27 September is Back to Church Sunday: Come as you are

This Sunday, half a million Christians will be inviting someone special to come back to church in one of the largest co-ordinated ecumenical evangelism events staged across Britain.

Churches across the UK and further afield will be offering an especially warm welcome at church services and events for Back to Church Sunday (27 September). Church members have been encouraged to personally invite someone they know to come back to church for special services and events on the theme of ‘Come as you are’.

A number of churches are combining the event with their harvest celebrations. “Harvest is a time when some folk return to church for their annual visit to say ‘thank you’ and on this occasion they will find an even warmer welcome than usual,” said the Revd Gill Newton, minister at Cheadle Hulme Methodist Church in Cheshire.

Derrick Norton, Evangelism Network Development Officer, said; “Back to Church Sunday is taking many people by surprise, because of the growing awareness of its success. Here is an event which accords with some people’s interest in spiritual things, and which is an opportunity for those outside the church to find a way to return.

“We are encouraged to do what we know we should – to be welcoming. It starts with prayerfully and personally inviting someone we know to what is a fairly typical church service, but where we have planned a warm welcome for visitors. We know there will again be lots of good news stories, as people step out and allow God to use their simple acts of hospitality.”

In Appleby and Dufton in Cumbria, people who come to church this Sunday will be invited to attend a ‘Come as you are’ course later in the year. Paul Dunstan, District Evangelism Enabler for the Cumbria Methodist District, said, “The beauty of Back to Church Sunday is its simplicity”.

A 40-second radio advert promoting Back to Church Sunday will be broadcast on local radio stations around the UK, inviting people to take part.

Back to Church Sunday is a joint initiative of the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Salvation Army, the Church in Wales, Churches Together in Scotland and Elim Pentecostal Churches, as well as churches in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada.

Source: Methodist News Agency 21/09/2009

At Caversham Heights Methodist Church we will be combining this year's Back to Church Sunday with the Cenetenary return visit of our former Deacon, deacon Vic Downs and his wife Anne on 18th October.

What the 'noughties' HAVE done for God!

Were any of you listening to/watching last night's TV programme 'What have the 'noughties' done for God?'? I had not noticed it in the evening's programme and I was sight-checking part of John's Gospel in the Huastec language for Wycliffe Associates (UK) when the TV programme in the background changed. So I stopped checking when I could (at the end of a page), to listen. Actually, I discovered that I was listening to Newsnight (as I usually do) and, with the end of the first decade of the 21st Century in sight, the BBC had begun a series on the changes brought about during this decade - the 'noughties'.

I found it a most depressing account of the decade, since it dwelt on the arguments and divisions that have been prominent in the media and the often highlighted decline in churchgoing. It was said that the habitual church-going world had vanished very quickly, and marriage and the sanctity of human life have been downgraded; that freedom of speech now comes above religious belief, which is now less influential, with no monopoly on the moral highground. It went on to say that today there is a fuzzy faith, so that the church now meets the people half-way, bringing the secular world into the church with cafes, and that many Christians question the rules (on homosexuality, for instance) - in turn, causing schism and a two-tier Church of England.

The programme included the change that radical Muslims had brought about by the bombing of New York and London, and also the new prominence of atheism, with an atheist exhibition in Cambridge and posters denying the existence of God on London's buses. Showing a ruined church, it stated that people want a religious home but not a prison, and it concluded that 'this is an age of doubt which offers great opportunities but threatens it with ruin'. Most depressing! But is it right?

How do you view the last decade, the 'noughties'? This programme emphasised all the negative aspects of life in the last ten years, but what about the positive side? I would like you to listen to last night's Newsnight on BB2 iPlayer and join me in listing what we HAVE actually done for God in the 'noughties', please.

In many churches, fresh ways of worshipping and 'Back to Church Sundays' have brought many people back to church in this decade. Countering that sense of being imprisoned in the four walls of the church, its people are now taking the Gospel out on to the streets much more than in previous decades, using all kinds of new expressions of church, like cafe churches and the surfers' church in Devon! The
most notable of all is Share Jesus international 'Pentecost Festival 2008 and 2009' which flooded the streets of London with all kinds of events to bring the living Jesus to the people of London. Again, outside the churches, events like , Easter People and , , and , to name but a few, keep gathering together many hundreds of Christians (young and old) to worship and learn with great enthusiasm. There is no decline there! The emphasis today is that the church is not the building but the people who worship there. There are churches who are selling their church buildings in favour of worshipping in the school or community centre.

In Reading, an ecumenical charity called has grown in the 'noughties' from one small shop and advice centre to five shops in all, covering the outskirts of the town - and plans are in hand to open a sixth in another area. CCA demonstrates God's love by meeting people's practical needs and restoring self-worth to immigrants and those who are rehabilitating after treatment for drug or alcohol addiction or a spell in prison. The shops sell donated goods ,and donated furniture furnishes the flats of those starting a home.

