08/20/2010 - FX ARCHIVE...

Sorted

Church Army evangelist Captain Andy Milne first launched Sorted in 2004. As a keen skateboarder he got to know the area's young skaters, many of whom went on to become founder members of the youth church in north Bradford. Now skateboarding is just one of many activities they enjoy every week, explains Andy.

We meet on Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights, and we'll see an average of 100 young people during that time. About 25 to 30 get together for the Monday youth congregation from 7.15 to 9pm but they are very active and help set up the equipment and run the whole thing really – including worship, teaching, prayer, and activities in between. The age range is 13 to 20.

On Tuesday night, we meet in a different place – at the Salvation Army – and have five different groups with anything up to 35 people there. Each group is led by two young people. Sometimes there is a discussion around a Bible passage and sometimes they work on a fund raising project but the idea is to try and provide a place where they can really talk about their faith and what they can do with that faith. It's more discipleship focused. When they get involved in leadership it really helps their understanding. If they run it themselves, they really own it and the energy triples.

Fridays will see us have a testimony, short talk for about five minutes and then different activities in the various rooms. Last year we asked the young people what they wanted to do at this session. We have to be facilitators in it – otherwise they are going to get bored. There's quite a wide age range for this one, it's about 11 to 20, and the older teens run it with some adults as well. We can get 40 or 50 people coming to that.

One room is used for things like live music sessions; there is also a café with a tuckshop, and games on offer like softball and table tennis. We have people doing dj-ing with mixing and that sort of stuff. It's amazing when you look back to see how things have grown since were first given use of a portakabin in the grounds of a school. Some of the young people have been coming to us ever since.

What tends to happen is that kids come through their friends or schools to Friday evening sessions because it's very open, accessible to anyone. Then they get to know people and when there is a bit more trust they tend to move into the other two groups.

When we started, one of the ways I was able to build relationships was through the skateboarding but it's quite a small part now. It has been good to see a lot of young people come from very different backgrounds to be part of this and I have been privileged to witness young people having experiences of God on a Monday night, come to faith and develop into leaders and disciples.

Some local churches realised they hadn't got the resources to do something similar themselves but felt they could support something that's Kingdom work by allowing us to use their buildings. They show their support for us in practical ways.

We are in the process of setting up Sorted 2 about a mile-and-a-half up the road because we realised that about 80% of those in Sorted 1 were from the same school of around 1200 pupils. The second school in the area is the sixth largest secondary in the country with about 1800 students but it is currently being extended so will be even bigger. It is multicultural and multiracial.

There was a real sense that God was asking us to go there. Then one lady had a picture of God giving us a key, opening up something that hadn't been open for some time. People were amazed when we were then invited to go in. As a result we started working with youngsters there and developing groups. We now see about 30 young people every week in Sorted 2. It’s a massive thing for us.

In the last year, a Church Army team has been drawn together to oversee the whole thing. People from local churches also act as adult volunteers for each Sorted, and it all makes a tremendous difference because the work through the schools is growing all the time.

Another exciting development for us is to be granted a Bishop's Mission Order. It means we are now seen as being on an equal footing with other churches and it also clarifies what Sorted is all about in this part of Bradford. The BMO was first mentioned about three years ago when it was noted that Sorted is not a seedbed for something else or an extension to another church. It's a church in its own right.

That could clearly be seen earlier this year when six of our teenagers were baptised by the then Bishop of Bradford, Rt Revd David James, in the River Wharfe. A further five then joined them to be confirmed and take Communion by the side of the river in Ilkley. We find that the young people often have an experience of God before they follow him. Rather than a gradual intellectual process, they often have an encounter with God and begin to make sense of it later.

Going back to where it all started, I have now written a book about skateboarding called The Skateboarders Guide to God in which I try to connect the Gospel with skateboarding mentality and language. I hope to get it published so that it may possibly help others along the way.

Whitehaven café church

Innovative cafechurch has come to Whitehaven. Methodist minister Philip Peacock takes a break from the lattés and cappuccinos to explain what it's all about.

It is late afternoon in Whitehaven on the second Sunday of the month. The last shops are closing and most people are heading off home. However, on the corner of King Street, the doors of Costa Coffee remain open and people are being welcomed inside. A poster in the window makes the invitation clear: 'Come along to cafechurch after hours'. The aroma of coffee permeates the air as orders are prepared by Costa staff. Tables have been pushed together so that groups of about six people can sit easily to converse.

