A PIONEERING GOD –

FOR A PIONEERING
PEOPLE
Being Church for Our Generation
Reflections on creating worshipping communities
that connect with 21st century society
Being Church for Our Generation
Reflections on creating worshipping communities
that connect with 21st century society

Introduction
This is the seventh in this series of Focus booklets. It
has come out of a growing belief that whilst we are
part of a society that is seeking meaning and
purpose to life, people are looking less and less to
the church for the answers.
Ministers, elders and members of our local churches
are doing much to promote and live out the Christian
faith, but there is such a cultural gap between our
contemporary high-tech scientific, fragmented and
pluralistic society and church life, that people see the
church as irrelevant. This is particularly so with those
of younger generations. How do we bridge this gap?
This booklet is an attempt to supplement what is
happening in church life with additional thinking and
practical ideas that may help to enable us to reach
out to those who may otherwise never have the
opportunity to experience the love, forgiveness,
acceptance and hope that we know and God wishes
to offer to all people.
When we talk about communicating the Christian
faith there are two stories to tell. There is the story of
our personal faith journey when we talk about the
stages we have passed through and the events and
experiences that have happened to us. Then, as
Christians, there is the wider story of the Christian
faith seen in what God has done through Jesus
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Christ, and is doing in the world today through the Holy Spirit.
These two stories interweave and interlock and we as Christians
relate our story into the bigger story of God’s love for us all. Yet
many Christians find sharing these stories difficult in a way that
people outside the faith can hear and understand. It has been
tried in different ways in the past through street evangelism and
marketing methods, but many people today are put off by these
approaches. As individuals we may find it hard to share the
Christian story, but as a corporate body of the church we can
help and support each other. The most natural and effective way
to share one’s faith today is, over time, by caring and sharing
with others through different church ministries and developing
relationships with people.
In order to be able to open up to somebody about things that are
important to us we need firstly to be able to build relationships
with them so that they, and we, feel comfortable in sharing more
of ourselves with each other. Faith conversations will often then
happen in a natural and mutual manner. The pages which follow
attempt to share some thinking and ideas on how we might
create these opportunities.
This booklet has been informed by spending time considering
what it means to have a “mixed economy” approach to being
church which allows new and different approaches that will
supplement what we as churches are already doing. I also spent
a recent sabbatical meeting people involved in setting up and
theologically reflecting upon pioneering ministries, as well as
visiting many projects in the United Kingdom and the
Netherlands.
I hope you will find this to be a useful resource that will aid
understanding and hopefully encourage you to try one or two of
the ideas included, or new ones that fit your context. This is a
“can-do” booklet regardless of the size or age of your
congregation.
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My thanks go to Michael Moynagh who has allowed me to
include some of his stories that compliment my own.

Further copies of this booklet are available in hard copy or to

download on the Synod website www.urc-eastern.org.uk If you
wish to contact me about anything written here, please email
training@urceastern.org.uk or phone 01223 830770

Peter Ball
Mission and Training Officer
United Reformed Church Eastern Synod
March 2015

A word of thanks
I would like to thank Michael Moynagh, Linda Rayner, Francis Breinen,
the Mission Team of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and all
the people at the Pioneer projects I visited during my sabbatical for the
time given and conversations held that have helped inform this booklet
and other ongoing work.

iii
Chapter 1
The theology behind the
stories
It is important to take some time to think about why
we need pioneering ministries in our churches today
before telling the stories that will follow. Why? To
ensure that we know why we are taking on new
initiatives in the way we do church and to understand
the thinking behind what we attempt. It is not
necessary for everybody to have a pioneering spirit,
indeed we would be in trouble if that were the case,
but it is vital that we all understand why these
ministries are needed and how they can enhance the
place of church in our society.
For clarity let me outline what I mean by pioneering.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word
pioneer means an initiator of a new enterprise, an
inventor, to prepare the way, to open up or lead.
Other words suggested in the thesaurus are
innovator, explorer, trail-blazer, entrepreneur and
trend-setter. In a way all of these words can help in
our understanding of pioneering and, to some extent,
are true when we use the word in church terms.
For the purposes of this booklet, pioneering
ministries are projects which are looking to do
something new with people outside the church with
the hope of creating a worshipping community
among that group of people in due course. They may
be set up by an individual or a group and be led and

