Last Sunday was different at Community church. Nobody arrived at 7.30 am at Harris Academy to begin the massive set up operation that precedes our church meeting. Instead, they were (hopefully) still in bed for a change, or relaxing at home anticipating meeting with their Life Groups for “Church where you are”!
Due to the school building being closed for the usual end-of-term repairs and cleaning, it was decided that this would be a great opportunity to meet in Life Groups, with the added bonus of being able to invite friends and neighbours into a more relaxed setting for worship, fun and food. Seven Life Groups were able to take up the challenge to plan and organise Sunday church with a difference, and the glorious weather meant that every one of the planned events took place!
Every event was unique with a different mix of singing, prayer, communion, quizzes, games, bible teaching, a treasure hunt (people are the treasure!) testimonies and food, whether it was a picnic or a BBQ. A total of 244 people attended across the seven groups in Chafford Hundred (2), Stifford Clays, Purfleet, Ockendon, Basildon and Upminster! 21 of those people were new to Community church and were neighbours and friends of church members.
Here are some quotes and pictures from the reports coming in about the day:
“This is to express my appreciation to each of you for your immense contribution to the success of our Life group service/barbecue yesterday. God heard all our prayers; the weather was beautiful, there was abundance of food and drinks, the children had so much fun and the friendships and fellowship all around was legendary. What can I say about the Word n d bubble angle which my neighbour can’t stop talking about! My prayer is that our labour of love shall not be in vain and we will all enjoy d goodness of God all d days of our lives.” (Chafford West)
“The treasure hunt was great. We went out in 2 groups of 3. My group had an interesting chat with a_____ gentleman who used to believe but now questions why a good God would allow so much suffering. We didn’t find out until the very end that he matched one of our clues (drowning). The second group had 2 encounters one of which was with a lady called ___ who matched about 4 of their clues. We came back from it greatly encouraged. The BBQ went well, great weather, great hosts and great food!” (Ockendon)
“We had a great day; 29 people present including 8 “un-churched”; lots of fun, food and fellowship. We had a quiz based around the feeding of the 5000 with word searches etc for the children; some great puzzles and such good fun playing games. We had a Spanish family join us as well as our usual mix of Romanian, Ghanaian and English……. Importantly it gave the space for children to enjoy themselves safely – not always easy in a home setting” (Basildon)
We started off as usual with praise and worship, a few “grown up” songs and a few children songs; the last of which was “Jesus is my Super Hero”. This flowed nicely into the introduction of the Word as we introduced Jesus coming to the rescue in every situation in our story of Him feeding the 5,000, first by healing the sick and then multiplying the loaves and the fish. We highlighted the importance of seizing every opportunity to share whatever we have in our hands no matter how little it may appear. When we hand anything over to the Lord, we can rest assure He will multiply it to bless those around us just like the boy in the story….
The word was shared in a way to allow the kids participate and ask questions. Questions included “how did Christ managed to multiply the food and heal the sick?”, “how did the boy know to share his little ration?” (paraphrased). At the end, we asked each one of them to share what lessons they learnt and each did just that. We concluded with the picnic. (Purfleet)
“Community Church Chafford Hundred comes to Upminster….great people, great worship, great food, great drinks, great big God!!! (Chafford East)
“What a great time was had by all! We got to meet people we didn’t know, be encouraged by the testimonies of others, worship our wonderful God together, and share fabulous food and BBQ. Some neighbours came over for the BBQ too. I got to know a family that is fairly new to Community church and am looking forward to saying hello when we are all back at Harris Academy!” (Stifford Clays)
and finally…
“I love this church – it’s family to me” (Chafford Central)
These are just snippets of what was a great occasion for Community Church – something we are planning to repeat next summer!
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