At 5pm people are formally welcomed, the theme for the evening introduced and a quiz circulated for groups to work on. There is a buzz around the tables as a consensus is reached on an answer for each question. A run through of the answers follows, with the presentation of prizes for the winners (normally something edible) and for those who performed least well (usually something humorous). A visitor is introduced who speaks for about 10 minutes on the subject for the day.

Discussion follows, the earlier quiz having broken the ice for the groups. Questions are fed in at each table, as required, by a facilitator. Any materials for circulation are brought round during this time: slips for prayer requests, cards detailing the next gatherings, flyers for people to take to invite others along, follow-up resources for the theme. At 5.55, the session is rounded off with a brief comment giving some Christian perspective on the day's topic. Details of the next month's meeting are given out and slowly people drift away home, with the majority of the evening still free.

Whitehaven cafechurch started in September 2009 and was launched to offer a different kind of Christian experience from what was available within the town, as a means of reaching out to people who have stopped going to church or who have never gone. Consultation had taken place at an earlier stage with the various denominations in Whitehaven. Someone had gone on a training day with the cafechurch network. A leadership team had been formed, comprised of Methodists and Pentecostalists.

Registration with the network had followed and through it contact was made with the local Costa Coffee. Negotiations with the management had ensued covering various practical issues. Posters, flyers and event cards, using the cafechurch templates, had been circulated and other media were used to supplement this publicity. Themes have included: Looking after the planet, Image, Carols@Costa, The language of love, Just chocolate! and Crime on our streets. Outlines for some of these were supplied by the cafechurch network.

Attendance has been between 16 and 37 but it’s usually 25-30. This has been made up of Christians leading the cafechurch, other churchgoers who have shown an interest, and the target group mentioned above. The number of people in the latter category has ranged from one or two up to 10, with some coming on more than one occasion. The hope is for an increase in the proportion of this group on a regular basis and then to offer the possibility of a separate meeting where people can explore at more depth what it means to be a follower of Jesus today.

The prayer requests received have been prayed for afterwards. A few of these have been to do with people asking prayers for specific people who might come on a later occasion. At least one of these prayers has been answered positively. Contact has also been made with Costa customers who are drinking up as we are arriving and others who have come in while we have been meeting. We have been able to explain to them what we are doing and invite them to join in, if they so wish, or stay in a reserved separate space to eavesdrop and meet with their friends.

So what do people make of cafechurch? Here are some comments from people who attend:

It’s not at all like church – you're talking about issues that relate to everybody.

It's a fun way to do church.

You have an opportunity to say what you feel – which you do not have at church.

It's a good way of meeting new people in the area.

It's easier to invite someone along than to other churches.

From Costa's perspective, Karl, the manager, observes:

It's pretty enjoyable for the staff as well – they like to get involved in the quizzes.

Whitehaven cafechurch is still in its infancy, but we are grateful to God for the journey so far and look forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Living Room – update

Students used to flock to the Living Room at Southampton but time, and the initiative's leader, has moved on since then. Nick Hutchinson, youth and student pastor at Highfield Church in the city, explains more.

When I arrived The Living Room had been going for a couple of years and, for a while, it was still very powerful with lots of interesting things going on. Its leader Zoe Hart had the original vision for it but – as so often happens – when the leader goes, that vision and enthusiasm can begin to decline.

Also we have to remember that student stuff moves on so quickly; if you keep on doing the same thing for two or three years, you start to lose it connection with the people you're trying to reach.

We employed another student worker and he soon realised that a lot of those coming to the Living Room by that stage were people he recognised from Christian Union and other churches in the area. To find out more, he put together a survey for everyone who came along over a three to four week period. He was proved right when about 80% of those attending completed it and we found that the vast majority, up to 70/80% of them were Christians.

We were meeting at 8pm on Sundays, immediately after the evening service times of many churches. So The Living Room had simply become another place for Christians to hang out on a Sunday. Those not really connected to church at all were very few in number.

A further student worker, after a year or so with us, suggested changing the meeting time specifically to attract non church people. We moved it to 7pm and tried it for two university terms. The impact on numbers was immediate. The Living Room attracted 140 at its peak; we had been running at about 80 to 100 on average but after the time change it dropped to 20 or 30 maximum.

In all honesty we didn't really have a problem with that. Having a smaller number of definitely 'non churchy' people getting together during the 6.30 service time meant you could build some genuine friendship and relationship but – in the end – it lagged. It needed a critical mass of people to be there to give it some energy.