1
run by lay or ordained. That said it is vital that any pioneering
project is supported and tested through either a church or Synod
group, has the backing of the local situation and is supported by
prayer. These are not initiatives where one individual has an
idea and then without consultation simply goes off and sets it up
on his/her own. Pioneering is an activity of the church, and as
such the people of God.
As a denomination the United Reformed Church is well placed to
embrace a pioneering spirit. As part of the Reformed Church
family it is in our nature to question, debate and be a reforming
presence in church life as we seek the will of God through Elders
and Church Meeting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Throughout history there are amazing stories of how Christians
from our tradition have blazed a trail for new ways of being and
have helped to reform society as a result. They have stood
alongside the poor and vulnerable, created new communities
and through their faith have treated people with respect and
dignity and led others to do likewise. It is hard to think of this
now but Sunday Schools were in their own way a pioneering
ministry amongst children of low or no education in their early
days. Only later did Sunday school become the norm for each
local church.
Scripture also reminds us that we are to be pioneering in the
way that Jesus was. Dave Male comments that the word pioneer
(archegos) is used four times in the New Testament in direct
relation to Jesus with the meaning being: one who is first in
terms of place, time, or leading people into a new space (1). In
other words somebody who takes a lead in or provides the first
occasion of anything. If you wish to look up the scripture
references for the risen Jesus being referred to as a pioneer of
the faith they can be found in Acts 3:15 & 5:31 and Hebrews
2:10 & 12:2.

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This understanding of Jesus gives us His example to follow
when we think how we might engage with people in new places
and new ways. In the stories of the Gospels there are many
different ways that we find Jesus taking the initiative to enter into
conversations with people and build relationships. In a sense
Jesus was entering into situations where the Father was already
at work.

Paul then followed this example of Christ as he travelled and set

up new worshipping communities in the places he went. It is
worth noting that Paul had to then allow those who lived and
worked in the towns and cities he visited, to carry forward the
work he began. Like Jesus and his twelve disciples, he always
drew a group of people around him to allow this to happen. Even
in those early days pioneering was not an individual pursuit. The
church of the 21st century, as it was with Paul in the first century,
needs to continue to discern where God wishes us to go and to
then offer ourselves into that situation, allowing God through the
Holy Spirit to touch people’s hearts. In an earlier Focus booklet I
quote:

“The Church’s mission is to be the body of God’s people

who, through the grace of God, participate in the
initiatives which God takes in the world” (2)

In viewing our mission from this perspective it gives us

confidence and courage to be ready to explore new possibilities
and to know that where we go God is already at work.

This is the premise that allows us to dare to offer the God of

love, through Christ and in the power of the Spirit. Then through
our actions and words trust that the people we build relationship
with might glimpse the living God for themselves and so begin
their own journey of faith.

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In pioneer ministries what we are looking to form are witnessing
communities. You may find the criteria for pioneer ministries
suggested by Michael Moynagh for such groups a helpful
touching point for your prayers and discussions. Michael
suggests(3) that as we think about starting new communities that
we hope will become worshipping communities they should look
to be:
1. Missional: They connect with people who do not attend our
church.
2. Contextual: They find culturally appropriate ways to reach
people.
3. Formational: They intend to form disciples.
4. Ecclesial: They are not stepping stones to existing church,
but provide flavours of church for those who attend.

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Chapter 2
Setting the scene
As I work with the ministers and congregations
across the Eastern Synod in my role as Mission and
Training Officer I am constantly struck by the level
of innovation and enthusiasm that I see. Then there
are coffee mornings, Fairtrade stalls, and
Foodbanks to help those in need. These ministries
serve communities and demonstrate the love of
God, yet in many cases do not help people make
links to the Christian faith and the church. And in
some places there are real struggles to keep
buildings in good condition and in other places a
lack of people able to take the active roles they
once did. However once we start to talk about the
Christian faith this seems to ignite a desire and
passion within people to find the different ways to
ensure that their local churches can remain relevant
and share the love of God that they have known in
their lives. This is the point at which we explore
context together to think about further possibilities
for ministry and mission.
There is no blueprint that can be applied to every
situation. What works in a large city church may
work in a small rural church of ten people or it may
not. Then again the mission of a small elderly
congregation that is very successful may be
transferable to a small young congregation or it may
not. This is why we need a mixed economy
approach to church. What this means is that each
local situation needs to understand its setting and
then to create worshipping communities that offer

