July 2011 - FX ARCHIVE...

re:generation – update Jun10

Risky, messy, and a lot of ups and downs along the way. That sums up what has been happening at re:generation in Romford since its launch six years ago. So says Ruth Poch, who oversees the ministry of the fast-growing, fresh expression of church with her husband Jamie.

I believe the interesting journey we've all had to make has led to deeper discipleship, mainly because we've had to take calculated risks in using young people's talents in a way we might not have done in a more traditional church setting.

It's amazing now to think that the seeds of re:generation were sown as a Bible study around our dining room table. Our average Sunday evening attendance is now in the 80s, though 98 recently came through the door which was quite phenomenal.

In early 2010 we organised a survey to find out where people were coming from and we were surprised, in a good way, to discover that many were coming from a non-churched background. It's encouraging to see. We also did a census on the age and the gender breakdown in the church: the average age is 25, and most of those on the 10-strong leadership team are in their early 20s.

Jamie and I are both deacons and our first appointment in 2000 was to the Romford Circuit. We job shared and our role was to co-ordinate youth work amongst the 13 Methodist churches which, in some senses, sounded quite a grand scheme but actually when we got there we discovered that there were very few teenagers involved in the worshipping life of any of the churches.

The work began by listening to the young people and serving their needs. A drama group was set up, social events were organised and monthly youth services began. After a while, the young people were saying, 'look we don't go to any other church, this is our church. We want to have something that we can actually own and have other kinds of activities throughout the week.'

Therefore in September 2004 we moved to Gidea Park Methodist Church premises to 'officially' plant a fresh expression of church among young people. Gidea Park had closed its Sunday evening services, giving us a wonderful opportunity to have that space and time every week.

A core value of the work of re:generation has been discipleship. Now weekly Bible studies are increasingly led by the young people, and they also have rotas to lead the prayer ministry time and input from Scripture. Our discipleship groups for guys and girls are peer led so that's very much about going deeper and being able to share things in a safe environment. To have that more intimate setting and the prayer support that comes from that have been key factors in establishing those groups.

At the beginning we prayed for more adult volunteers but it never seemed that God really answered that prayer. In hindsight it has been a blessing because we had to use the young people in the work of the church, or take risks with them serving in ways that we wouldn't have done had we had more mature people coming along at that stage.

Having to take those risks in leadership meant that the young people themselves knew that if they didn't work and do jobs and have vision for the church, it wouldn't work. It all makes for a very exciting journey because it's constantly evolving. When we started, some people thought regeneration might just meet the needs of a particular group of young people that we had at the beginning but actually, year upon year, we have seen growth – despite key people on the leadership team leaving for university etc.

Interestingly, a few parents began to turn up. I think they were fascinated as to why this church was playing such a big part in the lives of their son or daughter. We had our youth Alpha course when a group of adults started coming and having their own discussion group. Some came on the residential weekend and it was fascinating – and amazing – to see how the young people responded as they ministered in prayer and give support to these adults.

Since then we have had other people coming to re:generation, some of whom are quite vulnerable with mental health issues and so on. The church has become quite diverse, culturally, and in terms of age range – even though it is still predominantly young people. It keeps us on our toes all the time because we are constantly having to cater for an increasing number and a wider age range of people from very different backgrounds.

As pioneers, the early years were hard and very lonely at times but if you feel that God has given you a vision to carry on and really persevere, I'd say keep on going when it is difficult and try to create an authentic community.

Back in the dining room Bible study days, we used to ask, 'How is everyone doing?' 'Are you having any difficulties?' No-one seemed to have any, and certainly no-one shared what those difficulties were. Now almost the opposite is true. Ask the same questions and you’ll begin to wonder if there is anyone who doesn't have some sort of problem going on.

I think that's all because there's now a sense of being safe there, a place where people feel they don't have to wear masks or pretend to be something that they're not.

Tulloch NET

The vision for Tulloch NET came into being in 2004, three years before its official launch – and charitable status. Its Community Development Officer, Revd Richard Higginbottom, outlines Tulloch NET's development and future plans in north west Perth.

The aim has always been to develop a fresh expression of inclusive and indigenous church in Tulloch and for that church to be based on relational networking – not traditional ingathering.

