This is a post continued from here…

The prayer ended (aren’t those pre-recorded TV prayers always awkward?!) I wandered over and turned off the TV and returned to my seat.

‘Tonight we are going to take a detour…’ I said. ‘Normally in Alpha we don’t have any thing confrontational or threatening or too churchy, but… as I was sitting watching that video I felt God saying some things to me about what’s happening in this room. Let me tell you what I felt he was saying’

Safe to say I had everyone’s attention.

I explained how God sometimes speaks to me thru impressions, I re-iterated that we didn’t normally do this stuff in Alpha, I told people I might have heard God wrong (because that happens too!…) Then after all the disclaimers and softeners I said what I was feeling.

“As I was watching the video I felt very strongly that someone who is here tonight wants to become a Christian. You may not get it all, but from what you have seen / heard / experienced so far you ‘want in’. I’m going to take a minute to pray and after that if you sense that person is you – that God has been speaking to you too then I just want you to say so and we’ll take it from there. Nothing freaky will happen (I think) we’ll just talk it thru’.

Deep breath…

Prayer…

‘Ok… so… does anyone feel like God has been speaking to them?’

Silence for what seemed like forever, but was really two seconds. Then directly across from me Mandy put her hand up in a ‘responding’ kind of way and was about to speak when Merilyn cut across her with a question. Kind of relevant, but also kind of diversionary.

We discovered two weeks later that both Mandy and Merilyn had serious demonic issues (it was very obvious – but that’s another story altogether!) and I now wonder if Merliyn’s question was a spiritual ploy to railroad the real issue.

Kate sat tight and said nothing – this was her first time at anything Christian so she had nothing to judge tonight by. Sam was rigid and seemed to be feeling some discomfort. He had grown up in a very churched family but was the ‘black sheep’ and my guess was that he was experiencing a mix of guilt and anger that he had been put on the spot like this.

Now – no one actually took a ‘leap of faith’ that night (that I know of) but what did happen was that my openess and willingness to put stuff out there seemed to give them some courage too. Our discussion got pretty frank.

You remember I said I wasn’t looking forward to watching the videos for the fourth time?

Well they weren’t getting into them either! Basically the summation of their comments were ‘we really enjoy hanging out and the discussion about faith and God, but can we just skip the videos and cut to the chase!’

I’ll finish this tomorrow.

Perhaps one of the greatest phenomena in the last decade of the 20th C was the emergence of Alpha as an evangelistic tool. It genuinely was a catalyst for many people coming to faith. I’m sure it still is in many quarters.I was just reading Steve’s diary where he comments on some of the struggle he has with Alpha and it got me thinking.

I ran Alpha 3 times at the last church I was involved with. Each time someone seemed to come to faith in some way or other, but then came the fourth time…

Unlike our previous groups that were overstocked with long in the tooth Christians who wanted to ‘bone up on the basics’, this group had a stack of real live pagans. Some were very serious about their paganism (literally) while others had just never explore Christian thought before. But there were probably 4 or 5 Christians and 4 or 5 newbies.

What made this group unique (compared to previous groups) was that all the participants were 40 or under. Other groups I had run were heavily baby boomered in their demographic.

This was my 4th time watching the videos… They were pretty good the first time, but perhaps a bit too long for my liking. I was buzzing with excitement about the interaction we were going to have (I looovve evangelism in any form!) but wondering how I was going to stay awake thru the vids. I was also wondering if it was just me, or if the videos weren’t really the right approach for a 20’s & 30’s group…

The first three weeks were fairly normal intro type stuff with people getting to know each other and engaging in some good discussion – some pretty earthy questions got asked and there was some healthy intellectual biffo. I sensed this group coming together better than others I had been involved with. The people liked one another, and I sensed God wanting to do something here.

On the fourth week (I think it is about the cross?) as Nicky Gumbel was closing in prayer I had a very strong sense of the holy spirit saying to me that someone wanted to become a Christian right there and then.

I don’t have those compelling ‘God impressions’ real often – so when they come I usually know its him and that I need to follow them. As he finished his prayer I decided that I was going to put it out there and see what happened. It might freak people out (4 weeks is not a long time) or maybe… just maybe someone might be ready…

More tomorrow.

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Don’t you love that term?!

It is so encouraging – and makes you want to ‘come back to church’. Wouldn’t at all make you feel like a lost cause or a waste of space!…

I have two friends who are backsliders – lets call them Dick and Dora (not their real names…) Last night Dick and Dora had two other friends round for dinner (lets call them Jack and Jill – also not their real names!) I was invited too – (but you know my name)

As we chatted they spoke of how two of their friends from a large ‘happening’ church were concerned for them as they were backsliding.

What that means is that they weren’t attending church on Sunday. They ‘weren’t in fellowship’ and were therefore in sin.

Dick and Dora are about as far from backsliders as anyone I know!

I was going to write a whole heap more on this but I feel some cynicism stirring and sarcasm rising so I’ll leave it there – point made.

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Another very unchurchlike ‘gathering’…magnifique le free download

Steve is living in a new city, has a new blog and is exploring new ideas of what church may look like.

Here’s an idea that has some currency. It reflects an appreciation of where people are at and engaging with them there rather than making them to come to a new place and learn new ways of being and doing.

What do you think?

Could that be church?

I have been continuing to chew thru Pete Ward’s ideas in Liquid Church and was also having a chat with Phil the other day about them.

It seems – if I read him right – that Ward is suggesting that we do not need to ‘gather’ to be church – that church happens wherever the people of God come together in two or more – no matter what they do funny face free orgazmo download .

Theologically I think he is probably right… (I think…)

So… is there actually a need for Christians to gather in bigger groups at all?

In their book Shaping of Things to Come, Alan hirsch and Mike Frost argue that there are 3 essential elements to church – community, communion and commission – that all three need to be present for a church to be a church.

I agree that these are more or less the essential elements of church (you may express them differently) but my question is do they all need to be present every time we gather for ‘church’ to occur?

I’d think not. And I don’t think Mike and Alan would see it that way either.

So… what makes a prayer triplet different from a worship service, different from barbecue with friends? Is the prayer triplet ‘church’? Is the barbecue ‘church’, even if we don’t pray or study the Bible?

And if these things are then why do we emphasise bigger gatherings so much?

Are they so valuable to us, or do they just make us feel like we’re not alone in this journey?

I don’t ask these questions lightly because where they lead disturbs me. I’m not sure if it disturbs me because church actually must be a big gathering at some point where prayer, worship and bible teaching all occur, or if I am just disturbed because it could mean a very chaotic and un-controllable form of church.

If we go this route then we simply ‘are’ church everywhere we go and every time we meet with other believers.

Is it that simple?