Publicity and Prayer

We had a couple of folks from the local paper - the Re-GEN, in the shop. We had decided to advertise the bookshop, and they were going to write up an editorial on what we were doing. While they were there two women came in and had a coffee, and bought some books, commenting frequently on the lovely atmosphere in the shop. It was wonderful - such a perfect thing to happen while reporters are in your midst - so perfect that if I didn't know better I'd think it had been set up - it couldn't have happened better if it had been.
Even lovelier, one of the ladies joined us on Sunday for our worship time, and her nephew with her. It was great to see them and we hope they felt welcome and included.
The weather has been gorgeous, and its meant more pedestrian traffic outside the shop. Our huge stock of books has also meant that we can give some away - the ones that aren't in such good condition, so we've been able to put a basket of books outside for folks to help themselves. The combination of the two has brought a lot of new customers into the shop, which is great, and the freebies outside have also demonstrated that we stock all sorts of books, so it's broken down a few barriers I think.
The editorial is due out on the 6th June along with the advert. Here's hoping it bears fruit.

Threshold of what...

The flip side of what I was saying in my last entry, is that the relationship we have with traditional or inherited church is not only one-way.

From our inception we recognised that those who came through our doors for spiritual reasons (as opposed to looking for the latest Maeve Binchey or John Grisham novel) would do so for a variety of reasons.

Some would be simply curious, or looking for a novel experience, wanting to see what this slightly off-beam bookshop church was like, and having experienced it, would move on or return to their normal Sunday experience.

For others we would be a stepping stone - something on the threshold of the world and what people perceive as 'proper' church. For some it will be an 'entry level' experience of church - a putting of the proverbial toe in the water before committing themselves to something more mainstream or traditional. For others who have been absent from church for a number of years it is a step on a journey back there, and a step they can take without excess baggage. They will journey with us for a time, and then continue their journey in other company. They do so with our blessing - recognising that different guides and companions are often necessary at different parts of the journey.

A third group, we hope and pray, will come to us looking for something, and find it with us. We will become their primary experience of church, and we pray that we can be up to the task, be worthy companions for the journey, and that they will stay with us, and become our co-workers and fellow disciples.

In our short life history so far we have encountered those in the first and third group. Last week we were delighted to hear that a regular customer with no live church connection is now attending another local church regularly - and loving it. She was afraid to tell us that she would rather not come to our Sunday worship, but preferred this other service instead - afraid that our feelings would be hurt. She was surprised to find, I think, that rather than censure or hurt, we were able to be genuinely thankful, and privileged to play a part in her story. We will still see her - she continues to come into the shop, and so the connection continues, but I hope she will not be the last who finds a place in Christ's church somewhere as a result of our ministry.

We have no intention of empire building, or creating a new denomination. Those within the core team of people who share the vision for The Word on the Street know only that it is what God has asked us to do at this time in this community. We hold it lightly, so that when the time comes to end this and move on, we won't hang on to what he would have us give up. In the meantime, we can give thanks for a life heading in a new direction, and pray for many more.

Thank God for The Church

Some people labour under the misapprehension that if you are engaged in an expression of church that is new or different from the accepted 'norm' (whatever that is!), that you are, by definition criticising the existing church.

The small group of pioneers who share the vision for The Word on the Street are conscious of several things in relation to the 'traditional' or 'inherited' church in this country.

Firstly, everyone in the core team comes from a traditional church background, albeit from a variety of traditions, and everyone in the core team acknowledges the debt we owe the churches that have fed, nurtured, taught and discipled us in preparation for coming to this point in our individual and collective journeys.

Secondly, we would not exist as a fellowship if not for the initial gifting of a property from Dennistoun Baptist Church, which we were able to sell in order to fund this venture.

We have also consistently received encouragement and prayer support from a huge number of other Christians, most of whom aren't involved in 'emerging church', but who view what we are doing sympathetically.

We would also be lying to ourselves if we failed to acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of Christians in this society at this time are part of the traditional church, and that they engage in the majority of evangelistic activities, disciple more Christians and fund more projects than the emerging church could ever hope to at this time. Around 8% of adults attend church in Britain today are Christians, and that means that the inherited church accounts for the single most popular 'leisure' activity in the nation - even more people attend church than football matches. That is a huge contribution.