We reach out to the Tulloch community which is an area of mixed social and private housing with a population of around 4,000. In partnership with several denominations and supported by Church of Scotland seed-funding and grants from various agencies, we have been working hard to build up relationships within the community before setting up any sort of worship centre.

Our ethos is to have an innovative, creative and fluid relational approach to social and spiritual needs in Tulloch, listening always to God and engaging in a sustainable way with the community, especially the disadvantaged. Tulloch is classed as an Area Based Initiative; this is a local authority designated area for re-generation and help with deprivation. We do this through social action, prayer, liaison, visiting, listening, occasional events/Sunday activities, projects and hospitality. On our promotional material we say that Tulloch NET is a Christian network offering practical help and spiritual support to the people of Tulloch.

After mission audit research in 2004/05, organised at the request of the local Church of Scotland parish minister, I felt called to pioneer a fresh expression in Tulloch in 2006 and received the necessary permissions to start a pilot project on secondment from my then CPAS employers. We recognise this is a 'long-haul' initiative – at the start of it all approximately 10 to 15 years were suggested for the establishment of this new expression of local church. So by 2020 we will be looking to see what's happened!

Starting with attempts at addressing perceived local needs through parenting seminars and partnerships with the local primary school and Council, we formed a team of volunteers and a small inter-denominational reference group. Some initial funding came from personal supporters and from the Church of Scotland, Baptist Union of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church (Diocese of St Andrews) are also our ministry partners – along with Crieff Baptist Church, Perth North Church of Scotland, Tulloch Worldwide Church of God and Perth Knox Free Church of Scotland.

Visiting local people, networking, experience and further research showed that local deprivation and social issues required a different approach which had to be long-term. A management group was formed, further funding was sought and eventually, I was appointed Community Development Officer at the end of 2008.

Ongoing networking and visiting is carried out by myself and an initial voluntary team of six (we now have 11), while traditional pastoral support is provided by the North Church – though bereavement care may sometimes form part of our brief, by arrangement.

We ended up initiating the Tulloch Lade environmental project in 2009 after local consultation, which had revealed the current neglected state of the Town Lade (an ancient man-made canal running through Tulloch) as a key social concern. We've been involved in all sorts of associated activities, including tree-planting, creating a community orchard and meadow, eco-exhibitions, wildlife habitat improvements and litter clearance.

Since 2007, we've also organised 'spiritual events' such as a Christmas carol service, a Songs of Praise and Christian stalls at school celebrations. These have had limited effect but our big breakthrough in 2011 has been to secure – in partnership with other Christian agencies – former shop premises as an incarnational base in Tulloch which we're developing as a community drop-in for local needy folk, including addicts. We opened in May and have since attracted an average of 20 visitors per week; a part-time Welcomer has now been appointed there. We have maintained regular local prayer-walking throughout our project history and a prayer box for specific prayer requests is kept in our Hub.

Our core virtues remain Relationship, PRAYER, Creativity, Humility, Commitment, Bridging the Secular/Sacred Divide, Restoration, and of course… Jesus. Creativity under God is not based on strategies, but depends on moves of God. Our project is all about Jesus and Kingdom: it involves patience and God's timing.

As far as our timescales are concerned, our mid-term goals include the appointment of a second worker – possibly next year, strengthening of the volunteer team and the creation of cell groups as a nucleus for a new local community of believers.

First steps for The Order of the Black Sheep

Mark Broomhead has been licensed by the Bishop of Derby, Rt Rev Dr Alastair Redfern, as full time minister to The Order of the Black Sheep – a fresh expression of church for those who feel like the 'black sheep' of society.

The Chesterfield-based Order is due to be launched on 24 September by the Archbishop of Canterbury at its church base, known as The Gates.

It was made a Bishop's Mission Order on 18 July which enables it to take its place officially alongside traditional parishes in the CofE. Mark, an Ordained Pioneer Minister, said,

This is not only important in allowing us to work as part of the Church of England but also because it is the established church saying to a sometimes misunderstood culture that it is valued and welcome.

A few days after Bishop Alastair signed the BMO, Mark took on the lease for premises in Chesterfield town centre. Following renovation work during the summer, the space will become The Gates and include a chapel, cafe/bar and media suite.

