Messy Church

Yesterday, I was with another 50-odd people hearing all about Messy Church, a really exciting new initiative endorsed by Fresh Expressions designed to attract young people and their carers for genuinely all-age worship.

The basic idea is to enjoy various fun craft activities based around a certain theme, a very short time of worship, and then have a shared meal together.
Why not have a look at their website and have a mooch round; there's plenty of good craft ideas at the very least; mooch on!

http://www.messychurch.org.uk/

That's got Cod Sall to do with Fresh Expressions.

Ahem!
A few great pictures here from Codsall's very special midweek service, StNics@StNics.
It meets actually not in the church building, but in the school that shares it's name; St Nicholas' First School.
Not a 'Messy Church' by name, but it looks like it by nature!
You can see a load more pictures here;
http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll218/LichfieldFreshExpressions/StNicsatStNics/

Boom-band-a-bang

Deton8 - a well exciting Youth Event that took place in Wonderful Wolves a couple of weeks ago. I meant to go, but I got waylaid. Apparently it was awesome.

Don't take my word for it; check out the video...



(Cool, my first video blog - next I'll be doing 3D interactive holograms)
(Or not)

Stig - coming to a church near you...

An entirely unreliable source telss me that ths Stig (yes that's right,the lanky mysterious chap on the left, has been zooming around the diocese recently trying to find a church that would make him feel welcome, with drastically differing results.



Problem is, most people now are getting used to that mysterious white helmet, so now he's joined up with our Mystery Worshipping team. That way no one needs know who he is!


Fact is, he cold be almost anyone, maybe even one of these...




If you'd like the Stig or another Mystery worshipper to visit your church, or maybe you'd like a go at being Mystery Worshipper yourself, just let Richard know...

St Editha's Prayer Trail, Church Eaton

This looks great!
loads of photos already up on flickr, so I'm not going to duplicate Peter Ashby's hard work, but do have a look at the page;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pegash/sets/72157606241110989/
It was set up to coincide with the Scarecrow Festival - what a great way of incorporating a spiritual dimension into a community event!
If you're keen, I can happily send you some details of the text that was used.

Harass you all soon!

Renew 08

Hullo Folks

A few snaps I've just posted from an exciting festival just taken place in Leigh in Staffordshire. It looked pretty awesome!
Check out their site at www.hopeforleigh.org.uk if you'd like to see more...

Who needs a service book?

Service books; who needs 'em...
Well everyone I guess, unless you're rich enough to buy a projector, techie enough to make it work right every single time, and together enough not to forget something.
And bear in mind that Murphy's Law suggests (just as the back row of any given church will feature more hearing aids than a Daniel O'Donnell gig) that those who have the most dubious eyesight in church will sit as far away from any screen as possible, and at the most acute angle possible to it. If they can move their seat to line up at least 3 pillars in the way as well, so much the better...
Anyway...
Saw these briiliant books in a lovely little church in West Brom this week, and thought they were a really nice approach;




I thought these were really nice, not going go as tatty as quickly as a normal book, flexible if you want to change service patterns, attractive thought-provoking images on the rear of all the inserted sheets, easily wipe-clean-able if a clumsy heifer like me spills coffee all over it, or replaceable at worst. Brilliant!

Can we have some?

Is your church 'full'?

When assessing the minor miracle of a full petrol tank last week, I saw this lonely B2CS pen and got me thinking. How well would we cope if 50 new people turned up on Sunday. Would it be a great opportunity , or a difficulty. Would your congregation rejoice, or chunter that they've lost their seat and have to wait longer for communion? Just a thought...

B2CS 2008 T-Shirts

You ask, we listen (sometimes!)
By popular demand, please find this Years Back to Church Sunday T-Shirt modelled slightly more glamorously than my filing cabinet could manage!




Choose any comments over the model very carefully; she's my 'baby' sister!

Soul Purpose 08

3 posts in one day - I'm flying!
A re-entry for Mark Salmon, this time at the Church of the Holy Spirit bringing 110+ kids, 50-60 Adult helpers from 15+ churches in the Shrewsbury area together for a weekend of worship, work, fun fellowship & food.
Cheers Mark
(And other people are actually allowed to give me material as well!)

Build it and they shall come

Woh - two posts in one afternoon - I'm flying!
George and I each spent a day helping out in this tent at the Stafford Show on the 28th & 29th May.
As you'll see from the weather, George had a rainy day, whereas my day had glorious sunshine. Chalk one this time for the monkey, not the organ grinder!

We were offering free refreshments to the weary punters, with various interesting (hopefully) prayer stations, clowns, giant Jengas and Connect 4s all thrown in. We got to speak to an awful lot of people,

The weather helped us both really - on the Wednesday people came in to get out the rain, on the Thursday they did to get out the hot sun.

Hard work at times, but if a few people went away thinking positive things about Christians, and most importantly, Christ, it had to be worth it!

Annoy you all soon!

Back to Church Sunday 2008

Are you ready? Are you excited?
Are you a small Australasian Marsupial with unnecessarily large ears?
If the answer to all these is Yes, I'm astonished.
A load of our materials have arrived this week - don't the T-shirts look cool?

If you don't know anything about B2CS 2008, check out;
www.backtochurch.co.uk
If you want your church to be involved (for free if you're in Lichfield Diocese), buzz me.

Mission-Shaped Ministry 2008-2009

I'd like to say that exactly what's going on here - but I'd be lying!
It appears that the Mission-shaped Ministry Course likes tying people up in knots!

There's space available for the 2008-09 one year course
If you're interested contact Mrs Diane Woolridge on 01785 824965 or diwoolridge@btinternet.com.

Xperience - Wetley Rocks

Hello guys and gals.
No pictures this time - but an interesting ling to someting exciting in Wetley Rocks.
Xperience meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month in the Village Hall.
Check out the Link...
www.xperience.org.uk

Annoy you all again soon...

Hello readers!

Did you think we'd forgotten you?
There's some great images here from The Holy Spirit Church in Harlescott (Shrewsbury-ish!)
It looks like the poor vicar Mark Salmon's got his hands full!
They're taken from their weekly 'Sunbeams' service, aiming to give both a meaningful act of worship for toddlers and also the chance to play with toys for their carers! Ahem.
Seriously, we know of a lot of churches around the diocese offering midweek toddlers services in various forms, but Harlescott's just about the one with the highest numbers we've been told about - and definitely the one with the best photos!

Here's the link to their 'A Church Near You' page...
http://www.acny.org.uk/venue.php?V=4308


As I said, we know of quite a few other churches doing similar, so if you're looking for another 'Tots Service', thinking of trying it yourself, or want to show off one you've already got - just buzz me!

St Matthew's Asian Congregation Walsall

Hullo readers
Thought that you might be interested in the following, very different church that meets at 3 every Sunday, entirely made up of asian members
If you'd like to know more, check out the following pretty-darn-fine website

http://www.stmatthewsasianchurch.co.uk/

There's some photoes below too, but frankly, the quality's rubbish.
All abuse to the usual address.

Easter 2008 Chuckery St Luke

Hi everyone - first one's a bit of a cheat - this is my own church!
But the vicar asked me to put it in the service book without me even thinking of this as a service.
The Labyrinth has 10 landmarks helping you to focus on yourself and your relationship with God, and you go around it your own time in your own way.
if you'd like to know more, best to look at;

http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/index.html