Andy Wain works with Youth With a Mission in Liverpool and has just been licensed as a Reader to the 'Dream Network'. He tells us more, in an article from the Reader, November 2011.
The 'Dream Network' is a network of groups across Merseyside seeking to make church more accessible to the non-churched. Our aim is to help people on their spiritual journey towards Jesus by being Christ-centred, Open, Relational and Experimental; this makes for a unique setting to minister as a Reader.
A typical Dream service incorporates a call to worship, a short talk, reflection zones for personal engagement and response and communion. We have also instigated a Rhythm of Life to help people integrate their faith into everyday life and taken the church on the streets through creative evangelism.
Some might have difficulty reconciling the idea of being a Reader within the context of a fresh expression of church; recognising that a significant part of being a Reader is preaching. Does this conflict with post-modern values of individualism and relative truth? Whilst I appreciate that some would see these as areas of potential incompatibility, the fact is that I see preaching as being a necessary and biblical part of healthy church – both inherited and fresh expression – along with discipleship, pastoral care, mission, worship and communion. The challenge therefore is how to make these elements of church relevant to society today rather than obsolete.
How can preaching be done that facilitates both direct input and personal engagement and response? How do evangelism and discipleship happen in a way that honours the beliefs and views of both parties without compromising the core issues? These are some of the things I have been wrestling with through my training, and will continue to do so for a long time to come I am sure.
Evangelism
My children love walking around one of the large wholesale warehouses in Liverpool – mainly because of the free food samples enticing customers to buy the product! A couple of years ago Dream thought it would be great to take our own worship onto the streets for people in Liverpool to have a little taster of church, so Guerrilla Worship was born; a simple form of evangelism and worship.
One sunny Saturday afternoon a crowd of 30 Christians mingled in the local shopping centre. When a subtle signal was given, we sat down where we were, took off our shoes and socks and walked to a nearby park within the retail area to sit together in the shape of a cross. There we spent five minutes in silent prayer for the city. Intrigued, a number of young people 'hanging around' the area started to ask what we were doing. They were so taken with the idea that a number sat down with us to pray.
Last autumn we gave consideration to Halloween, recognising that a lot of churches do an amazing job of running alternative 'Halloween' parties for children whilst little is done for 16 to 30-year-olds. We ran a worship event in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral entitled 'Night of the Living Dead', inviting people to, 'Come and experience Liverpool Cathedral at its darkest… and meet a Jesus who makes the usual "Halloween Horror" seem tame and boring!'
The 250 people who came heard how Jesus had defeated paralysing fear on the cross so we can 'stare death in the face and not be afraid'. Three prayer stations provided opportunity for personal reflection and response along with the opportunity to receive Communion. Whilst provoking controversy with some people, the overwhelming response was how effectively it made Jesus the focal point of Halloween – as well as being a 'really cool' event.
As we consider running other such initiatives, we have two questions in mind. * Are we being faithful to the Christian faith and the values we hold as a church? With these two values shaping what we do, there are a whole range of exciting, creative and engaging ways we are helping people to discover and explore the Christian faith.
* Are these ways relevant to, and accepting of, people who don't go to church? The acid test would be, 'Would our non-churched friends be welcomed and treated as equal in their thoughts and views?'
Discipleship
Growing in Christ's likeness is an essential part of the Christian faith yet helping others realise that is very challenging. During Lent last year I experimented with posting a daily reflection on the Dream website and via email. These were written by myself and guest contributors. This sought to bring direct input and teaching whilst being an open forum where people could post their own comments and thoughts – both on the reflection and the comments of others. For me these comments were the most exciting part of the Lent reflections as the input was not limited to the one voice. Anyone who contributed had an equal voice which prompted some fantastic and often challenging comments and questions. Peer to peer discipleship was taking place in a very simple accessible way.
Lectio Divina is an ancient way of reflecting on scripture which we adapted for Dream and called Lectio. From 2008 we have sent out various styles of email; sometimes it has simply included a passage of scripture while at other times a reflection has been included. We also have seasons of sending nothing; but as with the Lent reflections, recipients have been invited to write their thoughts and comments on the Dream website. These have often been very personal and insightful and, more importantly, have been from anyone – not just those in church leadership.
We have found this a key way to help people as they discover what it means to be a Christian whilst giving space for them to bring their own thoughts, questions, doubts and ideas. Such ownership is essential to helping people see church as their community and become more Christ like.
Being a Reader From Week to Week
A couple of years ago we ran 'All Age Dream'. Every two weeks, up to 20 people from different backgrounds, ages and groupings – including singles, families with small children and teenagers, and older folks – came together for worship, input and reflection. It was a wonderful time of fellowship but the group was not growing so we brought it to a close to consider the way forward.
In February this year, in partnership with Liverpool Cathedral, we started a weekly 'all age' service called Zone 2. This is a café-style service running alongside the main Cathedral 10:30am Eucharist.
Three of its strongest values are:
- Welcome: everyone is welcome to join us no matter what their background, age etc
- Hospitality: a table laden with drinks, fruit and pastries with seats laid out in a café style
- Worship: a reading from the Lectionary, a talk, prayer stations, communion and opportunity to share back thoughts and reflections. I co-lead this with Canon for Mission and Evangelism Richard White along with a wider team.
However, limited by its need to be all-age we also want to provide opportunity for more in-depth teaching so I am leading Dream in the Cathedral through a period of change to become 'Deeper'. Continuing to meet monthly we will offer more in-depth applied teaching to help people go 'Deeper' with God, with the Bible and in faith.
Reflective Space and Prayer Stations
Symbolism, silence, music, and movement have aided people in their worship for generations and, as many of us know, there is nothing new under the sun. From the desire to provide both direct teaching and personal response in our services, we usually create three or four areas for personal reflection relevant to the theme of the talk; these are often called prayer stations.
If the theme is the parable of the sower for instance, these may include planting a seed whilst giving thought to the type of soil , reflecting on a bunch or thorns and weeds, or having the passage available for meditation.
It is a Journey
Through leading Dream I have learnt that we don't have a fixed image of what the meetings should look like; rather we have some essential elements that should make up any church, along with certain values that bring focus and distinctiveness to all we do.
How these are worked out is constantly evolving and changing as those who come evolve and change; recognising that one service is not going to be everything for everyone. Rather we hope to have a selection of things for people to choose from depending where they are at in their lives; this provides endless opportunities for new ideas and creative ways to help people in their spiritual growth and worship.