5
the opportunity for encounter and for those we serve to have the
chance to learn more of Jesus in meaningful and appropriate
ways to them.
I included thoughts on understanding local contexts in the Focus
booklet Mission Possible so will not repeat them here(4).
In the research I have carried out what has clearly been stated
both in Britain and in the Netherlands is the need for this “mixed
economy” of church experience. Nowhere did I hear anybody
saying that they wished to replace traditional church with these
new expressions. Indeed many of the pioneers I met have a
deep love of the traditional church and some still use it to
deepen and enrich their own faith and spirituality. It is clear that
there is work to be done in enabling those in both traditional
church and in new expressions of church to better understand
each other and for neither to feel threatened by the other. It is
the same God that all are seeking to serve and there should be
a sense of mutual love and support for both to be able to
flourish.
Across our denomination ministers are playing many different
roles in enabling new expressions of church and worship to take
place. These vary from ministers being the pioneers themselves
to enabling others to take a lead and use their gifts to the full.
Ministers have many responsibilities, and for many, even if they
wished to spend time focussing on new ventures the demands of
pastoral ministry for often two or more churches simply makes
this impossible. This is why to undertake these new initiatives
there needs to be a decision of the whole church so that prayer
and support can be offered.
The exciting thing is that on the whole these new expressions of
church may start with something that people are already
interested in. It may be knitting, sport, walking, eating (I suppose
that includes most of us!!), cooking, cinema or gardening. I
suspect that even in this initial list most of you could say “that’s
me” to at least one of the areas.
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I found the following five recurring themes across my different
conversations with those working in pioneering ministries as
being at the heart of what was working well. You may find them
useful to hold in mind for your conversations.
1. Identity: It is crucial to know who you are and what you
have to offer.
2. Leadership: There is a need for leadership that empowers,
at times gives the lead, but crucially allows others to develop
their gifts, and gives the chance for them to be fully used in
leadership roles as well as supporting ones.
3. Community: New expressions of church tend to lead to a
stronger sense of community and calling amongst the whole
people of God. This leads to a “can do” mentality and a
greater willingness to be involved and offer into the life of the
church and its mission.
4. Communication: I lost count of the times that good
communication was mentioned as something of crucial
importance. So much of church life soars or falls on this and
with new expressions which are often by nature fragile
communities it can quite literally be the difference between
success and failure.
5. Local: To have projects which are both local and have
understood the context in which they will serve is both the
starting point and the ending point. To have any chance of
creating a worshipping community and developing disciples
of Jesus Christ this local aspect has to enfold all else.
You may also find the following a useful pattern to follow as you
think about projects to undertake:
 Listen - to God and the community you are a part of and
people you relate to;
 Loving and serving activity - meeting a need or providing
space to develop an interest/hobby;

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 Form community - time spent in relationship building and
helping people to belong;
 Explore Discipleship - faith conversations that occur
naturally: they should never be forced on people;
 Church takes shape - evolving out of what feels right for
those whose community this has become;
 Constant Listening - this should be a given as failure to
listen invariably leads to a community breaking down.
All of these should be underpinned with prayer and connection
with the wider church.
Now I would like to share with you, stories of a few different
fresh expressions of church that have worked in different places.
The stories that follow are not startlingly new in what they tell,
but perhaps they will help give us ideas about ways that we can
reconnect daily living with the Christian faith for our generation.
The Christian faith is best expressed and lived out when it
connects with all of our daily living, rather than being something
that we do for an hour on a Sunday and then try to make the
connections for the rest of the week. These stories are helping
us to turn this on its head by saying what we do during the week
makes sense of what we say and share together on a Sunday.
Another bonus is that these stories are not taken from or
restricted to any one church denomination. Some are joint
ventures, others through local Churches Together. Some were
formed by small groups of Christian friends, and others by a
local church.
I will now let the stories speak for themselves and hope that they
will inspire you as they have done me.

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Chapter 3
Stories from near and far
St John’s Parish Church, Saxmundham,
Suffolk
St John’s sits at the top of the hill on the edge of the
small market town of Saxmundham. The services
offered at the church are traditional in both the liturgy
and hymn choice. The church had a younger couple
who were attending but with two young children
finding it hard to feel a part of the service and were
also aware that the noise of the children was
disturbing other worshippers.

They went to see the vicar to explain that whilst they

wanted to worship locally they could not see how
they could continue to attend and be able to relax
and worship fully. The vicar, aware that he could not
change the format of the worship as it suited the bulk
of his congregation, asked them: “so what would
meet your needs and would you help to run it?”

