.
So hopefully, this will be "emerging church" in more ways than one - both in the trendy sense of it, and in the sense that we will all finally emerge from this thing that's been bugging us for the last year and a bit. We were trying to think of a cool name for it last night - having written this, I'm beginning to think that Chrysalis would be appropriate (although of course, not hugely biblical). And then we can all turn into beautiful butterflies later.