From April 2010 we started to hold our Midweek Student Gathering on Wednesday evenings in the lounge at the church centre but I wouldn't say there was anything of fresh expressions about it now. As we had lost momentum with it so much it felt like we were starting from scratch but what has been good is that we are building friendships with students who are Christians. We usually get between 10 and 15 people from 5pm to 7pm for a meal and to pray, worship and have a Bible study together.

This gathering is much more of a pastorate thing and the smaller the group, the better the interaction. Of course our vision is for growth but if we get to about 30 we want to multiply and create two midweek student gatherings to run in parallel.

There are lots of challenges along the way. For instance, it is very difficult to get commitment and steadfastness from many of the students; we call it the 'flaky syndrome'. We have actually lost a lot of our team and have been trying to recruit new members but it's really a struggle. Maybe one of the side-effects of providing something that's really good, like Living Room was, is that people expect everything to be done for them without realising that it is because of student volunteers that it happens and will continue to happen. How do we encourage people between the ages of 18 and 35 to commit themselves to something and help to make it happen? All too often they may say they're going to come and be part of an event but then ring up at the last minute – they can't make it because they’re at a concert/going out/whatever it may be.

I'm sad about the fact that what The Living Room did in its original form was to draw in people who were not engaging with church in any other way, whereas now we are only connecting with people already connected with church. However we are doing a year of mission at Highfield Church and all the new projects that have sprung up are happening outside of the church building.

I think that God is saying to us:

do fewer things on Sunday;

do fewer things in the church itself.

One of the things that these new groups have shown us again is that we have to get away from the model of 'come to us'; we have to go to them.

Living Room

Zoe Hart, student worker, reports the work of the living room.

At Highfield Church, Southampton, we have a history of welcoming students to worship with us. But over the last few years God has been stirring us up to much more as we have increasingly felt the reality of the mission field.

Across the campuses of the two Universities in Southampton are over 40,000 students – away from home, looking for life and most of them about as far away from church as you can get.

No longer are we in an age where students are coming away to study with a basic knowledge of Christianity and some past involvement in church. Most don't even really know who Jesus is and many have never been inside a church building. The reality is that the culture among students today is pagan and with less than two percent of them going to church – the mission field is huge.

The exciting thing is that the Gospel is totally dynamic and powerful in this context. Students today are looking for something tangible and authentic – something that will show them Jesus.

Our vision at the living room is to create a place into which students without a church background can come to know the transforming power of Jesus. the living room is church for people who never normally go to church.

Our values are 'loving God, loving each other and loving the lost', quite simple really: The Greatest Commandments and The Great Commission. These values shape everything we do.

What we do on a Sunday evening isn't rocket science either. We meet at 8pm in the building next door to the main church which we set-up to be as relaxed and welcoming an environment as possible.

We have a café with steaming hot chocolate and great food every week – essential in building community. It is open all evening for people to sit and chat or opt out of the worship.

After the main food is served, we aim provide an environment – through worship, teaching and ministry – into which the Holy Spirit can work. This is integral to our original vision to be an authentic community of worshippers. Although we use language that people will understand, we believe that true worship and loving community speak volumes into the post-modern culture of self.

These are exciting times. the living room has grown dramatically over the last two years from around 40 students about 140. The original vision seems to actually be happening. I say 'actually' because we can often put a lot of effort into ministries, having limited faith in the fact that God is powerfully at work and is able to do more than we can ask or imagine.

It is an incredible privilege to be part of something where God is bringing along people who don’t yet believe. And these students, through chatting with team members on a Sunday, as well as fortnightly socials and weekly cell groups, are really becoming part of the living room community.

We regularly have a number of students on the fringes of faith as well as a handful of determined atheists who have had their worlds shaken.

One previously cynical student emailed me recently saying this about his experience of the living room, 'I must say, I found it really emotional, but I'm not quite sure why. I was really choked up. I'm hopeless at describing emotions; but it just felt like there was something else there, something more than a collection of people. And I felt a connection.'

Our prayer continues to be that what we do will be much more than just a gathering of people in a cosy environment. We long to see people making commitments and beginning a path of discipleship.

We want to be a place where, as it says in Isaiah 41, the thirsty who search for water will find it.

We have always been conscious that what is happening is part of a much bigger journey. It was an incredible encouragement to have that confirmed by a previous vicar of Highfield who, 28 years ago, had a vision of a large number of students meeting in the hall next door to our church at 9 o'clock on a Sunday evening. When he came to visit and saw that original vision happening he was thrilled!

Of course as with everything we do – the living room is just a part of God's much bigger story – not a new story but an ancient unchanging one – and it is our role to express that story, as Jesus did, in a way that is fresh and dynamic to the culture we find ourselves in.