Mark added,

The name, The Order of the Black Sheep, was chosen because a black sheep was for many years seen as the worthless sheep of the flock, the one that couldn't produce any wool that was worth anything. In medieval times it was even seen by some as a sign of the satanic. I really pray that The Order of the Black Sheep will be a home for the marginalised, for members of the alternative community who feel a little bit like the black sheep in society – and the church. Our motto will be along the lines of 'better a black sheep than a goat.' Community is about the people, so as we grow into deeper relationship with each other and God, more of the personality of the Order will become apparent. The only qualifying characteristic we share is a desire to know more of the revolution that is Jesus.

Tas Valley Cell Church – update

The story of Tas Valley Cell Church in south Norfolk was first told on expressions: the dvd – 2. Its leader, Sally Gaze, tells what has been happening since the cameras rolled.

When I arrived here eight years ago, we very quickly did an Alpha course and 26 people turned up, some of them were church people already but we had a group of about eight who became Christians at the end of the course. We didn't have a full ministry team here then and that has since made a huge difference.

At that time I felt that – for people who hadn't been to church before – going to what were quite traditional, and not very user-friendly, church services on a Sunday wasn't going to help them move on in their faith very quickly. I was darting about from one to another of the new Christians at the end of services to try and be supportive but I knew that something had to be done.

Tas Valley Team Ministry is a happy family of churches serving the villages of Newton Flotman, Swainsthorpe, Tasburgh, Tharston, Saxlingham and Shotesham. Congregations were very welcoming but the newcomers were being asked to join the flower rota or help out with the fete. They didn't have the opportunity to discuss issues such as how faith might help with their marriage, children or work. The new Christians found this quite difficult to cope with after having had the chance to do that every week at Alpha.

We decided to set up the cell church of small groups. We've got 50 adult members; about half of them – generally the people who haven't previously been part of a traditional church congregation – would say that cell church is their prime form of church. The remaining 25 attend cell church in addition to church in a Sunday. We've also got 25 teenagers, two thirds of whom would say that cell is their main form of church.

The numbers are still growing, though much more gradually than at the time of the DVD. Now there is more and more of a crossover with the Sunday congregations and we encourage the mixing and supporting of each other. The cell continues to meet weekly though the cell and traditional congregations will also get together three times a year – for instance, we recently came together for a Passover meal.

Cell church continues to make an impact and we really do see changes in people's lives as a result. It's all about the trust that people build up in a small group, you can be much more open and it's a lot easier to think about how you can grow in faith in a very practical, down-to-earth way.

Some may question the role of the cell church but I think it can help to take the pressure off traditional congregations to do the things they can't do for all sorts of reasons. I've had discussions in the past where the focus has been on 'How to get young people in?' Simply including a modern song in the service really isn't going to do the trick. I believe that many churches, faced with this sort of challenge, would say that they were not able to change sufficiently to meet it.

Here we built up those youth cells so that they can lead worship on their terms and we then go and support them in that. Half a dozen of our young people, aged between 13 and 18, are now involved in the youth band which is led by two adults, both of whom are cell church members. They now serve some of our Sunday congregations and go and play for them. This in turn has freed up the traditional congregations to do what they do well.

It's not a matter of right or wrong ways of doing things. The same could be said of the development of fresh expressions of church as a whole. Some people feel threatened that fresh expressions try to 'take over' to some extent and see them as a threat. Instead we are saying there is more than one way to 'be' church; we can complement each other.

Tas Valley Cell Church is currently seeking a Bishop's Mission Order and we are trying out various things as we develop and change. We now have cells with children as well as adults, that has seen mixed results and we continue to explore how we disciple people in families.

Other subjects in the mix include looking at new monastic models and considering how cell relates to Messy Church. The basics and values of cell have remained the same since the start of it all but I do tend to delegate as we now have more lay leaders to take on responsibilities. I think the way forward is just to keep on growing more leadership and eventually a leader to replace me.

Tas Valley Cell Church

In the Tas Valley Team Ministry, there are six traditional parish churches and a cell church comprising six adult cell churches and a youth cell. This 'mixed economy' reflects the nature of rural networks, some of which cross the villages through social links, others of which are village-based.

It is mixed here,

says Tas Valley vicar, Sally Gaze. She gives the example of a young mothers' cell which grew out of an Alpha course.

