At our church, we do this in a small informal service that gathers people in the sanctuary. There is, of course, some anxiety as one cannot script where this is going to take us. We have to sit though periods of silence while we listen to our inner voices responding to the questions that arise. Then, hopefully, some of these voices will be externalized and shared. Many voices are heard that normally may go unnoticed (or even unvoiced). The informal setting invites exploration and unusual ideas. Laughter often frees from constraints and worries of conformity. The discussions are often continued in the local café. Church mingles with life. `Café churches’ are an interesting way to engage people and to invite them as a whole person.
Hello Annika, Joe Hogan here. The 'cafe churches' you mentioned, reminded of how the coffee mornig services the started at my wife, Robyn's church about 12 years ago. One Sunday a month the main service was held in an informal part of the church complex and it started with a cup of tea or coffee. This approach over the years has broken down the starchiness among some of the congregation members and loosened people up during the service. People are still having their tea, coffee and a snack during the service. It has been initiatives such as these that has kept the small congregation alive, though progressively older, and open to welcoming the small group of younger people present on a regular basis. There is a natural sharing among the different ages in the congregation that I believe helps build community. Yeh the cafe church aproach to building community.
ReplyDelete"It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim, dead, Jim, dead."
ReplyDeleteActually, Joe, I've just been reading about the Ecclesiological Society and that may well be reinforcing my naturally reactionary views on the matter. Those guys would not have been at all impressed at such goings-on in an Anglican church. In fact, the movement was a reaction to (amongst other things) the renting of pews in Hanoverian times. The rich folk had their pews fitted out with cushions and stoves while the poor folk sat in the free seats where they couldn't see or hear anything - if they could get into the church at all. There's a lovely story of one squire who had a liveried servant bring his luncheon tray to the pew at the start of the ten commandments in each morning service. The Society thought that Holy Worship should be taken more seriously than that.
A time and a place for everything, says I. I'm happy to sit and share my experiences and my small understanding and my tiny bit of faith anywhere and with anyone. But I wouldn't call that preaching and I wouldn't be so happy to find myself at a Communion framed by a conversation about everyone's private theologies and washed down with tea and bikkies.
Carolyn here, well the idea of cafe church actually works quite well as does the thought of having food. We change our evening services at 6.30 pm to this style and the numbers have trebled as has the kind of people who are coming. Not to mention NEW people so the dialogue is working.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear of this service, I think of the lectionary text for this Sunday, Luke 14, in which Jesus is seated informally, eating. He is challenged and responds by telling stories of the Kingdom being like a banquet. It provides an image of church as around table, over food, learning from Jesus. Thanks Anika,
ReplyDeletesteve taylor
Why not bring a book or watch a DVD on your laptop in the service as well? Maybe with a bottle of wine and a nice cheese board? That would make it less starchy and boring.
ReplyDeleteThe wonderful thing about a service is that it is time set aside for worship - and a time which is sanctified in a way which other times are not. A cafe is not a church, and chit-chat over a coffee is not a sermon.
I suppose what some see as "starchiness" I see as worship. Are we so pre-occupied, consumer driven, and self absorbed, and so lacking in patience and a sense of holiness that we can't get through a church service without a coffee and a muffin!
But that is just my take on it. If it works.. it works...
Steve - Yes Jesus did have informal meals - but he also (i)went into the synagogues at the appointed times (ii) got reasonably upset when a holy space was used for the wrong purposes. His having a meal, and discussing faith at the meal was something in addition, not a replacement for worship time set aside specifically to worship.
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