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Churchrovers - re:fresh

Posting in reverse order here, so back to Sunday...

On the subject of church we have decided to explore so over the next few weeks we are going to investigate some of the more innovative offerings in the area.

On Sunday Deborah and I checked out a service held in Costa Coffee in Bradford. 're:fresh', an emerging community based at St Cuthberts Church in Wrose have struck a deal with the Forster Square Retail Park outlet of Costa Coffee and hope to hold their monthly gathering in the coffee shop on a regular basis.

I have to say it was strange meeting like this in a coffee shop with the fridges buzzing and the coffee machines producing cappuccinos while the vicar did his talk.  The slightly cramped space meant that you were locked into small groups around the tables. The subject was mission and one of the contributors was Chris Howson who's involved in a project called Street Angels who operate in Bradford between 8pm and 2am. We thought it was excellent.

There were about 30 people at this event. The community meets in smaller groups once a week and then on this scale once a month.

Body

Liturgical Duck
Originally uploaded by markwaddington.

A bathroom in church, rubber ducks to help meditation and volleyball with bread were among the offerings at last nights Grace service, Body, at St Mary's. How do we use our bodies to relate to God?  I found the service moving (literally and emotionally). The strong structure, elements of surprise, physicality and a very dignified communion led by Dean made a rewarding experience. more pics by steve

Organised Religion?

On Christmas day St. Mary's in Ealing was the venue for live broadcast on BBC ONE. The preparation which went into it was huge and it made me realise how scrappy church worship can otherwise be. Of course spontaneous and relaxed worship is good (in my view) but a little preparation could be a good thing. more photos

Now here's a catchup from the old blogspot.

Orignal post on Blogger 1 May 2004

An act of worship and a television programme have a lot in common. There is usually a central idea and a sequence of creative stuff that communicates that idea. A TV production is usually briefed to ensure that it sticks to the task in hand and all the elements support the central idea.  My experience of worship is that sometimes it is a ragbag of thoughts and distractions. 

I’ve written a worship briefing  template based on the one created for the team I work with at the BBC. It  only requires one sentence (and so does not even have to be written down). The brief has three elements – who are we creating the worship for? How do we want them to respond? What is the single most important message? 

So the template reads, get (worshipper) to (think, feel, believe or do) by telling them/showing them (the single most important thing). We have a rule that only one main message can be conveyed. worship_brief.pdf

You may feel this is too controlling and managed (it is), but I would say that much of what we do in church is done without regard for the person worshipping. We rarely expect them to respond in any way and we clutter the event with a jumble of messages.