The last few months

Here's a long due update on what's been happening over the last few months.

We've had 5 services so far since Feb 6th. We started a new series on April 9th called Developing Your Relationship With God, after finishing our last series - Knowing God, the service before. During the first series, the number of new people were growing, most of the growth came from people who haven't ever been to church before, which is an amazing success. The last service however, was a disappointment - in terms of numbers anyway. There were various meetings running all over Crewe, which most of our congregation were involved in. In the end, the only people there were our Y-Zone youth group, plus a few other members of our church. Although that's not a bad thing, it made me realise a few things:

First, we're spending money on advertising. However, every new person who comes to Re:Generation, hears about it from word of mouth. Which means, that our advertising isn't working.

Secondly, the new people who now come to Re:Generation feel part of the youth as a whole, which means it's very unlikely that they'll stop taking part in various church activities anytime soon. Also, I'd like to guess that many of the people in our congregation are mature Christians anyway. So maybe at this point in time, a series called 'Developing Your Relationship With God' isn't the best series to run. Although this series should minister to many people there, especially our youth, I'm also looking at ways to attract people to Re:Generation and see it grow, and I don't think this series is the best for that either.

So in the last service, I took the decision to have a short break in the services, mainly to concentrate on advertising, so to 'relaunch' Re:Generation on May 14th. I imagine there's a fair few reasons why this is a bad idea, but I hope I've addressed them: Mainly, there's the chance of us losing people from our congregation. However, in our current position, our congregation now consists of our youth group, youth leaders, plus a few other people. All of which, I doubt would stop coming because of a break.

So there's a few ideas I'm playing with, all of which, if you'd like to give me some feedback/suggestions/etc, I'd appreciate.

The first, is about what I'd like our next series to be on. It's something I'd call the Untouchables, because it's the controversial subjects you never really hear talked about in church. They include hell, homosexuality, sin, etc. I've chosen this for two main reasons. First, we never hear about this in church, however, they are some of the most talked about subjects when it comes to church. I for one, have never heard of a service in my church which concentrates on subjects such as these. Secondly, controversial topics like this attract attention. Because these topics are so unheard of when it comes to church, many people are interested. So this in itself may be a way to draw people in, especially if it's promoted effectively.

Which comes to promotion and advertising. So far, we've been on the radio and in the local newspaper. The radio, as expected, was not effective in advertising Re:Generation. The paper did attract a lot of attention, and it brought two new people into church, however, that was only because those people knew a member of our band. So although it raised awareness, that in itself was not enough to bring people in. We also printed many flyers, which cost quite a bit. These were designed to raise awareness around Crewe's churches mainly. And although they were effective in raising awareness, they were not responsible for any of our growth.

So we've been thinking of ways of how to promote Re:Generation in a way that will actually bring people in. We've had a few ideas:

The first, is printing more flyers to post through people's doors. I'm looking at getting these professionally printed - around 1000 for £90, 2000 for £100. These are full colour on silk paper. There's the option of having black and white photocopies on normal paper, but again, 1500 will cost £75 to photocopy. Although cheaper, these will not look anywhere near as good as the colour printed version, and when we're targeting an age group where looks are everything, this is important.

Secondly, we've been thinking about how to raise awareness in our high schools, colleges, and also MMU university in Crewe. We've thought about going into schools and having our band play, along with a short talk/sermon. Although this is probably 'the' best way of promoting Re:Generation in high schools, it's very unlikely that we'll ever be able to do this, for various reasons. Our current thought is to hand out flyers outside the schools after the day ends. We'll also put up posters in South Cheshire College.

We've also been thinking about how to promote Re:Generation in Malbank 6th Form College. I've got a friend who studies there, who leads a growing Christian group during lunch times once a week, who may be able to help.

MMU is a problem - every person I've spoke to in the Christian Union there hasn't got us anywhere. I've been speaking to a guy who travels round unis in our area, who 'runs' / 'is involved with' the Christian Unions in the universities. I'm waiting to see where that takes us.

Other than that, we're out of ideas. So any suggestions or advice is welcome.

Please pray for us all over the next coming weeks.

Where things are heading

We've had two services so far, one on Feb 6th, and the other on Feb 20th. The second service went really well, running a lot smoother than the first one. We also had 3 more people come, who again, had never been to church before. The overall size of the congregation also grew. So even though we've only had two services, it's growing in every way possible!

We're coming up to our third service, which will be on March 12th. Up to now, I'm still looking for guitarists who can play for this one, but I'm sure it'll all be good. The theme for the next service will be God's Heart, and writing the short introduction/talk, is proving to be the biggest challenge yet. But again, I've found with the last two services, that somehow, everything seems to fall into place 5 minutes before I'm due to talk. Maybe saying that is tempting fate though?

The music side of things is great, so people say, and as each service goes by, I'm learning how to lead worship more effectively. The band, although we've got a core group of musicians who play every service, I'm still looking for a few other people who are able to play each service.

