Cell clusters - what a funny old thing they have been up until now. Meeting every now and then to have quizzes, karaokes, even all gathering together to have one cell meeting as a whole group. However this year we are going to do something different with our cell clusters.
In December of 08 the cluster I am involved in decided that we wanted to do something for the local community instead of having some Christmas event. We had a couple of links with the North Whitley Residents Association and agreed that we would support them in putting on a Christmas party for the elderly residents. It cost us time. Kay Watkins did a great job in coordinating the cells and the local council provided funding to the association for food, venue and a singer (a very good crooner who was perfect for the job).
In all there were about 35 people in our cluster and only 7 of them were able to help out as it was during the afternoon. however the buy in was excellent. The people in the cells felt that they were all doing something to be part of the community whether in prayer or in actually being there, the residents association really appreciated the help, particularly the youthfulness and the one on one time that was able to be given to the people that came and lastly, the elderly people loved it, they felt warmly welcomed well served and many of them were full of praise for us as a church.
Why do I tell this story - because I want lots more like it. We are going to see a small restructuring of cell groups in such a manner that means that cells in Earley can cluster together and build bridges into their local community. The Whitley cells will continue to build bridges and work the links that we have already formed as a church in that local community and we will continually look to greet people and start new cells in other parts of town, so that we can be good news to the communities in which we live in this large town of Reading.
Many of these things will hopefully be long haul projects, but my prayer would be that we will start to see fruit as RFC grows in it's engagement with the town in which we live.
Showing posts with label world outside RFC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world outside RFC. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Friday, 12 December 2008
What a party!
What a fantastic afternoon we had yesterday. As I mentioned on Wednesday, a group of us from the church helped out at the Residents Association Christmas Party for the elderly.
It was one of those events that you never know how it will go. It was organised by the team, they had hired a singer from Bristol and had invited us to partner with them. An event that draws together people from different avenues can be tricky, but this one was not. There was good hearted banter as we set up for the event; the singer was excellent and really worked with the crowd of around 40 that had gathered; and the team from RFC were outstanding in doing everything and anything that was needed as well as chatting to the guests.
Highlights included Andrew using his charm to help the guests feel at ease so he could take their photos; Hannah dancing with one of the ladies towards the end in a jive type dance; seeing Sam do what she is great at i.e. making people feel welcome and loved; Kay was a hero in the kitchen helping Barbara (one of the residents association) to make sure there was a flow of tea and coffee, mulled wine and juice; Joseph, Gary and Tom all served brilliantly on the tables and made sure that everyone had what they wanted; Tim Rooke bringing in a couple of his young people to give out presents.
However the biggest buzz was probably seeing a majority of the guests smiling and dancing at the end as we had some rockier songs sung by the singer. To me this said that the event had been a great success. Maggie, who had done a lot of the organising was thrilled with how everything had gone.
I returned home at about 6pm on a complete high, knowing the presence of the Holy Spirit. I know that being out in the community was great for all of us who went and the guests were greatly impressed with the people from our church who served. We may not have preached the gospel, but I do believe we loved with the love of Jesus and that we will have more opportunities to do so with this particular group.
It was one of those events that you never know how it will go. It was organised by the team, they had hired a singer from Bristol and had invited us to partner with them. An event that draws together people from different avenues can be tricky, but this one was not. There was good hearted banter as we set up for the event; the singer was excellent and really worked with the crowd of around 40 that had gathered; and the team from RFC were outstanding in doing everything and anything that was needed as well as chatting to the guests.
Highlights included Andrew using his charm to help the guests feel at ease so he could take their photos; Hannah dancing with one of the ladies towards the end in a jive type dance; seeing Sam do what she is great at i.e. making people feel welcome and loved; Kay was a hero in the kitchen helping Barbara (one of the residents association) to make sure there was a flow of tea and coffee, mulled wine and juice; Joseph, Gary and Tom all served brilliantly on the tables and made sure that everyone had what they wanted; Tim Rooke bringing in a couple of his young people to give out presents.
However the biggest buzz was probably seeing a majority of the guests smiling and dancing at the end as we had some rockier songs sung by the singer. To me this said that the event had been a great success. Maggie, who had done a lot of the organising was thrilled with how everything had gone.
I returned home at about 6pm on a complete high, knowing the presence of the Holy Spirit. I know that being out in the community was great for all of us who went and the guests were greatly impressed with the people from our church who served. We may not have preached the gospel, but I do believe we loved with the love of Jesus and that we will have more opportunities to do so with this particular group.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Trip to Trent
B and I had a great time on Sunday at Trent Vineyard in Nottingham. If you have read my last post you will know the reason for the trip and it was more than illuminating.
The church is buzzing. It has a quality building (both inside and out), although not as striking as Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough, the warehouse feel really works; there are large pieces of artwork adorning the walls in the main auditorium, good atmospheric lighting and a wonderful open space where there are around 1000 seats for the meeting, tables and chairs for coffee and tea and areas where you can get more info about the church.
In terms of run order, quite similar to ourselves although executed differently (they do pass round Cadbury's Roses during the offering!), however in terms of follow up and plugging people into the life of the church we have many things we can learn from them.
B and I came away inspired and believing once again for bigness for RFC. What Trent is doing is fantastic for Nottingham, but we are called to Reading and we have been called to be a large relevant bible believing, Jesus centred, Spirit filled church that reaches our town, the region, the nations and the nations. Going to Nottingham on Sunday helped me see that afresh and raised good questions as to how we can get there.
The church is buzzing. It has a quality building (both inside and out), although not as striking as Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough, the warehouse feel really works; there are large pieces of artwork adorning the walls in the main auditorium, good atmospheric lighting and a wonderful open space where there are around 1000 seats for the meeting, tables and chairs for coffee and tea and areas where you can get more info about the church.
In terms of run order, quite similar to ourselves although executed differently (they do pass round Cadbury's Roses during the offering!), however in terms of follow up and plugging people into the life of the church we have many things we can learn from them.
B and I came away inspired and believing once again for bigness for RFC. What Trent is doing is fantastic for Nottingham, but we are called to Reading and we have been called to be a large relevant bible believing, Jesus centred, Spirit filled church that reaches our town, the region, the nations and the nations. Going to Nottingham on Sunday helped me see that afresh and raised good questions as to how we can get there.
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