It was the easiest Alpha ever because they were all very alike and opened up to each other very quickly, but they were from three different villages. If we had focused on one parish we wouldn't have got enough people together. By enabling certain groups to come together, we strengthen them to be part of the church as a whole.

Sally explains that the Tas Valley group of churches is still working out what it means to be connected to its different parts, both village to village and cell to traditional church. Cells have about ten members each, the parish churches between six and 45 members. Many of the cell members are also members of one of the parish churches – but new Christians usually join a cell in the first instance. Sometimes they later start coming to Sunday parish church services as well.

Sally believes that the presence of cells in the mix helps to create unity. The success of this approach is reflected in the supportive presence of four members of a very traditional ('Book of Common Prayer') congregation at a cell-led monthly seeker service. The cells also contribute towards their 'parent' churches' finances.

Respecting both the traditional way of doing church and the needs of those outside it 'to discover Jesus, too'

If you're in a cell it's much easier to think that you can't be church on your own than when you have a medieval building,

Sally says.

Cells are more fluid so members think benefice-wide. Often the members of a cell will come from three or four different villages and help to draw the congregations from those villages together in understanding.

We don't bring the six parish churches together with the cell church very often because we've tried to maintain the witness of Sunday church in every village. When we do come together we can do something of a higher quality.

United benefice services happen about three times a year. Benefice-wide events focus on socials, outreach activities such as holiday clubs, training events and 24-7 Prayer.

Respecting both the traditional way of doing church and the needs of those outside it 'to discover Jesus, too' has seen this rural benefice celebrate and share in the life of faith in all its members.

The cells, says rector Sally Gaze (in mission-shaped and rural: growing churches in the countryside, CHP, 2006),

worshipped and loved, they related to the wider church and respected the authority of its leaders, and participated in the sacraments… they engaged in mission.

Putting the cells together, the cell church was also as strongly attended as some Sunday services with around 8-10 members in each cell (making 40-50 members) compared with 6-45 in each parish church.

In a mixed economy benefice, the question arose: how can a growing number of cell churches find their legal standing alongside the traditional churches?

We felt it was time to help the cell church grow up and take responsibility,

says Sally, who also wanted to give the cells a secure place within the benefice.

We felt that cell church members should give to the cell church. It also makes a statement that giving to church is not just about keeping buildings going – our cell church doesn't have a building.

So the benefice discussed with the diocese ways in which cell members could give to their church that would enable it to claim back tax as in traditional offertories. In 2005 a cell bank account was set up, an important step in acknowledging the Tas Valley cells as part of the Church of England as a whole.

The bank account, says Sally,

encourages us to sort out giving, to encourage Gift Aid and teach stewardship. The cells pay a couple of thousand towards the benefice share. This is less than their numerical strength would suggest because a number of people are brand new Christians who will take a time to sort out financial stewardship, and others are members of both cell and parish congregation.

We didn't want to reduce the income of parish congregations so where people are members of both cell and parish church, they either stick with their parish giving or give on top of that to the cell church. The proportion of benefice share that the cell church and all the PCCs pay is kept under annual review.

The cell church has a cell leaders' meeting rather than a PCC and is still

a peculiarity on the edge of the diocese. But in the benefice itself it is treated as an equal member of the team of churches and represented on our equivalent of a team council.

Pioneers 4 Life

A new book edited by Dave Male, Director of the Centre for Pioneer Learning, draws together strategic thinking and shared experiences of a number of pioneers, practitioners and leaders.

Listen to Dave discuss the nature of pioneering for life below.

Contributors include Richard Backham, Adrian Chatfield, Graham Cray, John Drane, Peterson Feital, Beth Keith, George Lings, Kate Middleton, Lucy Moore, Mike Moynagh and Mark Russell.

There is a growing awareness that the Church must commit to radically new agendas and fresh initiatives in order to connect the gospel with the widest possible spectrum of our society. Faith, commitment, sacrifice and boldness are needed – and an emerging generation of pioneering leaders focused on breaking new ground and growing Christian communities where none have flourished for many years, if ever.

Pioneers 4 Life: Explorations in theology and wisdom for pioneering leaders is published by BRF on 19th August 2011, costs £8.99 and is available to preorder now.