The traditional, or inherited, church is not perfect, but neither is the emerging church, and as people experiment and take risks mistakes will be made. Our aim at The Word on the Street is simply to reach parts of the community that the traditional forms of church in our area aren't, while recognising that the inherited church are reaching a part of the community which will be inaccessible to us. The point is that there is room, and need, for both.

The point of this lengthy preamble is to express our warmest thanks and gratitude to a Christian agency in Scotland for its gift to us yesterday of something in excess of 3,000 - yes 3,000 - books. It is a tremendous and generous gesture of support that is quite overwhelming, providing finance for us as we sell them, but almost more valuable than a gift of money, because every book sale brings with it the opportunity of engagement with the person who purchases it.

We may exist somewhere outside the 95 percentile of the normal distribution of church traditions, but without the traditional church, we could not exist.

There are no words to express my gratitude for this gift. We are so small, and yet don't go unnoticed by those before us and around us. It is humbling to be on the receiving end of such generosity and thank you is insufficient, more words would be no less so, so thank you will have to do.

We Need to Get Out More

Normally this is my own personal plea to my husband and friends when thoroughly jealous of all the exciting things everyone else seems to get up to while I'm still trying to get through the everlasting pile of ironing at home. However, this time it was a challenge presented to us in our Sunday worship. Even though our church meets in, what is often considered to be, the fairly radical environment of our bookshop, we have already to some extent reverted to a default church position of relying on attraction evangelism, i.e. expecting people to come to us, rather than us obeying the commision to 'go'.

The rain stayed off, and we ventured into Alexandra Park for a part of our morning worship. It wasn't neccessarily about evangelism, more about challenging us in our comfort zone - in which it was entirely successful.
People who suffer from anxiety are sometimes asked to rate how difficult something feels before they do it, and to rate how they feel about it after they have done it. Almost invariably the anticipation is worse than the event, and this was the case. We went somewhat nervously, but came back feeling great.

Catching Up

I've been going nuts over recent months as my home Internet connection has been intermittent at best, and we've been fighting a war of attrition with the phone company for four months just to get a phone line installed (I'll leave the name of the company anonymous to protect the guilty).
Anyway, it's been four months now since we opened The Word on the Street and it feels like there's been a lot going on.
We started with about nine people at the end of November 2008 - all Christians. My husband at 59 and myself at 40 were the oldest - by quite a margin - and men were in the majority. What a contrast to our previous church experience.
Using a variation on the Methodist covenant service we started the new year with a commitment to the church, the vision we believed God had given us, and each other. We also worked on a values statement, which should be useful in gauging from time to time whether we have kept to the vision or settled down in our comfort zone. We also took stock of our differing spiritual temperaments and agreed that a form of worship which only incorporated the same type of spiritual expression that you can find in the majority of mainstream churches was unlikely to engage those that were not attracted to church already, or who were de-churched. We then set out to intentionally explore different types of worship, with as many different people involved as possible. In a very really sense the commitment to 'multi-voiced' worship is one of the biggest changes we have made.
Our first real celebration was when one of our guys asked to be baptised. Before we got that far though we had our first completely unchurched person join us, first helping in the shop in the middle of February, then very quickly joining us for worship and study, and making a profession of faith in the week before our first baptismal service. It's just the start of the journey for her.
Needless to say it just set the tone of celebration for the baptism on 29 March, when we had about 40 people in our wee shop to witness the event. Fantastic!! Amongst those who joined us were a young couple who had attended out previous church before having to move out of the area to find work. They had just returned having found new employment locally, and seem to have settled down to work with us. Emma has been a huge help as she's been able to commit a lot of time to helping in the shop, finally allowing Alan a much needed day off. They're both young, but mature in their Christian faith, and a really welcome addition to our small team. Although most of our folks are in their twenties and have loads of energy, they're also all working, and so time is at a premium for everyone. The last thing we need is burnout for anyone, so the more hands to the wheel the better.
We're now into the first week in May and have had about 6 months to settle in - it's time to really get moving on intentional mission. Let's see what unfolds.