I've received a lot of good comments about my 'talk' after the worship, people have told me they learn a lot from it, which is great. The group discussions however, haven't really had anything positive said about them from many people. There's about two people who have said they learn things from the discussion, however, they both said they enjoy the talk more. Many other people say they don't learn anything at all from them, and some people who come actually feel uncomfortable sitting through them. I've talked to many people who have said they won't come if they have to sit in groups, even if they know they're not expected to talk. So in that respect, the group discussions are keeping many people away.

In an ideal situation, I'd like to see my 'talk' last a few minutes longer. During that time I'll be able to go into more detail about the theme. Additionally, I'd like to use the media - e.g, I'd use a short film clip, and then talk about how the clip relates to the theme. This is one of the ways I'll be able to relate the theme to modern life. This would also allow the talk to run for a few minutes more. Doing all of this, without the group discussions, will probably not last as long, so the service will either finish sooner, or we'll see what else would be worthwhile having. At the end however, I'd still like people to have the opportunity to discuss their ideas/thoughts in groups, just like we do now, however, it will be optional, and will probably take place in another room. This way, people are free to join the group if they wish, but people who feel uncomfortable in groups will not need to join. Like I said though - this is an ideal situation, there's probably many problems with me doing that, so a lot of prayer is needed to see whether God wants me to lead this in a slightly different direction, or whether He wants it to stay the same.

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.

Second meeting with David

I met up with David again to discuss my plan for next year, and we discussed several ideas.

The first being when to have the service. Sunday is not the best time to hold a service like this, and Tuesday, Friday and Saturday are also bad days to hold a service aimed mainly at the younger generation. We decided that Thursday evening will probably be the best time.

David also told me there's currently nothing specifically aimed at university students at MMU Crewe, and so we talked about making the service more student orientated.

David also told me how hard it is to organise a weekly modern service by myself, even with a worship team to help. He suggested having a fortnightly service instead of a weekly one. We decided that this would be best, for the first few months. I'd still like to see a weekly service happen, and so if the time's right after a few months, we may think of changing it to weekly.

We also decided this would be best if it was run as a housegroup, rather than public worship.

Chapter One

The first post on a blog is always the hardest, you never know what to say...

Back in May, I started thinking about my life in the church I attend. I thought about the reasons why people go to church, and I realised the two main reasons people go to church are to worship God, and to hear the message.

I thought about how it happens at Coppenhall North Street Methodist Church. The style of worship is quite traditional - hymns and an organ. Too often when I sing hymns at church I feel I'm not worshiping God, mainly because the language used is very poetic, and so when I'm trying to fix my mind on worshiping God, I'm actually trying to work out what the hymn's on about! There are many people in church who love this style of worship, and feel they can give God the most through this style. However, I think there's a large age range who don't like this style of worship, and don't think they're able to give God the most through worshiping in this way.

I started praying about this, and I felt God was telling me to do something about it. After spending some more time in prayer, I had in mind some ideas:

• I thought of having a new church service, on a Sunday afternoon.
• The new service will add to what we have already - we have two services on a Sunday at Coppenhall North Street, which I think cater more for the older generations, and how they prefer to worship God, and so this service will be aimed at the younger generations.
• The service will be split into two parts - worship and the message.
• The worship will be lead by a worship team, and will consist of worship songs lead by a worship band, and prayers.
• The Message will be based on something from everyday life, e.g, loyalty, and then using the Bible to preach about how it applies to our daily lives. I've heard sermons which do it this way, and I feel I get more out of this style of sermon than a sermon based on a bible passage.

By the time I was ready to talk about this, our Minister was on an exchange with a minister in America (acrossthepond-anexchange.blogspot.com), and so I made an appointment with Doug, the American minister to talk about this idea.

Doug gave me some great advice on how to start everything off, and we prayed after. He also invited me over to America to work in his church for a while! We talked about this in another meeting, and we both decided this was a great idea, and an opportunity not to be missed. Whilst over there, I would be getting some real experience with working in a worship team, and seeing how 'modern' services are prepared and delivered.

A few months later, I talked to our associate minister, and from that meeting, several issues were raised:

• Sunday afternoon is not the best time to hold a service like this
• The service could not be called 'public worship' unless a local preacher or minister is responsible for the service

We talked about how to 'get around' these problems, and for the 'public worship' problem, we could hold the service as a 'house group'. This however would mean changing some of the ideas I had - mainly how we would worship God in the service. Another way, is to have a local preacher to be responsible for each service - however, since local preachers are very busy people, this would be a difficult thing to ask.

About a month later, I managed to talk to our minister. Below are the issues which were raised:

• Again, Sunday afternoon is not the best time.
• The same issue about public worship was raised.
• My own lack of experience is a problem in itself!
• I was told that preparing a 'modern' service every week is a difficult task for any preacher, let alone for someone who has 'very' little experience in preaching or preparing services.

We decided to have another meeting this coming Tuesday. I will be bringing a plan, detailing all my ideas for the service, and we will discuss them, hopefully coming away knowing exactly what is happening.