To cut a long story short, the next two meetings were cancelled. The first was cancelled because I wasnt too well. The second, In January because of the weather. Or, at least, I didnt cancel the meeting, but no-one came.

The next time we came together, we played games (especially rummikub which has become a firm favourite) and listened to hymns and planned ahead. I omitted to read from the Bible but we did pray for ourselves and others.

We planned to have some Lent lunches. To my surprise this hasn't been done before in the mother church. But I think it will be a good way of encouraging people to bring others along. Some people may come just for those meetings and then stop again. But it will be 'outreach' and raising money for the Bishop's Lent Appeal. I think it might be a good idea to make it clear where the money has come from when we donate it. The problem with that is that the group doesnt know its an emerging church yet.

continuation

well, so successful was the previous meeting, a fortnight later, we continued. Still very interesting. Not so much hilarity but more conversations about the problems ... or people who have passed on ... or how things have changed. Still no 'non-church people'. But we're enjoying ourselves so does it matter? - yes, very churchy.

looking back - God's faithfulness

We publicised the next meeting as' looking back' and quoted Psalm 89 verses1 :- God's faithfulness to all generations. 12 people came to the meeting. mostly church people but two are people who only manage to come on a Sunday occassionally. I had found some old slides. Again ... we had such a laugh. I couldnt believe it. They loved seeing the old pictures of 50+ years ago. They were often hysterical. And memories were all flooding back.

One thing that astounded me - having previously heard about how great the old church was - was how shabby it looked. I guess by today's standards it was just very bare. Maybe they could see that too.

Before long they were crowding around the picture that was projected on the wall that it wasn't possible for everyone to see.

I began the afternoon with the Bible verse, and helped us to understansd that previous generations are not overlooked. God was faithful then and will be faithful now.

We finished the afternoon (an hour late) with a simple prayer.

first church meeting?

So eventually, in October, I took the bull by the horms and grasped the nettle and got going. I was looking for a suitable location for the new church. We had had the holiday club in the Scout Hall - nice and big but lacking in character and a bit cold. I tried the local pensioners 'complex' which is accommodation for some of the older residents ion the village and has a good size communal space. A number had come from there to the holiday club so I thought it possible. In the end, the warden reluctantly decided that the residents couldnt be expected to give up a bingo session so we had to look elsewhere.

I then tried a local chapel, but they also couldnt help. they were worried about insurance and such like. So in desperation we began meeting in my living room which is quite large anyway.

At the first meeting just 5 people came - all regular church members. However, I turned this into a planning meeting. They didnt know it but these lovely people were my leadership team.

When I moved into the vicarage, I discovered a lot of old memorabelia that included a lot of old slides of the old church and different activities. I also had a very ancient slide projector, and the new leadership team agreed that it would be good to begin with looking back at what the village and church used to be like - something they all like doing anyway. We also decided on trips out to which lots of people could be invitied. We could also use the scout hall for things like watching a film or doing some line dancing. We would meet fortnightly, and continue to ask a donation of £3 that could be used towards trips out or paying for equipment in the future and we could also give money to causes. Everything seemed to be going well. Every time we met we would always have a time of prayer and maybe look at Bible verses. After all, most people who would be coming would be familiar with such things. I felt very encouraged until someone enthusiastically commented 'it will be just like The Ladies Guild'.