The outcome has been Coffee & Doughnuts (food for

the body and soul) which takes place at the local
school on the third Sunday of the month, aimed
primarily at parents in a similar position to
themselves but is open to all. Coffee & Doughnuts,
advertised as church with a difference, provides an
opportunity to relax, enjoy good company, good
coffee with a doughnut or croissant, while thinking
about life issues using films, music and the Sunday
newspapers.
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Attendance has grown to now be between 25-40 mainly made
up of under 40’s . The vicar is supportive, but due to the
pressure on his time, not a leader of the group. This initiative has
led to the leaders and vicar going on a Mission Shaped Ministry
course together with the support of the whole church and the
launching of Coffee & Doughnuts Xtra on the fourth Sunday of
each month for those who wish to take the subject to a deeper
level.

Being able to bring children along without worry of disturbing

other people’s worship and using a set-up that is familiar to other
settings you may take children into has been central to the
success of this project.

St Ives Free Church, Cambridgeshire

Church in the Market Place
St Ives is a market town located on the river Ouse with a busy
market on Mondays, Fridays and every other Saturday. People
from the town and the surrounding villages come in on market
day so there is a good ‘footfall’ of shoppers.

Churches Together in St Ives had two bishops visit and who

walked around chatting to people one market day. People were
so responsive and pleased to meet them that the churches
decided to set up ‘Church in the Market Place’ to be a visible
presence in the community. They met monthly to think about
what to do and had Tim Yau, URC Eastern Synod Pioneer
Minister, based in Ipswich, come to share ideas from other
locations and to do some training with volunteers.

10
They set up a gazebo with round tables and chairs, to meet and
talk to people, to listen to their stories and to offer to pray with
people where appropriate. They did not wish to promote any one
denomination, nor to directly evangelise people, but to start by
listening to them and finding out what was important to them.
They had large signs saying ‘Church in the Market Place’ and
leaflets explaining the venture and a couple of volunteers to
listen and chat to people. The stall next to them offered to
provide cheaper coffee if people wanted one as they sat and
chatted.
This ministry has just begun so they wait to see where it will
lead, but are pleased that it shows that the different churches
can work together to serve their community and are willing to
meet people where they are, rather than suggest they must
come and adapt to church life.

Ipswich: The Link

Tim Yau, URC Eastern Synod Pioneer Minister in Ipswich has
been involved in several projects since coming into the Synod in
2012. Here he shares a story about Link a project that had been
successful, but at the time of Tim’s arrival was struggling. Tim
picks up the story: “Link was at a crossroads, we had to get back
to its original aim to create community and seek God. It became
clear that Link needed to change, so with sadness we stopped
the event and said goodbye to the CoffeeLink café where we’d
met for several years.
What we were left with was a handful of people who still wanted
to meet together, some of them were Christians, some de-
churched and some unchurched. We decided to continue with
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Link, but before leaping into the next phase we decided to wait.
We needed a new home and we needed a new focus. So we
started meeting twice a month, once in a pub and once at my
house. At my house we watched and discussed films, there we
gelled as a group and it became apparent that running a film
club was going to be our new focus. After over a year of moving
from place-to-place we discovered a person of peace at The
Thomas Wolsey Pub. Although not Christians Dougie and Ben
were really interested and pleased that we wanted to meet at
their place. From August 2014 we launched the Link Movie Night
and already we’ve had new people interested in being part of it.
Where the Holy Spirit will lead us only God knows, but we’re
excited about this next chapter.”

Bramhall 9.30 Café Service

Linda Rayner, URC Fresh Expressions Co-ordinator, tells us a
story from her home church.

“Bramhall URC had a smart new building (from the 1990’s) and
a congregation with very few families or children. One member
happily told us he joined the church in 1968 because ‘everyone
was my age in their 30’s’. Now in his 80’s he still loves it
because ‘everybody is still my age’. The choir sings anthems
and introits, and for a while the music group played one ‘modern’
song a month.

It suited some people, but by the end of the 20th century,

numbers were declining and the ‘younger’ people were in their
forties or fifties.

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Minister, David Roberts, encouraged a small group of lay people
to start some experimental worship for people who did not
connect with the main service, including an occasional
contemporary style evening worship. The group started to ask
what might encourage people to come to church especially
asking people who were already affiliated with the church,
including the evening worshippers, and others who attended
events, like the regular ‘Home Bake’ sales. It became clear that
in Bramhall many families treasured their time together at
weekends and did not want to send their children out to Sunday
School, so didn’t come to church because it simply was not
family friendly.

