The last few weeks...

It's been a while since I last posted, but here's what's happened during the last 5 weeks:

I got back home in the afternoon, a big difference between Franklinville and Crewe, but good to be home anyway.

My plans for the new service at Coppenhall have come a long way during the two months I've been in America, and also the five weeks I've been back in Crewe, and also through two more meetings with David during the time back in Crewe also.

First of all, the new service will be called Re:Generation, it will run every other Wednesday between 7:30 and 8:30, starting on 6th February, at Coppenhall North Street Methodist Church. The first part of the service will be worship, led by our worship team, which includes the Re:Generation worship band, and a person who leads us in prayer. The worship will be made up of a group of worship songs, and also a congregational prayer, where the congregation has the opportunity to ask for something specific to be prayed for.

Afterwards, there will be a short 'opening' talk, lasting between 5 and 10 minutes, which will introduce the theme for the evening's service, and also the main biblical ideas relating to the theme. The congregation will then split into smaller groups, around 6 people, to discuss what has been said, lead by a group leader. The main idea the 'group discussion' is based upon, is the success of the Alpha Course, which uses the same approach, and also the idea that if through Re:Generation, we are hoping to bring people to faith, what better way to do this than to allow people to openly ask questions and discuss their ideas with people who are already Christians.

The themes will be grouped into series, each lasting about 3 or 4 services. At the end of each series, we will have a sermon, rather than a group discussion session, to 'wrap up' what's been discusses during the previous weeks. This will normally be lead by a local preacher.

We are still discussing what the best way to end the service is; up to now, the two ideas are to either have the Re:Generation band play another worship song at the end, or to have a short spoken ending followed by some quiet music played through the speakers.

Promoting the service has gone really well, I'm talking with the leader of the C.U at MMU in Crewe, hoping she will help promote Re:Generation at MMU, we've been on page 38 of the Crewe Chronicle (23rd Jan), and also page 2 of the Crewe Mail (23 Jan). I also had the opportunity to give every church leader in Crewe a promotion pack during a joint service for all churches in Crewe a few days ago.

So Re:Generation starts in less than two weeks time, I'm sure that with so many people praying about this, everything will go fine. Depending on the success of recording the service (since it's failed to record everytime so far), I'll upload a clip of the band playing, and the main spoken parts too.