Back to Square One

Many years ago my minister at the time used to say, 'Where there is blessing, then comes trial.' He's not wrong. As we approach our first anniversary in the shop I can't help reflecting on the exhausting first three weeks in November between getting the lease and our opening day, when some of us seemed to live in the shop; painting, clearing, scrubbing, and building endless bookshelves. Occasionally we were let out for good behaviour and got a trip to Ikea to pick up more fittings, furnishings or accessories.

One year on, as things seemed to be going really well, we have been flooded out, and a large portion of the ceiling has come down. Six days later the leak hasn't been traced yet and hasn't stopped, so there's probably more damage to come. The shop is a mess, and again, we approach this time of year with a lot of work to do. The difference is that having worked hard for the last year, I suspect some of us are feeling tired and stretched too thinly already. In the meantime the shop remains closed until we can get the rubble cleared and the electrics checked - until then there is a real health and safety risk from using the premises. It does however leave us with the challenge of exercising our creativity in finding ways to worship together while the shop is closed. If we are constrained by our lack of our normal venue, we've lost the point of what we are trying to do here to some extent.

I have to say that this is where Alan comes into his own. His ability to 'project manage' went a long way to getting the shop open in the first place, and already he is rising to the occasion again as he sorts out issues between several sets of insurers, our landlord, the upstairs owner, tenant, sub-tenant, the factor, environmental health, and various assorted others. Personally it's the sort of scenario that has me paralysed with indecision, but Alan just deals with it.

One positive things about this is that it reinforces that there is a wide variety of gifts amongst our wee group for a reason. We have some great teachers, encouragers, administrators, people with musical ability, and - I am forever grateful - some really caring, pastoral individuals - and also someone who thrives in a crisis and get us back on track again. This is not the only trial we face though. Finance is a perennial issue, and ready cash is thin on the ground. We may have to make some hard decisions in the near future, but in the meantime it is an exercise in trust.

Another issue which has reared its head is that we are not as well equipped as we thought we were to help and accompany those who come to us with no prior knowledge of Christianity - precisely the reason we started this project in the first place - to reach the unchurched. It has required a real shift in our normal way of doing things, and we are working with various options at the moment.

Anyway, much prayer is required at this stage, not least for the stamina to cope with the workload in the next few weeks.

Autumn - a new season

At last - the students have returned to the city. It's been a good few weeks - new faces around the shop, more people using the free WIFI facility, and the start of our book group. Yes - it's a new term. We've just come back from a couple of weeks on holiday and before we went away there was a real sense that the whole project was ticking over the way we'd imagined it would. It's not just about footfall in the shop though - there have been some really good conversations - a surprising number of people are prepared to talk when given a comfortable place to sit and a fresh cup of coffee.

One significant development for Alan was that for the first time in nearly a decade he could just walk away from the church without having to make detailed plans for cov - whether to cover worship, teaching, pastoral care, or staffing the shop. It's a real indication of how blessed we are in talented and committed folk that it just came together as everyone mucked in. Alan at least had the grace to admit that he found it difficult to just leave people to get on with it -but he took a leap of faith, and wasn't disappointed.

One of the ways in which the rest of the crew carried on was in organising an acoustic / open mic night, which took place on Friday 16th October. It was well attended, and while most of those there came as a result of personal contact with the church folk (which is great) there were also a few locals who just walked in off the street, and a few new contacts were made. Excellent, long may it continue!

New Encouragements

It was another encouraging day at The Word on the Street. We had a new record for attendance numbers at worship this morning - 16. We still have more men than women and still averaging people in their 20s, which is a real encouragement. We also had a few regular folk missing, so it was really nice to have a buzz about the place this morning.
It started out as one of those days where nothing seemed to go right - technical problems, sound problems, notes going missing, yet as is often the case there was a really good feel about the place. Ewan, one of our guys who works with Navigators and had been leading groups to Africa over the summer, was back this morning - it was good to have him back.
We also had some interest from one of our visitors coming back and getting involved in the music side. We have never set out to attract other Christians, but the reality is that we need other folk who would be able to get involved. One of the factors that comes with having a younger church, is that with people working full time, then time is at a premium.
Anyway, after a fairly slow summer, it was a really encouraging day.

Everyday Struggles

I've been fairly negligent in posting entries over the summer. There have been a variety of reasons - sheer business, illness in the family, frustration with an old laptop, etc., etc.

Another of the reasons has been, not that nothing was happening, but that not every story is mine to tell. Although one of the reasons for maintaining this blog is to keep a record of the church in its early days, it is essentially a story about people.

The summer generally has been full of ups and downs. We had commented at one point that there did not seem to be the level of spiritual attack on the church that we had been expecting, but in reality it has been there, but seen in struggles we have all faced as individuals more than corporately. There have been health issues, either personally, or as in my case, with family members. Others have struggled with employment issues and associated financial concerns. We have a few assylum seekers in the church who really seem to be struggling at the moment as problems with their assylum applications continue unresolved; to wait up to ten years with no answer is a situation that I can hardly imagine having to live with.

