Christmas Cafe

Merry Christmas everyone! Let me start by thanking everyone that prayed for our Candlelit Cafe this past Sunday, it went really well. We had over 35 people come. Most were cafe regulars but we did have a few visitors amoungst us.
It was a pretty simple format. People arrived and were served Glogg (Swedish mulled wine) and Christmas goodies. We sat around and chatted about what we were doing on Christmas day and other seasonal stuff.

After about 30 minutes we started the main event. No one led it but I did start it off. Basically the format was a video Bible reading (from last years Baptism Union "Bethlehem readings" DVD), followed by a brief testimony from a member of the church that related in some way to the reading, and then we sung a carol. We did this four times and then I did a brief talk.

My main point was to show that if all Christmas was about, celebrating the birth of a poor baby 2000 years ago, then that isn't really worth celebrating. But as the testimonies demonstrated Jesus is still changing lives and relevant today. All the people who shared were very different and were all united through their relationship with Jesus.
My challenge was to ask people to take the time this Christmas to think about whom this baby grew up into and what he came to do. I wanted them to get beyond the prologue of His birth to see His amazing life, death and resurrection.

Afterward, we continued with the refreshments and converstaion.  I was encouraged to see that people wanted to invite their friends to come along to Cafe Church in the New Year. I think the combination of God's word and live testimonies proving it true was a very powerful mix. Please pray for the non Christians who came along.

I'm off on my Christmas Hol's now and looking forward to the break before 2010.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Ben

Christmas - The best chance of the year

Don't you just love Christmas?  I must admit I haven't done any Christmas shopping, haven't sent my cards out yet, haven't been able to get all the invites out for our outreach this Sunday (I've been ill) and still have a million things to do before Christmas is here.   I should be stressed or something but I am in an amazing state of calm as I write this blog.  Maybe it's still the cold & flu drugs I've been taking or maybe it's the peace of the Lord.  I firmly believe the latter.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:9-11

That said I do have to get the Outreach sorted for this Sunday.  It's called "Candlelit Cafe".  We'll be having mulled wine, candlelight, carols and a few Bible readings and a little gospel talk by me.  We want to make a cosy, relaxed Christmas meeting, where people feel warmly welcomed and have a great time. 

This Sunday coming is probably the best Sunday of the year to get people into our churches.  That gives us a few Christmas challenges.

1.  Will we invite our neighbours to our Christmas specials or will we assume that they won’t want to come?
 There's something about singing carols in church that feels very Christmassy (I know that sounds obvious).  People love to get into the Christmas vibe and believe it or not Church is still the best pace to do it, even in this western secular society. 

You may have Muslim neighbours.  Don't let that put you off.  Last year a friend of mine invited her Muslim colleague to a Church Nativity.    She was so excited to attend and afterwards said, "That was the first time I've been invited to a Christmas activity!"  She had a great time.  The nativity isn't a stumbling block to a Muslim.  That lady hasn't become a Christian but my friend has been invited into her home for Muslim celebrations and their friendship has developed.

Go on invite that person you are sure wont come.  Maybe the reason they will never come is simply because you'd never ask them?   We can't be blamed if they say "no", but we can if we never ask.

2.  Will we remember to recognise the new people in Church this Sunday and make them feel extra welcome?
Even if you don't get anyone to come to church this week, don't worry.  Instead be aware that new people will be there.  Keep an eye out, say hello, find them a good seat, introduce them to your friends and generally be nice.

A warm welcome is the most important thing newcomers need when they come into our churches.  Yes, yes I know they need the Gospel, but let's not put barriers in the way of them hearing it.
 
3.  Will we take the opportunity to point people to the cross and not just the manger? 

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." Luke 2:34-35

To those of us who are speaking this weekend, the temptation is to just be light and simple.  People have come to hear about a baby and what can be more inoffensive than a baby?  We don't want to offend anyone, but we don't want them to think that all Jesus was, was a baby.  Let's pray for wisdom, grace and clarity, so that people will hear and understand how important Jesus is.

Let's take up these challenges and pray that God changes lives this Christmas.

