Church hunting or looking for a new spiritual home
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, ……Psalm 27 verse 4
The need to find a church involves a number of potential challenges for a minister. Do you go looking for a church within your own denomination or spread the net wider? Do you let on that you are a minister? What kind of church community are you in fact looking for? Does the theological stance matter? Just some of the questions to be grappled with.
I wanted to be able to shop around and keep a low profile. Having led worship for so long it would be fascinating to see how you are welcomed as a stranger. Even more to see what it’s like to be on the other end to sit and receive. But where to start? My girls would say the websites. So before we moved I naturally looked at the local circuit website and other church traditions. I carefully studied it looking at each and every church. Some photos made the buildings look uninviting while others less so. Only one church stood out, and it was an LEP, so we thought we would give it a try the first Sunday. But it turned out looking at the plan our first Sunday in Banbury was a circuit service. It was taking place at the main church of the circuit so we decided to go anyway. We were careful not to give anything away when we did chat. A lovely couple who came and sat near us were very welcoming and chatty after the service. It turned out I recognised him as a minister who had been my probationer tutor when I first started in ministry. Yes Methodism is a small world. The service was an hour and twenty five minutes, without communion. Long hymns, long readings and long sermon. I felt the minister leading the service wanted to shake things up but the heavy hand of the past was real.
Well moving on quickly. So still in search of a church we decided we would try the LEP the following Sunday. So we drove to find it on the Saturday. Was it the traffic getting there? or just the sense we didn't really want to drive across town to go to church. But in the end we never went.
We had noticed near where we live a sign to St Hugh’s. I had looked it up on its website before we moved and noted they had done a labyrinth so clearly a bit of creativity. So as it was near, and we could if we wanted walk, we rolled up on our second Sunday. We were welcomed well. Chairs were spaced out due to covid and a few were in masks. The service was led by the Vicar Anita with her husband Colin, also a priest who works for CMS (church missionary Society) in Oxford. The service was an excellent mix of music, a well crafted act of worship, appropriate use of technology with a video reading and all words on the screen. The sermon was pitched well for the congregation, mostly older people , and it was relevant to peoples lives. I sat there feeling well this is alright I can worship and not just be an observer. I certainly had no urge to want to get up and lead in anyway. A bonus was they have communion every week. Then the service ended and the moment of truth. What would happen now? We soon found ourselves chatting to folk who approached us, the coffee was good 'real filtered', and we managed to steer people away from my job. Just a recently retired couple moving to be near a daughter and grandson.
So a very positive experience and we were left wondering well do we try somewhere else? Do we shop around?
We went back the next week bumping into someone else coming there for the first time. So we found ourselves taking her in and the three of us sat together. She was/is a very lively character. So when one of the hymns was more upbeat we dared each other to clap and a smile came to the vicars face. At coffee I chatted with Colin who asked outright what I had done before retiring. I confessed. “He said we thought it was something like that just didn’t think Methodist minister”. Oh how we give ourselves away to those in the know.
So St Hugh’s has become our place of worship. We have attended its once a month table talk fellowship group with a meal and discussion. The first time it was about a family the church are supporting who work for CMS in Myanmar but will have to work from Thailand due to the coup. So we met them on line via Zoom. We have also been to the church barbecue. We are putting names to faces and chatting to quite a few of the congregation. Only time will tell how it unfolds. It feels like a community church. It’s basically a hall with kitchen and small lounge attached. I think it feels right for us. The sanctuary area is attractive and the doors can be closed up as the room is used by lots of groups during the week. We gather from the barbecue that they have a problem with the roof which needs replacing. I’ll keep quiet about grant applications!
Father Son and Holy Spirit
One in perfect community.
You have promised
to make your dwelling with us,
that wherever we find ourselves
You will be there .
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