Thirst Cafe Church

Thirst Café Church 'officially' started in November 2007 in the community lounge of St Philip's CofE Primary School, Romsey Town, Cambridge, but Sue Butler tells how its beginnings go back a lot further than that.

Thirst has grown out of 11 years of relationship and prayer. As parents of primary school children, we used to meet outside the classroom at 'pick up' time. There were about 10 regulars every day morning and afternoon and we began to chat about our faith with each other – including some who did not profess a faith. We joked that we should have a coffee maker there because we were often hanging around outside school for up to an hour, just chatting and sharing prayer requests with each other.

One friend, Rachel, and I met whilst we were at the checkout in the local supermarket one day. She wanted to pray about something and, out of that meeting, came an idea for a monthly breakfast at which people from all denominations would come to pray if they wanted. That group formed the basis 11 years later for Thirst. As we began to pray for the school, other people started coming to faith and getting healed and seeing answers to prayer in their families. We realised this was bigger than us and much bigger than anything we had anticipated up to that point.

At the same time, things began to move in a different direction in my own life. My children were getting ready to leave the primary school for secondary school, so my personal involvement there might naturally have ended. In 2005 my husband started ordination training at Ridley. I began to increasingly feel that God was saying, that my time and connection with the school was not over but that there was more that God wanted me to do there.

My husband's Ridley friends kept asking me why I was not at Ridley training for ministry as well! I'd reply that there was no chance that I had been called to be a vicar. They used to encourage me to think about it, so much so, that I wondered if there was something that I should not be ignoring about ordination! There certainly was. I have just completed training as a mixed mode pioneer at Ridley, and I'm just about to be ordained with 50% of my time as OPM of Café Church from the Diocese of Ely and 50% spent at the local parish of St Philip's. Somehow God has combined my relationships, family life and calling to a place where he has already been at work. Like Moses, I felt that God asked me to take what was in my hand and use it in a wider setting.

During the same time In our ongoing relationships at school, those Christians amongst us at Thirst became known as people who would pray for people if they wanted it. We would often pray with parents in the playground, many of whom had no idea what they were asking for. We would find that people would simply stand where they were, bow their head and expect us to pray on the spot. When I look back on that period now, I suppose it was a case of God gathering people because they began to get healed, come to faith, and wanted to know more about Christ and how he could transform lives. It was about discipling them through relationship because many of them did not have any links with traditional church at all and some had never entered the doors of a church. They then began to attend Thirst and are an integral part of us now.

I went through a phase of being concerned about the views that some people inside the traditional church have of people outside of the church family. The question was asked of us, 'Why don't some of these (unchurched) people come to church?' My response was to wonder why on earth they would! The church is an alien environment for many nowadays. We ask, even expect people to come and sit on a pew and sing songs, followed by a talk or lecture (as they view it). Both of these activities are unusual for many who have never been to church before. I wonder, what on earth possesses us in church to think that others outside of the church might want to do that? It is the Church that is alien in our culture, we are the unusual one, the minority.

I was talking to God about it and told him, 'It's no wonder people don't go to church.' I 'heard' the question, 'What would they come to then?' I thought of what we did as friends together: breakfast, drink coffee, pray together, laugh together, have relationship and support each other. I said to my friends, 'Let's keep on drinking coffee but, if it's going to be church, it has to have more to it than a coffee morning. It's about transforming the community that we live in through our relationships, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We didn't begin straight away because I was too apprehensive of starting something that did not last once it became official. So, we prayed about it for about a year before we started meeting in the school lounge in November 2006. We served good coffee, food, fruit and juice. Everybody invited friends and we had about 30 people there at our first gathering.

From the first Thirst Cafe, we started off by showing Rob Bell Nooma DVDs; I didn't want to get people to come to do things they didn't want to do or feel comfortable with and felt that a DVD was something that people could relate to. They did not have to make any kind of outward or verbal response to it if they did not want to. I was also determined that I wasn't going to start a discussion around the DVD subject. God surprised us again because we showed the DVD, and afterwards somebody visiting asked questions and began a discussion centred around faith. The conversation started and has been going ever since! We very, rarely direct these conversations. They just happen naturally and we discuss all manner of spiritual issues which often carry on long after Thirst is over and have helped to develop and nurture people in the faith.

