Back in the day, we used to joke about the old Salvation Army world, where, on a Sunday, you went to a service morning, afternoon and evening, and squeezed ‘knee drill’ prayer meetings in between. In our currently buildingless state, I find myself feeling a bit like one of those early day salvos, as my Sundays keep getting jam packed.
This morning, I found myself at a Baptist church. I’ve wandered in for Wandsworth prayer meetings and the commissioning of the new minister, but had never been there on a normal, run of the mill Sunday. It was good to feel the ‘new person in church’ fear, as we walked in and I realised I knew no-one, and also good to be able to sit back and watch, without having to think about leading/admin/whether I will need to remind anyone about missed announcements etc.
We heard some fab stories: one woman had just come back from Malta where she had seen some healings etc. Another lady worked in an orphanage in an African country. She was telling us about the inflation there – how millions of their dollars amounts to £1 over here. It was a challenging story and again reminded me how much we have in comparison.
The message was all about grace and mercy – how grace means getting what we don’t deserve, and mercy means not getting what we do deserve… I liked that description.
In the afternoon, we gathered in our temporary, borrowed hall and did church as a boiler room. It was the usual chaos of manic last-minute photocopying, running around looking for chairs, story telling, sharing chocolate coins, catching up with family, praying bold prayers, raucous singing, Bibles falling off pews, etc. It was nice to see everyone again and share a bit about Seville.
This evening I went to my friends house, we have an informal, often random cell meeting on Sunday evenings, where we share stuff from our week, try and make sense of some Bible stuff, pray a bit and generally try and be open and accountable. (Tonight this process was aided by a roast chicken dinner, and ‘Best 90’s Love Songs’ on TMF… a winner!)
I love that having no church building right now gives us the opportunity to be flexible and try things differently. I like it that there aren’t really any rules, and it is not possible to get stuck in the rut of routine, because everything changes so quickly! I like visiting different congregations and learning from them, and I love it that three of us sitting around chatting, to a background of Bryan Adams, counts as church.
I really hope that we don’t lose this type of thinking when we have the building back. I really pray we don’t get set in our ways again and stop being imaginative.
I really hope I can stay open and enjoy the challenges of thinking and doing church differently, whatever happens in the next few months.
