More Food for Thought………….

I wish you could be with us at one of our appraisal meetings, getting together after a Food For Thought service, to see what worked, what didn’t, what needs changed etc……..

How can we get baguettes fresh enough on Sunday afternoon? how can we prevent children falling over power leads? Who will source sixty good sized pebbles for the prayer session? ( anyone whose been to March’s meeting will understand this?), how big should the words be on the screen?

On second thoughts perhaps you wouldn’t like to be there, they do go on a bit! But feedback is good ( Food for Thought – feedback, get the connection, good eh!) and we need as much of it as we can get. So far, what we have got is positive, and we hope it will continue that way.

But meetings aren’t just about ironing out the small issues, finding solutions to the practical questions, they’re about the hard questions too. How do we talk about God in a way which is relevant, how do we talk about prayer in a way that will feel comfortable to those who find it difficult ground, how do we care for those who come, …really care for them, how do we make this a place for people in Winterslow, a welcoming, fun and unthreatening place to meet together and talk about spiritual things.

Time will tell, but we’re learning all the time. Someone asked me to mention where children come in. Children are welcome, and we really mean, welcome. This is one place where you don’t need to worry, you don’t need to worry about noise, moving around, finding something to entertain them. One of the primary reasons for setting Food for Thought up was to provide a meeting where families who don’t maybe go to church could feel comfortable and experience God together, on everyone’s level. So bring the children, please, they’re every bit as much a part of what we’re doing as you are.

It just remains to say a big thankyou to the Methodist Church for their reference to our meeting in the last magazine and to reiterate how much we pray Gods blessing on their new venture, Souper Church as well. We now know that having one type of service is no longer enough to connect to everyone’s experience of God, we need choice, ….choice of styles, times, venues etc and more choice is something to celebrate.

By the end of January this year, 600 churches had registered their involvement in providing a fresh expression of what church is, groups in housing estates, mums from toddler groups, Saturday night discussion churches, coffee and Sunday papers breakfast churches. Why not come and see if our fresh expression of church is right for you and your family.