We do now also have prayer time for those who are interested to pray. After a few months we started to offer one session a week where we have a meditation or devotion of some kind, during this time there is also a five minute talk and discussion on a biblical theme, followed by a spiritual exercise or activity of some type. Because of our relationship and growth together this is natural to people now.

It's interesting to see how things develop in a way you never expect or plan. From the beginning we called ourselves the Thirst Café Community because we wanted to keep the word church right out of it. Within two to three weeks, people started asking, 'Are you going to café church?' They weren't asked to use that description; it's how they saw it. We are still known as Thirst Café Church to many people!

About two years ago we started to think about what it means to be a worshipping community and how we encourage spiritual growth amongst new believers. We introduced a Bible study one afternoon in the week but the big question, of course, has been what to do about Eucharist. It was really difficult to explore ways through this but, in the end, we just thought, that if this is God's feast and his journey with us, then he will show us what to do. We decided to do a simple Eucharist with a short liturgy.

We wanted people to feel comfortable around Eucharist so I told people, not to worry about it, but that if they wanted to participate they should do whatever seemed comfortable for them. I invited a visiting chaplain to lead and she explained the meaning of each part and action of the service and this helped people to understand the Eucharist. It is always a great time and we and we look forward to it and it's part of our regular worshipping life at Thirst.

There are a couple of people now talking about baptism, which will be interesting. The discipleship of new believers is our next and most pressing concern and we are hoping to continue with exploration and reflection on the best ways to do this.

St Philip's School is in the parish of St Philip's Church. Their vicar is supportive of what we do, we are very loosely associated with them but don't see ourselves as 'belonging' to St Philip's. In saying that, we have done things together and the vicar regularly visits us. We supported St Philip's in their after-school Christingle and Easter service, but – as mothers – we are limited with time constraints. We have a very good relationship with St Philip's and they support us in many ways and we are thankful for the relationship with them.

We don't know how Thirst will develop; we don't know what's around the corner. We are wondering about our next step but we know that we need to be obedient to God and follow his leading. Two of the leaders lead an art group and some come to this group who do not feel comfortable in our Friday morning get-togethers. My vision from the start has been for a larger number of small groups, rather than one large group, although of course we are all connected through our relationship networks.

We still don't sing or 'preach' but we do proclaim in many other ways the love and grace and mercy of God. We always pray and we have recently begun Bible reading and daily devotion programmes with new believers asking for Bibles and study guides! We always pray for healing, wholeness and expect God to be present with us and to hear us and answer us, in a variety of ways. People pray for each other because they see us as leaders doing so.

I think people just think, 'this is the way it is done.' They assume this is church because they have no other point of reference. We model our faith and they come with us. They say it's about community, these are my friends, this is relationship, this is church! We expect much of God and he does not fail us!

Fridays in Faith

Annandale Churches Together in south west Scotland ran summer holiday clubs in a local secondary school for many years. Very few of the children involved had any relationship with existing churches. Pam Mellor and Deborah Steele explain how Fridays in Faith has helped to bridge the gap.

The holiday clubs in Annan were really, really successful. They took place in an Academy and attracted about 150 children on average but they seemed to disappear as soon as the clubs were over.

Then the questions started, 'Where do they go afterwards? Why don't they come to church?' We said, 'Maybe church is not the place for them. Maybe we should ask if there is something else we should be doing.' Amazingly it was as if everyone had the same thought.

We had a team of 60 helpers for the holiday clubs and we all started to think about what this alternative would look like. After discussion, thought and prayer we thought about going back to the Academy on a Friday night to run something which would incorporate a lot of the key components of a holiday club – things like fun and food and games – but for all ages. The Academy costs about £150 to hire so we went to the churches and asked for their support in this.

Fridays in Faith is backed by Annandale Churches Together, an ecumenical group that includes Annan Old Parish Church, St Andrew's Parish Church linked with Brydekirk Parish Church, Annan United Reformed Church, St John's Episcopal Church, and St Columba's Catholic Church.

They were fantastic, simply saying, 'It's a great idea and we will support you!'

