... chronicles from Church Street

Sally was busy in the kitchen heating up chocolate and getting out marshmallows when Tom arrived to get out a table ready for the meeting. “How’s it going?” he called out through the kitchen hatch. “Looks like were in for a cosy meeting. “

“There was some left over’s from the All Saints evening we had, so I thought we could have a chocolate fondue”

“Nice one” said Luke “chocolates good for getting the brain going”. Sally and Tom both looked at him sceptically. “Yeah ok, so chocolate is just good, no need for excuses to eat it.

As Susan and Albert filled the last two chairs, they all dipped marshmallows and reflected on the new venture that they had embarked on for October 31st this year.

“Well” said Albert “as you may remember I was not totally sure that doing anything on the evening of Halloween was a good idea” as he paused to lick the chocolate off his chin the rest of the group looked cautiously from one to another. “But” he continued purposefully “I have to say that going out with the young people to give away sweets and gifts instead of doing trick or treat was a very interesting and worthwhile activity.”

“Nice one” said Luke between mouthfuls.

“I had a lot of good responses” said Susan and the girls in the group agreed that giving away things was a great blessing to them all.

“Sometimes” said Tom “it is just doing something that is completely against the culture that grabs people’s imagination and throws them off guard. They were certainly very interested in what we were all about.”

“And” said Luke “there is no danger of any of the left over’s going to waste when we do a project like this”

“As you say Luke” said Albert smiling “Nice one.”

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Sally was getting the room ready when Tom arrived.
“You’re early” she said “we have at least another 10 minutes before we start”

Tom wandered up distractedly “yep been thinking about the next stage, trying to get my head around where we go from here?”

“Why should we go anywhere?” questioned Sally, Tom looked bemused. “Sometimes” she continued “I think we need a bit of consolidation”

Albert who had just come in followed by Luke and Susan said “consolidate, you mean like an army rearranging itself to after an attack.”

“Not exactly, more like being solid, building on the strength we have” Sally paused “there have been a lot of good things happening lately and I think that every now and again it is not a bad thing to just pause and take stock”

There was a moment of quiet interrupted only by the pouring of hot water into mugs.

“What about a Lent study with verses to read and prayers to say at home” interjected Albert?

“I like it” said Luke, Albert peered at Luke over his glasses with a skeptical frown on his face, “its grounding the whole bible and prayer thing that we have been focusing on, nice one Albert”

“Building stronger foundations, I like it too” said Susan

Tom sipped coffee and beamed “Looks like that ones sorted, just got to find the study and plan the rest of the programme, lots of coffee and biscuits needed I think.”
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Sally was getting the room ready when Tom arrived. “You’re early” she said “we have at least another 10 minutes before we start”

Tom wandered up distractedly “yep been thinking about the next stage, trying to get my head around where we go from here?”

“Why should we go anywhere?” questioned Sally, Tom looked bemused. “Sometimes” she continued “I think we need a bit of consolidation”

Albert who had just come in followed by Luke and Susan said “consolidate, you mean like an army rearranging itself to after an attack.”

There was a moment of quiet interrupted only by the pouring of hot water into mugs.

“What about a Lent study with verses to read and prayers to say at home” interjected Albert?

“Building stronger foundations, I like it too” said Susan

Tom sipped coffee and beamed “Looks like that ones sorted, just got to find the study and plan the rest of the programme, lots of coffee and biscuits needed I think.”

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Tom came into the room to see all the other leaders sitting round the table chattering animatedly. “Ok everyone what’s all the excitement about?” “Well” said Susan in a very slow and deliberate but excited tone “Albert and I have been monitoring the prayer partner scheme and we now have fifteen young people and twenty under16’s sorted, we have about one third who did not want to join in and a few still to pair up” Loud cheer from everyone.

“I do think” mused Albert “that our young people are paving the way in intergenerational prayer collaboration” “Yes quite” said Sally looking at Albert over the top of her glasses “I think it’s very exciting, I know it’s nothing new but it has changed Sunday mornings, you can see young and old chatting to each other all over the place” “I expect there are a lot of stories to share after doing mission this year, we need to keep them interacting so that the prayer dialog keeps on going, all in all I feel very positive about this scheme” said Tom “what do you think Luke?”

