Still going, the last couple have been a little quieter, more reflective in style… looking forward to seeing what happens next.
1st November
Starting with some singing, including a great rendition of Mary Mary’s “Praise You“, despite the fact that Megan had a really sore throat (excuse the feedback)!
Gathering around to make our prayers out of modelling clay:
Guess who’s this one is?!
Another piece of craftsmanship:
David concentrating very hard:
Paul and his “Oreo”:
Ollie & Harry happy with their work, whilst Julie continues to concentrate!
Lego!
Aardvark:
Neil in full flow with the story of Zaccheus
Filed under Event Report
Next Gathering: 1st November
We have another event tonight.
8pm, Weeke Community Centre, Taplings Road, SO22 6HG.
Looking forward to seeing you there, and no, I have no idea what’s in store tonight!
In case you don’t read the comment: “Clay Modelling” is in store tonight!
4th October
As the previous blog entry explained what we were going to do, I have chosen to tell the story of the most recent event in pictures! A number of those attending were happy for their montage’s to be photographed and placed online, although most wanted privacy as to who had done them, so enjoy, and think what you would do – feel free to link to a similar exercise you may have done!
Filed under Event Report
Next Gathering: 4th October
This Sunday sees another session of our rather experimental church, held in the Weeke Community Centre, with the candles lit, the bar fully open, and some music (can I say rocking away) in the background!
Activity
From the start of the evening the following materials will be made available: magazines, paper, scissors, glue. We will explain more on the evening, but essentially you will recreate yourself (whether with ‘body parts’, pictures or words) from magazine cuttings on a piece of paper. I (Bex) did this at Greenbelt this year, and found it a very helpful experience (you can see my picture), so we are planning that this can be done throughout the evening.
REQUEST: We have a lot of women’s magazines, so if there are some (magazines/brochures) with some more manly interests, that would be helpful!
Biblical Reference
Let’s not forget that this is a church, and the evening will be based around Luke 18:18-23 (Neil will explain how this fits with the activity on the evening, come along and find out!):
18One day one of the local officials asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to deserve eternal life?”
19-20Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good—only God. You know the commandments, don’t you? No illicit sex, no killing, no stealing, no lying, honor your father and mother.”
21He said, “I’ve kept them all for as long as I can remember.”
22When Jesus heard that, he said, “Then there’s only one thing left to do: Sell everything you own and give it away to the poor. You will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23This was the last thing the official expected to hear. He was very rich and became terribly sad. He was holding on tight to a lot of things and not about to let them go.
Filed under Dates
Free Beermats @ Fresher’s Fayre
It’s been known for students to drift away from Church whilst at University, as so many other exciting activities, the independence from home, etc. all compete for attention. The Gathering, a once a month service, of a still shapeable kind, is Church in a Pub, which experiments with different forms of engagement and interaction, rather than straight sermons! North Winchester Community Church and The Gathering will be at the University of Winchester’s Fresher’s Fayre this coming Saturday, on the Winchester Churches’ stand… come and get your free beermat!
Filed under Publicity
Inside looking in
So we’ve started The Gathering. For those of you who don’t know, The Gathering is our experimental church. Church with a bar, Church with no community singing and Church where we have no idea how it’s going to turn out.
It started me thinking about why I dislike church so much. Now perhaps I shouldn’t say such things, I definitely shouldn’t say them until November when my 3 years probation period as a Baptist Minister ends, but that’s the truth – I dislike church.
Why? Because it’s too safe, too organised, too pedestrian. I want to be challenged, to be grabbed by a big idea that shakes me out of my humdrum life and gives me a reason to live rather than merely exist. God is that big idea. Encountering God 30 years ago changed my life, changed my worldview, changed me. But church seemed just about structures and organisation, about memorising Bible verses and worshiping by numbers. True, I’ve been in a few churches where I felt God poking through, but not many. Now let me say I’m fully aware that this is me, church seems to work fine for many people, but I’m not one of them. I need something else.
So is The Gathering that something else? No. I’m not creating church to meet my preferences, I’m not creating church in my image, but I hope The Gathering can become a place where we can experiment with the structure of church in order to get at the substance of church. How are we going to do it? No idea. What will it look like? No idea. Will we ever arrive? No idea.
Filed under Event Report
6th September 2009
On 6th September 2009, we had a bit of a ‘proper’ trial run (they’d already been one with committee only the previous month), testing the set-up of the room, the sound, the visuals… As this church is a bit of an experiment, it wasn’t expected to go 100% smoothly, but those who were there seemed to enjoy it!
Can I quote you @WriterCharly: “Church in a pub wasn’t as bad as expected. I think it’d be great if you believed in God and stuff but didn’t like normal church”, standing with @SimplerDave
Neil Simpson says “Cut”
The band rocks away, led by @SimplerDave
Prayers can come in any form… “Write something that’s stressing you on a piece of tissue paper, think about it, then burn it – sending it up to God”
Arty photo of beer & fire
Awaiting some files from Neil.
Filed under Event Report
Forthcoming Dates
Sessions are arranged as follows:
- 4th October
- 1st November
- 8th November: SPECIAL: GIG
- 6th December
- 3rd January
Filed under Dates
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