Our first step as co-leaders and co-planners of Fridays in Faith was to find out whether the people themselves actually wanted us to do something. We recognised that those who were coming along to the holiday clubs were not anti-church: it was simply that church wasn't even on their radar. In saying that, there were a number of kids from church families at the holiday club as well so we could see there were great opportunities for those within our churches – as well as outside – to grow together as a community.

On the final day of a holiday club with an Olympics-type theme of Going for Gold we did a 'closing ceremony' when nearly all of the children's parents came along. At the end of the session we stood up – very nervously – and said, 'We would like to ask you all something. We recognise that you love your kids coming here and you are enthusiastic about it all. We also recognise that church isn't working for you for whatever reason. Would you be interested in joining us as we would like to offer something for the whole family? We would set up and run the whole thing but would you like to come along on the first Friday of the month?'

The answer was clearly 'yes' with more than 140 people coming back for the first Friday night session. We read out a statement on that first night to set out what we were there for and we often remind ourselves of it to help us keep focused on the work in hand.

The statement reads:

If what we do here tonight, helps you to find faith, or helps you get to know God better, then that's what we're about.

Faith is a journey and people have helped us on our way. That is all we are trying to do – give people a little bit of help on their faith journey.

These evenings are about fellowship, fun and faith in a new and different way.

We hope that you will have a good time with your own family and with each other, that will be great.

If in time, in coming here, we all become closer to God, then that will be a wonderful blessing. Thank you all for being here and journeying with us.

Each session has a biblical theme running through it. Everything is centred on different activity tables and many of the people who helped with the holiday club became table hosts. Each table works as a team, moving from one activity to another throughout the evening. But on that first night they didn't have time to complete the activities before they had to move on to the next thing. It ran for two hours and we simply tried to cram too much in to the programme!

So we cut back on the time to 90 minutes and allowed a breathing space in activities. Now people have the opportunity to sit and talk during supper time.

We also have a time of prayer, when people are free to join in with us or not.

In terms of planning for the sessions, we meet every week. We set a theme for the year and follow it through each month. This year we are looking at travel, with Peter's journey as the Bible thread.

We told people that we would be looking at faith as a journey and that we'd imagine it as a journey in a car. For the first session we asked, 'How do you go about buying a car?' We thought about listening to people, listening to other opinions, having a look at what was available, counting the cost of it and getting in the car and having a test drive.

An interesting process involved stringing up a very long washing line on which we had pegged A1 sheets with various statements written on them about where you were on your faith journey. At one end of the line we had, 'I don't think there is anything' through 'I think there is something but I'm not sure what' through to things like 'I do think there is a God but I'm not involved in church' and 'I really do believe God is in my life'. There were also blank sheets of paper in between so that people could mark where they thought they were on this washing line.

What was so interesting about that was the fact that so many of our church helpers felt they could be really honest about how they actually felt on their own personal journeys of faith.

The sessions went on to include the MOT for which we looked at the Beatitudes; and Breakdown – which was our Easter session.

We set out on this journey to do 3 months and we have just come to the end of 3 years! We recognise that there are still many questions as we go forward and many issues for us to consider, such as offering the Sacraments. We have broken bread, but recognise that this is not Communion.

All of these issues of leadership and Sacraments come up again and again. We have to stop and think, 'Are we leaders? Are we getting it right?' Sometimes we both wrestle with that a great deal.

It's also difficult when people ask us whether it is 'church' or not. The label of 'church' can be a very real stumbling block to people, we want it to be a place of God's Kingdom where people can cry, ask questions and be real. We didn't know the word 'intentionality'; we didn't know the word 'incarnational' – all we thought about was, 'These are our families. How can we connect with them? How can we make faith more relevant and more real? How can we move them on in that faith?' We're still not sure whether we're going to run Alpha because once you introduce a course like that the concern is that you're imposing something that doesn't quite fit with the context and culture of your emerging community.

For the future, we realise that we have limits as co-leaders and some people have already stepped forward to get involved in various aspects of the work. Our funding runs until the middle of April next year and we continue to listen to God as to what he wants for Fridays in Faith. However, if our Presbytery wants to do something else, we have to be ready for that – if Fridays in Faith has served its purpose in helping the people in the churches to see what's possible by looking at things differently, then so be it.

For now, we continue to be excited at what God is doing in Annan and are blessed to be a part of it.