Luke sat pondering at the end of the table, “guess there will always be some who don’t get connected straight away, I was hoping for 100% positive response” “Different strokes for different folks” interjected Albert looking rather pleased with himself. He smiled turning to Luke “I heard that on the telly the other day, I think it’s what the younger folk say!” “Time for a cuppa” said Sally.
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The new term was just about to start & the team was getting together to catch up after the holidays & check the new programme. So with the kettle boiling & a new packet of chocolate biscuits the meeting started.
Luke came in looking tanned & ready for anything. “Been surfing for a few days” he said “just had to catch the wave,& there were some awesome waves”. Luke took up a surfing stance, somehow it didn’t work so well standing on the floral carpet in the church lounge.
Everyone chipped in with tales of holiday fun from 2 weeks in a highland cottage for Susan to a week on a breach in Tenerife for Sally. Albert then shared his experience with a silent order of monks. It actually sounded ok; a real chance to get away from it all & share in some uninterrupted meditation & spiritual guidance. Not sure about Albert’s request for a porridge & gruel diet but then Albert always did seem to go one step to far.
We tossed around the usual beginning of term comments & suggestions, then discussing how we would cope now that 3 of our helpers were off to university, conversations were round in circles Tom said “We need to keep in touch with them as they go to university, in fact we should be building stronger bonds with all our young people”
“What about a mentoring/prayer partner scheme” said Susan.
“Good idea I would be happy to oversee this project” said Albert “we could have an evening on Spiritual guidance & meditation.”
I wondered if Albert was already planning a launch evening with porridge & gruel.
“I like it” said Luke “the wave came along & we all jumped on the surf board. We need to catch the wave when God sends them along.”
Typical Luke, profound as ever.
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The end of a busy Sunday the evening service had just finished and Sandra (one of our young people) Sue, Sally and Tom all sat down at the back of the church to chat. We had planned a special outdoor praise time for the following week and Sandra was going to give a testimony.
Albert who did not seem to notice that we were having a heart to heart came striding across to ask if we had read the news sheet & before anyone could stop him he read in a very low whisper “Youth notices. Next Sunday evening at 5 PM there will be Praise with a BBQ in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.” Then with much agitation he started to say that he must have missed something when we planned this event & was very concerned that such a thing could appear in the church news sheet, & what is someone from outside of the church were to read it & think that we were holding an orgy.
Luke who was wandering past at that moment said’ never mind Albert if some people come with the wrong expectations then there are just more people who really need to hear the good news. All things work together for good & all that, perhaps it’s a fortuitous typo after all’. Having delivered his words of wisdom Luke sits down and hums Oh happy day. Albert on the other hand had that faraway look on his face, the one the usually means he had another of his cunning plans, oh dear why is nothing straightforward.
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Our 24hour prayer night had arrived. It all started so well; Saturday evening and everyone arrived with their bibles, sleeping bags (not for sleeping in but just in case it got cold…) and torches. No one was sure why but it seemed that even though there is electric light in the church, torches were still an essential item to have. The other essentials were 10 assorted pizzas, tubs of ice cream and loads of coffee.
We had spent the day setting up. We had ‘zoned’ the church halls; one was called ‘tactile prayer’ where we had bowls of water, paints and soft toys. Yeah, not to sure about that bit myself but Sue seemed to think it would help them get in touch with their ‘inner self’. Luke’s pile of rubbish and a PowerPoint about cleaning up our locality and our lifestyle went down very well.
Sally said it would be a good idea to put a box of tissues in the ‘meet Jesus & repent’ room. She was right. They sat at the foot of the cross and did some serious business with God.
I think Albert was a little disappointed that the hassocks that he had managed to borrow from St Georges were not made better use of in the intercessory room. The bean bags and CD players on the other hand were very popular!
The gospel of John was read from beginning to end, starting at midnight and finishing in the early hours; so all round it was a very successful 24 hours.
Now we’re thinking of mission, something that they can do that is practical, challenging, life changing and spiritually stimulating. As Tom said, we can’t let all of this enthusiasm and energy go to waste. Luke has contacts at the local skateboard park and thinks we could run a summer competition, Sue thinks the group could offer to paint the railings on the local estate, Albert on the other hand says he has a very interesting pamphlet entitled ‘Door to Door - 10 helpful hints on how to start a Godly conversation’. I think Sue and Luke may just have the edge on that one…
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Friday night & it looked like Albert was in his element, he loved the follow up studies, with the camp over it was now the serious ‘walk the talk’ time.
Susan had suggested that we use something with a high moral tone, indicating that it was always better to be well prepared in case there were any with wayward tendencies.
I decided that we needed to stick to plan ‘A’ which was prayer, study & intimacy with God. Luke had already complained that he hated the phrase ‘quiet time’ he said that he liked to read his bible with a very loud worship CD on, nothing quiet about our Luke.
So we did the study & Tom shared a testimony & then I said now how can we apply that to our lives, expecting the usual “dunno” or “guess I could try & get up a bit earlier & do some praying before college” I even thought of using the usual ‘the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak’ opt out clause, but before anyone could make a comment Luke, still flaunting a pink Mohican with mousy brown roots said “Ok who’s up for a 24 hour pray through the night and a read the complete gospel of John” all hands went up Luke nodded approvingly, the other leaders jaws dropped & Albert made a note to see if he could borrow kneelers from the local parish to aid fervency in prayer.
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The chairs were all set out & the youth team wandered in & sat down.
Sally did the usual welcome & handed out the agenda listing everything we needed to discuss for camping with the young people.
“I see we have sorted all of the essentials” said Tom “Tents & Equipment – consent forms – passes to get in to the camp – ear plugs for when the loud bands were playing… looks like we are all ready to go”
Yep everything did look ready & I felt that we definitely had a plan that was coming together. Susan had her very comfy chair so that she could sleep outside the girls tent in order to make sure that there was no overnight ‘funny business’ as she put it, going on. Luke was having his hair dyed so that he could still look (try & look) like one of the cool trendy youth leaders. And Albert was once again bringing his box of leather ‘Jesus’ sandals, ingeniously branded ‘in the footsteps of Jesus’ ever hopeful that the young people would all want to wear a pair as a sign that they were following the master. Last year when one of the girls became a Christian Albert gave her a pair as a present to remember the moment; I could see by her face she was unlikely to forget it!