Church on Sunday morning

Went here yesterday morning and took our 3 youngest children with us.  We are usually very wary about taking the kids to churches they haven't been to before, for 2 reasons ... (1) that the church will not be able to facilitate our kids, being at various ages and stages, or (2) that the kids will be quick to pass comment (and embarrass us!) about how good or interesting the kids session was in comparison to our usual church.  Overall it was a success! 

The service started at 11am with lots of sung praise and worship.  Some lovely ladies explained what would be happening and about the children's activities, which started at 12 noon, and showed us around the church to the various rooms that our children would be in.  The creche was open from 11am-1pm so the boy could join his we friends at any point but he was sleeping when we went in and stayed asleep for about half an hour during the singing.  Our girls knew many of the songs and they were free to explore the resource centre, dance in the aisles or on the chairs, or sit and do their own thing.  They opted for a mixture of all of the above and some munching of maltesers at various points.  They were in the service for 1 hour before the kids went to their activities and the guest speaker spoke to the adults.  The first hour seemed to pass very quickly, and our girls asked various questions about people dancing, singing in tongues, and responding to God in various ways.

After the sung worship the pastor spoke for a while.  He then said we didn't have time to do communion as there was a guest speaker that morning.  He apologised, said communion would take place in the evening instead, made a comment about folk being offended (which we thought was brilliant!) and the table was safely removed by 2 stewards.  Then he prayed a blessing on the children and they went off to the children's activities.  The guest speaker was welcomed and he spoke until 1pm, interjected by lots of personal testimony, a word of knowledge and prayer for a young man who was subsequently healed. 

The boy went to the 0-2s area, complete with a large soft play area with ball pool, rid-on toys and a fair amount of space to move about in.  There was a separate area with small tables and chairs for drawing or having snack, and it was where parents entered to leave/pick up children, complete with mini rails for coats and bags.  There was some singing going on in there when I picked him up.  He went in no problem and was happily exploring all that was there.  One of the leaders asked his name and wrote it on the sign in board.  She explained that creche was open until 1pm and asked where we were sitting.  We could see through the various windows and glass doors that he was fine and happily playing.  The entrance door was kept locked and only parents of the children using the creche were permitted.  When we collected him the place was packed with small children, leaders and some parents, all of who were happily singing.

No 4 daughter went upstairs to the 3-4s group.  It was a fairly small group with around 12 children and 3 leaders.  There was a vast space for them to play with various toys (dolls house, cooker, etc) and small tables and chairs to sit at for snack and art work.  She went in without any problems (now that she's going to nursery everyday helped!) and when I picked her up she was keen to stay longer - a sign that she really felt safe and was enjoying herself.  She finished her craft, said goodbye to everyone and thanked the leaders, who in turn said it was lovely to see her there.

No 3 daughter was in a large area (hall) downstairs, near the creche area, equipped with projector and large screen, lots of chairs, and an area with tables.  There were probably just over 30 children of 5-11 years.  When we went to pick her up she was busily making a lovely bookmark with many others from her agegroup, whilst there were two other groups doing other things at various places in the hall.  There seemed to be at least 4 or more leaders and the children were all engaged with the activities.  No 3 daughter didn't want to leave and all she said when we left was 'we did a couple of songs about the Christmas story and did our craft', so I've no idea what else went on but she said she loved it.

We left at 1pm to meet friends for lunch (the children were pretty hungry by that point, as were we!) and the service was just concluding as tea and coffee was arriving.  So ... something different for a Sunday morning for us all.  I enjoyed ... most of it really - lots of singing at the beginning (which I love), a short inspiring message from the pastor from Acts 2 (I missed some of this due to No 4 daughter's exploring), plus lots of humour around things we do as Christians (regarding communion and the offering - offensive for some perhaps but I actually found it a stark reminded or what we should get offended by and enjoyed the 'normality' and flexibility), lots of challenging and encouraging stuff with direct application from the pastor and guest speaker (who had folk participating at various points as he spoke) and many stories and testimony of personal faith journeys (we don't have enough of this in churches!!).  Our children were well served from what we could see and weren't excluded from much of what went on (although it would be interesting to discuss this more regarding pros and cons from a Kidz Min perspective). 

In contrast to my regular Sunday church pattern, there was no liturgy.  Whilst I appreciate its significance and value (particularly when it's well written Trinitarian formulations and doctrine are apparent) I have to be honest that I find it a total hindrance to my own spirituality.  An ample time of singing sound doctrinal songs, hymns and psalms of praise, confession, thanksgiving and supplication do exactly the same thing as far as I'm concerned.  However, well meaning worship leaders can choose to do songs that have no depth, or worse, are theologically woolly or contradictory, so there are difficulties there too.  The church I'm part of was described as being 'snake belly low' by someone several weeks ago ... bizarre to me as I see so many aspects of it as being considerably high church.  It depends on your personal experiences (good or bad) and how you connect with God and others.  I don't know how that person might describe our experience of church yesterday but I guess they would not feel terribly at home ... but I would like to think they would experience the same joy, challenge and inspiration that was obviously apparent.  After all, it's our bond in Christ that makes us brothers and sisters, not our pattern of 'doing' church.  And I won't get started on the difference between 'doing' and 'being' church ... !!!  

Comments

[ryan]

st.silas high church?!?!?!?

[Lorraine]

... it is to me! ... by comparison to what I am used to, that is. I did grow up in the Brethren you know - you don't get much more low church than that! Ooops! Hope that's not seen as a derogatory term by my Brethren pals! I would feel like a fish out of water in the more 'traditional' piskie churches! St Silas is as much as I could tolerate I'm afraid but I do have an appreciation for things that are Anglican now and belive that we should be free to develop our Christian spiritual expressions that help us in our faith journey. Unity in diversity and all that ...!

Thanks for reading Ryan.

Blessings
L x

[lynn]

LOL I know what you mean L....St S would be considered as "high" compared to where you went. I know the children's pastor there pretty well and he's ace as are their kids groups.