how it started

My original idea of entering a mental institution to begin a church there was fraught with so many difficulties and there were so many barriers and suspicions put in my way that I decided to give that up and think again.

In my community there are many elderly people who used to come to church and no longer do so, so I thought I could work with them. It might not be an emerging church church but maybe a reemergining church. I took the plunge and in the summer I held a holiday club for the over 60's. The idea was that each week we would have a craft activity, some games and quizzes, have people in to speak and always have a 'spiritual' point for the afternoons.

I knew that people from the church would come along but I also hoped they would bring others. It was a surprising success - not as many people as I might have hoped but those that came had a real laugh. I had the feeling that they hadn't really had such a good time for a long time. A particular favourite was 'losing your marbles' game!

In some ways it was all very prescriptive and formulaic. I pretty much had a checklist of things we ought to do. People paid £3 entry to the afternoons that contributed to a donation to charity at the end of the summer (that was outreach!)

The theory was that this was then going to lead into regular meetings and we would what emerged ....