Corporately there have been less tangible issues to overcome - it has been more about the absence of events, than what has actually happened that has been the issue. Few customers, and low levels of income have caused their share of anxiety. We need to make contact with more people, and have the finance to stay open long enough to do that. This has seemed more acute, in that during the summer it was made clear that there would be no funding forthcoming from the Church of Scotland Emerging ministries fund.

All in all though, the reality is that this is very early days. What it does mean though is that we can't take anything for granted. We need to pray for one another, and constantly examine ourselves and what we are doing in the light of our sense of calling and God's direction. We are also very small in number and all of us feel time constrained; we need plan carefully how we use the resources that we have. We are coming up to the end of our first year though, and it is an appropriate time for reflection.

A day to remember

Last Sunday (2 August) was another landmark day, with two baptisms - Cathy and Christine, a mother and daughter. Unlike the first baptism we had in March, we took to the great outdoors and headed for Loch Lomond. The weather had been lousy all week, but the sun was shining as we gathered at Rowardennan on the east shore of the loch, in the shadow of Ben Lomond. It was a great day - a dozen of us, one small dog, a lot of food and a barbecue. For those of us who connect with God when surrounded by his creation, the setting created a sense of awe which I personally rarely have when indoors. Whey would we worry about the lack of a baptistery in our premises when we have God's own craftsmanship at our disposal? As it is technically summer in Scotland (?) it was a chance to do something different, to add a strong fellowship and community element to what is always a special occasion. It also took us away from the shop - made us live out what we profess - that church is not the premises - it's the people, the community of believers. Once again we ventured out from our wee safe space, and a few folk watched what was going on from a bit of a distance. We didn't make any approaches to people - they were our doing their thing, we were out doing ours - but it felt fitting that a church that professes to be missional should take such a public delatation of faith as baptism out into the world to be seen by the world.

Has anyone seen my stash?

One of our folks was sorting through some books that had been donated to us. The book fell open and she found a beautifully pressed leaf within the pages - a cannabis leaf!! Further investigation found more of the same between each and every page of the book. In the end there was about half a plastic bin-liner full. It's funny the things that get handed into charity shops!

So if anybody who has gifted us some books lately is missing their stash, they can find it with the Dennistoun Community Police. (Oh, and thanks again for the books!)

Living with Ambiguity

Yet another threshold or boundary issue that we have come across lately is the discomfort of others within the wider church who aren't able to conveniently pigeon-hole us. I have to reiterate that this is a purely personal viewpoint - this is my personal blog and doesn't necessarily represent the views of the whole church here, but I have found myself disappointed with this reaction.
We are a small independent church existing outside denominational structures, not by choice or deliberate design, but because as we moved on in the vision God had given us, it was the only path that was open to us - to move beyond the structures that held us and begin something new. The only other option was to remain where we were - secure and comfortable, but having to live with the knowledge that we had refused God's call on our lives.
We - all of us here - are trying to develop a community of Christian believers who are faithful to scripture, Christ's call on all of our lives, and his specific envisioning for us at this time in this community. We have recently come under pressure from other Christian leaders to declare our allegiance to a specific denomination. In a recent conversation I cited the reasons why we hadn't done this as follows:

• We are an emerging church still at an embryonic stage of our development - we are only seven months old. Our small group here comes from a variety of church, cultural and national backgrounds - we do not know what 'shape' we will become. That is something I hope God will reveal to us as we allow him to shape us - it would be presumptive for us to dictate to God what our ecclesiology - the way we do church - should be at this early stage.


• This church was born out of a sense of call to mission in a particular location, and we are deliberately and consciously trying to allow what we believe about Christ and mission to shape us - not the pre-existing creeds, principles or statements of faith of an existing denomination. If and when that shaping process has progressed sufficiently to reveal that we share the principles of an existing denomination, we will happily and gratefully consider aligning ourselves with them.
  
• One of the reasons that we are here at all is a recognition that there is a large section of the community that traditional / institutional church is not reaching. There is a part of society that they are ideally suited to reach, but we are looking towards the unreached. In that context the hallmarks of institutional church may actually be a barrier to what we are trying to achieve at this stage, particularly as we are in an area where religious sectarianism can still be an issue.

I have found the response to this really disappointing, not in the casual enquirer who comes into the shop to see who and what we are, but particularly in those who have a trans-local responsibility for leadership of the church in that area. The arguments for aligning with one particular denomination is I'm afraid not sufficiently compelling at this time, especially when those arguments come from people with less experience of either church planting or emerging church than our own fellowship. What is sad is that our refusal is seen as the manifestation of an isolationist attitude - something that could not be further from the truth; since opening our premises we've enjoyed better, more open and relaxed relationships with local churches of all denominations that we ever had before.

It is highly likely that the time will come when it is right for us to be more formally aligned with a particular denomination, but that time is not today. I only hope that when the time comes, our current refusal will not have soured relations, but that is a problem for another day. In the meantime, we are truly thankful that God has allowed us to be part of something which transcends any and all denominations, that we are having to find our security in God and not in ecclesiastical institutions, and trusting that he will continue to guide us.