The evening of October
1st was much anticipated by the coordinators
of the church: event.
We spent significant time thinking
and praying through the vision, building a team around gifting and
passion, as well as promoting it
among the church family at Cartsbridge.
Our central idea
was clear from the start. We would use these evenings to create SPACE: space for community,
creativity, worship and teaching.
We believed we needed to provide an event that would allow busy people to encounter God, experience community, become equipped
to live as Jesus' followers and as a result, leave to engage more effectively with their world. Furthermore we sensed
strongly that people in our fellowship shared the vision and were eager for something
like this to take place.
The two weeks leading up to the event involved serious planning of the programme. The
whole of Sunday afternoon involved us setting up the church in a way that
reflected our core values. The response
from the church family that evening was nothing short of staggering. Around 200
people turned up for church:! We had those from their
earliest days to their senior years in attendance and this made for a special
atmosphere in the building.
To capture the essence of what took place I mention our four central principles.
Community
We wanted to make it clear that although the programme
started around 6.30pm we would invite people to come for coffee and cookies at
6.15pm. There was a real buzz in the building people chatted to those they
didn't know very well. Equally at the end of the evening people stayed behind
and lots of conversations took place.
Creativity
The people who hosted church: spent considerable time
planning the first section. There was clever use of video, good interaction
with the church family and a fun activity that engaged people and drew them
into what was taking place. This provided a good platform on which to build the
rest of the evening.
Worship
A number of people commented that the presence of God was
evident as we worshipped him through carefully chosen songs. Once again our
desire was to give space and freedom to
enable the lyrics of songs to cause an
upward response to God in devotion, praise and renewed commitment.
Teaching
The overall theme for the teaching was 'Indescribable' and our desire was to
explore the greatness of God and his presence in the lives of his
people.
Our bible base
is found in Exodus 15:11
Who
among the gods is like you, Lord?
Who
is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
Our aim was to take a phrase each week and explore three key truths about God. He
is set apart, high above and yet fully present.
When I look back on our first church:
event my personal highlight was the space
we provided for prayer at the end. A small team stood just off centre at
the front of the church. As we rounded off the programme we encouraged people
to come forward for prayer. A good number of people did. I mention this because
this would be an unusual practice in our fellowship. Through church:
we want to sensitively change culture
if we believe it will enable people to encounter God.
What I have recounted is only a tiny snapshot of the first evening. How it will develop in the
coming months I cannot say. However, I am grateful
for what took place this autumn in Cartsbridge Church and I am hopeful for the future.
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