Some all-age worship was needed. This was not a church

looking into the community and seeing a huge need for action on
social issues – but there was a gap in people’s understanding
about Jesus and the Gospel – and lots of youngish families who
were seeking ‘something’ but not finding it in church. If people
were going to come to church, they wanted something fairly
early in the morning so that the day was then free for other
family activities.

The notion of an all age service went to Elders, who took some
convincing, and for various reasons it was impossible to use the
sanctuary, which turned out to be a blessing. So the 9.30 all-
age, café style service was born, in the church hall, in the year
2000. Worship follows a surprisingly traditional pattern, prayers,
teaching and singing. There is always a craft activity and often
other activities or games too. There is a clear theme, which
usually follows the Lectionary. Music is led by the worship band.

It is genuinely worship for all ages and not a children’s service

and there are opportunities to explore discipleship further,
usually via Bible studies during the week, or film nights and book

13
clubs. There have been baptisms and Holy Communion and the
church is growing in both services, with 15 new members in the
past two years and now an average of 45 at the 9.30 service.
Most are members of one or other of the services but a few go to
both.”

7,000 on Twitter
A group of Christians used a pub as a base for an outreach
activity during Holy Week. They gave out free coffee, hot cross
buns and leaflets about the Easter Story to commuters walking
to the station. A member of the team tweeted about what they
were doing using three key words, Heaton Moor, Community,
Caring. The tweets were picked up by people in the Heaton
Moor area involved in community and caring as well as by local
radio. Before long the message had been retweeted 7,000
times.

Building on this the pub agreed that a group. ‘No Holds Barred’,
could meet monthly on its premises to discuss a variety of
issues, with low-key Christian input.

Local minister Stuart Radcliffe comments: “I am always reluctant

to put labels on something like ‘No Holds Barred’ because it is
organic and I don’t know where it is going to lead. If it leads to a
new expression of church in the pub I would be delighted and it
would be a great direction to go in. What we are learning is that
by letting things go where they want to we get more out of it.”

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Environment and church
A men’s group, including some Christians planned to improve
their environment – to remove graffiti, clear litter and enhance
local amenities. Members lived in the shadow of a Japanese car
factory, where continuous improvement was the mantra. One of
the group had the idea that this should be the umbrella for the
groups discussions over a drink after their hard work. The
question he asked was “How can we improve not only what we
do for the environment, but as husbands, fathers and in our
work?”

As they worked on the environment, individuals would get to

know each other. They would begin to talk about their lives.
Opportunities would arise for Christians in the group to share
their faith. Improving the environment and growing discipleship
would now go hand in hand. Doing life and doing church would
blend naturally together.

Coffee in the Living Room

This initiative is a partnership between a church and a medical
centre in England’s West Midlands. On Thursday mornings
about forty people – mainly elderly – meet in the church foyer,
which is transformed into a café.

They chat, drink cups of coffee and play board games. They can
use a prayer tree to request prayer by the leaders, while face to
face prayer is offered to those who wish. The café is less than a
year old, but some of those involved can already see the
potential for more Christian input.

15
The way this project started is also interesting. Three members
of the congregation had been feeling that the church should do
more to serve its neighbourhood. Unknown to them, doctors in
the local medical practice were discussing the success of an
initiative in another practice. Patients had begun meeting for
coffee and chat on the doctors’ premises. Appointments with the
doctors had dropped markedly. It seemed that anxiety and
loneliness were being dealt with through this social event. “Can’t
we have something similar here?” the doctors wondered.

A chance conversation between a person from the church and

the medical practice’s compassionate community co-ordinator
allowed the congregation member to join up the dots. She spoke
to the three who wanted the church to do more to serve the
locality. Might pioneering with the medical practice make sense?
They hesitated.

Then one day, in a small group discussion, someone totally

unconnected with the other conversations exclaimed, “shouldn’t
we have a café in the church?”. One of the group joined up the
dots and the original three could no longer hold back. They held
discussions with the practice and the café was born. It came into
existence because of scattered conversations, at first
unconnected, inside and outside the congregation.

Author note: This is a great story because it comes out of

conversations from normal daily life and reminds us that we
need to have our eyes and ears open to where God is working in
all aspects of our living and be ready to join in with his initiatives.