Please pray for the Candlelit Cafe.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Ben

A square outside the box (why we started Cafe Church)

Our Church-plants main meeting is called Cafe Church.  We didn't set out to do a cafe style meeting.  We weren't unhappy with our normal church services, in fact we loved them.  Our mother church (Bonny Downs at The Well) has a family atmosphere with lively charismatic (but not too charismatic) worship and relevant, encouraging and challenging teaching.   It was a real battle to leave and start a new church only a stones throw away.  We only went because we were called to do so, not because we were unhappy.

To make things more strange about our new style of church meeting, I am what most people may think as a traditional evangelical.  I'm not trying to be emerging or radical in my theology.  I hold a traditional evangelical view on the Bible, God as trinity, original sin, salvation only in Jesus through repentance, judgment and hell, yadda yadda yadda...  you get the point.   I remember after being told for the millionth time, "In order to plant a church you need to be radical thinker who thinks outside the box!" thinking, "then why has God called me?"  Actually when I looked at the people who deeply had a call to the church-plant we were all the "traditionals".  I was getting frustrated, if the radical people want us to be more "radical" then why don't they join us?

It took us nearly two years to come up with the idea of Cafe Church.  Our vision was to make church easier for people to step into.   Yet we didn't want to just scrap everything and start again.  We prayed and studied the Bible looking for what church was boiled down.  What we found was that people who love God want to get closer to Him are the church.   I remember getting so stressed out on Sunday mornings trying to get the music sorted and the projector working and noticing every little thing that didn't quite work, that I missed opportunities to chat and pray with people.   So the idea of Cafe Church -to us- came out of a desire to make people central to what we do.

One of my big hang ups about Cafe Church before we actually did it was that we'd go soft on the Bible.  I had this idea that a relaxed style of meeting meant a relaxed approach to the Bible.  Boy was I wrong!  The Bible is central to what we do.   We read it aloud together, study it around our tables and then feed it all back to the group.   I have found that together we can get really deep into God's word.  As the teacher/preacher it keeps me on my toes because I'm not always sure what people might say.  I find this keeps it all fresh and relevant.  When I just straight preach, no matter how much I research and pray I am never 100% sure I'm scratching where enough people are itching.  But in Cafe Church people say where there itches are.  If anything I need to know the passage better than ever because I never no where the roller-coaster will lead (and yes there are times I feel sick and want to get off).

I still love preaching and am passionate about it's importance and power.  However, preaching shouldn't be a one way thing.  We need to allow ourselves to be in conversational teaching with people.  That's how this generation has been taught to learn, though asking questions.   So lets give them room to ask them and give them opportunity to find the answers.   I am still traditional in my theology but believe the way I teach my theology should be relevant to my mission field.


All cafe style church meetings will be different.  Some are like normal services with comfy chairs, some are in Starbucks, some are in sports pavilions.  They should be different because the people they are trying to reach are different.

I am a square outside the box.  I most naturally fit into a traditional church setting.  I feel comfortable there, singing modern songs and listening to a good 30 minute preach.  But to reach the people God wants me to reach I need to leave my nice, old, comfortable box and move into shape that fits the people in my culture and community.  The second to last thing I want to be is radical but the last thing I want to be is irrelevant.

If you want to find out exactly how we run our take on Cafe Church then visit our website.

Ben

Only 960 days and 11 hours to go!

The Bonny Downs north leadership meetings are always good. Yes sometimes we need to deal with rotas and other boring things (for me anyway), but I always come away feeling like we talked about important things. Let me tell you about one of them.

Newham (that's where East Ham is) will be the host borough for the Olympics in 2012. That means millions of people descending upon our humble patch and huge opportunities for outreach and for community development. Last night for our meeting we had a special guest Matthew Porter from Transform Newham to wet our appetite.

One appetizer he gave us was the possibility of using the 2010 World Cup as a practice mission. That really got me excited. I love football and as our Church-plant meets in a sports pavilion, we meet footballers every week. We could have big screen outdoor showings of the big games. Matthew reckoned we could easily draw a crowd of 800 to the England games. Knowing my community I agree with him.

"Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest." John 4:35

Sports ministry has massive potential! With the World Cup next year and the London Olympics only 960 days and 11 hours to go! away, we'd better get cracking.

Please pray for us as we seek to partner with other churches in Newham to make the best of these exciting up and coming ministries.

Ben

If you'd like to find out more about the outreach potential of the Olympics goto:

www.morethangold.org.uk

If you'd like to find out more about sports ministry in general or get help setting one up goto:

www.worldsportministries.com