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Hot Chocolate
Hot Chocolate started in 2001 when a small band of volunteers
went out to meet some of the young people in the heart of
Dundee, Scotland. That was their only agenda. The volunteers
took hot chocolate with them and the young people started
calling the encounters ‘Hot Chocolate’. The name stuck.

Within a few months some significant relationships had

developed. The volunteers began asking: “if you had a bit of
space in the church building, what would you do with it?” The
young people replied that they would want somewhere they
could crash out and be themselves. So it was that a space that
the young people could call home was created within the church
building.

It now has six paid staff (two full time), around thirty five
volunteers and serves about three hundred young people
throughout the year. Charis Robertson describes how Hot
Chocolate has developed:
“Since the outset it has been the young people who have made
the decisions about how, when and what happens. In a way,
everything that has happened so far in the way of a church
community is completely accidental. It seems that every couple
of months we stop and say ‘What are you up to now God?’ It’s
changing again. Hot Chocolate experiments not recklessly, but
without fear of failure. There is a strong culture of reflection,
vulnerability, and learning together, even when we have made
mistakes.”

This story can be found at:

www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/hotchocolate

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A group for those with Dementia
Diana is assembling a team to hold ‘Grown-up Sunday School’
for people with dementia, whose memory loss starts with recent
events and progresses back in time.

In her local care home, residents sing Christian hymns and

songs that they remember from their childhood Sunday schools,
say the Lord’s Prayer in a version they originally learned, and
hear Bible stories that they once knew as children. The impact is
not high profile but for the people involved it makes a difference.
Individuals who are passive for most of the week take an active
part. Others who are agitated become calm. People who
dropped out of church as adults reconnect to the Christian faith.
An expression of church is happening in a real way.

Prayer Spaces
In five years ‘prayer spaces’ in schools have welcomed nearly
300,000 people into simple, transformed classrooms where
students and staff can explore their hopes, dreams and prayers
in creative ways. Teachers and pupils report that prayer spaces
impact the educational, behavioural, spiritual and pastoral
aspects of school life. Some have the potential in time to
become expressions of church. In Gloucester Joe Knight and a
chaplain friend set up their first prayer space at a Church of
England secondary school.

“On the final day, Joe recalls, my friend confessed he thought

we would do well to have ten people attend, but half the school
had come voluntarily, with very meaningful encounters, including

18
expressions of thanks, sorry and please prayers, and prayers
wrestling with big questions. We’ve hosted fifteen prayer spaces
in the school since then. Trust has grown as we’ve responded to
people’s needs through counselling, friendship, hosting
Christmas concerts and even gardening courses. However it’s
the individual encounters of rekindled hope and faith that
continue to amaze and surpass our original dream”

Author note: Many churches have good links with local schools
so the idea of a prayer space could be an option to pursue

Growing a community in the workplace

Janet used to have lunch with the same group of people in her
work canteen. One day they were discussing a story in the
news, and Janet described how she responded as a Christian.
This provoked a lively discussion, at the end of which one
person said “we ought to do this more often”. So they did once a
week. The group grew in size, with the management allowing
them a small room to meet in as they felt this was good for staff
relationships.

Several years on about 15 people are still meeting for weekly

discussion with some Christian input even though Janet has
since left her job. Had she remained it is quite possible this may
have become a worshipping community. However the weekly
discussions provide an important place in these workers lives.

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Cooking up prayer
Inspired by celebrity chefs and shows like ‘Masterchef’, many
young people are interested in cooking. So Katherine Crowsley
decided to start a cookery club in her Methodist Chapel. She
gathered a team, sought the advice of a community food worker,
and ran a pilot.

Cook@Chapel was launched in 2009, attracting between seven

and nine twelve to sixteen year olds. Most were not involved in
church. They prepared a meal, ate and talked. It was all very
informal. By 2013 numbers had grown, a core of regulars had
emerged, and a sense of community had developed.

Prayer grew quickly out of taking it in turns to say grace using a

grace dice. The young people were invited to drop written
prayers into a kitchen bowl, the bowel was passed round, and
individuals picked up a prayer to read out loud. This ‘Mixing Bowl
of Prayer’ has become popular and is the cornerstone of the
evening.

Discipleship occurs through conversations and supporting

outside projects, such as cooking a safari supper to raise funds
for an education project in Ghana. Plans include offering a
taught course to deepen the young people’s Christian
understanding, and an allotment to grow vegetables for their
meals and to care for creation.

Story can be found at:

www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/cookatchapel

20
New Creations
A Christian bereavement coordinator in Merseyside, Janet
Cross, became aware of the need for some kind of support
group for the bereaved. She found that one widow she was
visiting had taken up crafts and it was helping her. A keen card
maker herself she had the idea of forming a craft group as
‘occupational therapy’ for the bereaved. She took the idea to her
minister and asked two friends to help her to run it.

Having started with general crafts, they focused on Janet’s

passion, card making. Each week had a theme. A monthly ‘God
slot’ centred on the theme of the cards being made that week.
Janet led the slot having had some training as a lay leader.

‘New creations’ has grown to about forty people. Two clusters,

one for Christians and one for those who wish to explore the
Christian faith have grown out of the group. They meet at 11.00
on Tuesday mornings after which they join the rest of the card
makers for lunch. After lunch they all begin the serious business
of card making.

Story can be found at:

www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/newcreations

Author note: This story acts as a reminder that sometimes all

God wishes us to use are our God given gifts or interests. We
have many people who are great knitters, who love cooking,
enjoy sports, reading and much more and know others who also
enjoy these activities. A question to ask is how can we use these
gifts to build community and show God’s love through them.

21
The Scarecrow Festival Thetford
Julian Sanders shares this story:
“Four years ago Thetford URC held its first ‘Scarecrow Festival’
which has now become a regular date on our church calendar.
Apart from the fundraising opportunities, this annual festival has
helped to raise the profile of the church within the town and built
stronger links with many schools and groups within the
community.

Each year, after the Easter and Pentecost celebrations are out
of the way, invitations are sent to all the local schools,
community groups and the groups that hire the building during
the year. They are invited to make and display a scarecrow for
the event and in early September to bring them along and
display them throughout the festival. Along with the scarecrow
the groups are invited to display information about their group, or
publicise their own events coming up.

The festival runs over the same weekend each year and the
focus of the activity is on the Saturday when the church is open
all day serving refreshments, lunches, and with some children's
activities and a tombola. We arrange a 'treasure' hunt and hide
things on the scarecrows for people to find which encourages
them to spend a little time looking more closely, and the kids
love that part of it, and some years invite choirs and music
groups to display their talents and have had musical
entertainment provided throughout the day.

Most valuable has been some important and long-standing

relationships that have been built with the local schools. Two of
the schools that make scarecrows now bring all their children
along to the church for their Harvest Festival which is celebrated
among the scarecrows. This not only sees hundreds of children

22
come into church who might never have been in a church
before, but also means that the church becomes for the school a
local partner in the work they do with the children. The church
has since been invited to lead assemblies on a monthly basis,
be involved in a ‘Celebrating RE’ week as well as being invited
to visit and speak to classes in the RE lessons.”

23
Notes
1. D Male: Pioneering Leadership – Grove Books Ltd 2013 p6
2. P Ball: Mission Possible – URC Eastern Synod 2012 p5
3. M. Moynagh: Being Church Doing Life - Monarch Books 2014
p257
4. P Ball: Mission Possible – URC Eastern Synod 2012 p9-15
Bibliography and Resources
Books

Ball, Peter: Mission Possible - URC Eastern Synod 2012

Gardner, Jason: Mend the Gap - IVP 2008
Goodhew, Roberts & Volland: Fresh - SCM Press 2012
Guder, Darell L: The Continuing Conversion of the Church - WM
B Eerdmans 2000
Making Connections - ACORA Publishing 2010
Mak, Geert: An Island in time - Vintage 2010
Male, Dave: Pioneering Leadership - Grove Books Ltd 2013
Male, David & Weston, Paul: The Word’s Out - BRF 2013
Mission Shaped Church - Church House Publishing 2004
Moynagh, Michael: Being Church, Doing Life - Monarch Books 2014
Moynagh, Michael: Church for every context - SCM Press 2012
Stuckley, Tom: Beyond the box - Inspire 2005

DVD’s and websites

Fresh Expressions: ‘Expressions making a difference’ DVD

www.hopetogether.org.uk
www.freshexpressions.org.uk
 The United Reformed Church
Eastern Synod Office
Whittlesford
CAMBRIDGE
CB22 4ND
Tel: 01223 830770
Website: www.urc-eastern.org.uk