Then there is the remarkable success of Wycliffe Bible Translators in the provision of the Scriptures in the heart languages of so many peoples throughout the world - a work which gathered pace tremendously during the 'noughties' and set a target of Vision 2025. Alongside this, Wycliffe Associates (UK) have produced EasyEnglish translations, with limited vocabulary at three levels, for people whose second language is English and for the Deaf. This work has been so successful that it created a demand for similar work in other languages and now teams of people across the world are working to produce easyBibles in their own heart languages. Forgetting everything else, all this translation work alone has done mighty things for God in the 'noughties'. I am glad and proud to have lived to see this transformation, making it possible for all kinds of disadvantaged people to be able to read and hear the Word of God in their own language.

I must mention the work made possible through the which has made small miracles possible around the world - training and assisting small farmers to grow more efficiently and providing clean water in poor countries. The 'noughties' have done so much for God through the giving to MRDF!

Finally, not least are the countless churches here that are twinned, as my church is, with work in other parts of the world, building churches, paying teachers' salaries and providing equipment. This work goes on quietly, regularly, and added up tells a story of powerful work for God in the 'noughties'.

I could go on, and I'm sure you could all add to what I have written. Why don't we let the outside world know what IS being done for God? Isn't it time that the Media ran some Good News stories instead of concentrating on the arguments and negative aspects of church life? It would make much better reading than the depressing news we keep hearing every day, and please, please, PLEASE can't someone produce a really good film for TV Newsnight showing the positive side of our work for God?

More than half a million people to be invited ‘Back to Church’

Churchgoers around the world are set personally to invite more than half a million people to services on Back to Church Sunday. The event will be one of the largest co-ordinated ecumenical evangelism events staged across Britain.

Christians across the UK and further afield are encouraged to invite someone they know who used to attend church to come back on 27 September 2009.

Methodist President the Revd Stephen Poxon, said “This is a wonderful initiative and I encourage all of our Methodist Churches to be involved. We must also give thought and time to how we continue the warmth of welcome every Sunday of the year so those coming among us will want to stay to find friendship and deepening faith.”

Back to Church Sunday was originally an initiative of the Church of England, but this year will be supported by the Methodist Church, Churches Together in Scotland, the Church in Wales, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the United Reformed Church, Elim Pentecostal churches and Anglican churches in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada.

Celia Lawton-Livingstone was invited to St Luke’s, Colchester, on Back to Church Sunday in 2008 by her friend Carole. Now Celia attends church regularly, has joined the worship team and hopes to be confirmed later this year. She comments: “I was surprised when I got to the church that morning. It was different to what I’d imagined, and the people were very friendly. I didn’t feel like they were trying to shove religion down my throat, they let me make up my own mind. It was a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, just like one big family. I would recommend it to others: you never know where it could lead you. My whole life has changed completely in the last year.”

The initiative is supported by a website (www.backtochurch.co.uk ) and resources such as special welcome T-shirts and subsidised party packs of fairly-traded drinks and snacks, produced in partnership with Traidcraft.

Source; Methodist News Service 12/05/09

BACK TO CHURCH CELEBRATIONS

The invitations plopped through a large number of letterboxes telling people that we would love to see them back in Church to meet old friends, worship with us at our Harvest Festival and to discover the progress we have made since their last visit. As a result we had a full Church on the Sunday morning of 30th September and there was great rejoicing all round! It was good to see all the push-chairs at the front of the church and the Sunday Starters were delighted to welcome so many extra children for the second half of the service.

Various groups who meet at the church decorated a window each, on the theme of farming, making the church not only colourful but interesting by their different displays. There were lots of sheep and poppies, but the Girls’ Brigade window with colourful caterpillars that became butterflies according to the angle from which you were viewing them drew much attention, as did the Zambia link window with the help of many photos, two miniature beehives and 'hundreds' of bees all over it!

The very happy service began with people bringing gifts of dried goods (to be sent to ‘Feed The Children’) and tinned goods (to be sent to CIRDIC, the Churches in Reading Drop-In Centre), followed by the presentation of a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Service Award to Tara Keating and a certificate to me for completing the 33-week Disciple 3 course. (Two others completed this course but one was ill and the other was preaching at the Kentwood church.)

The Minister, Dermot Thornberry gave an ingenious children's address, illustrating what we would miss if the potato had no EYES, the corn had no EARS, the bananas had no HANDS and the cabbage had no HEART and pointing out that God needs our eyes, ears, hands and heart to praise Him and appreciate His wonderful creation.

Deacon Becky Bawden and the Minister Dermot entertained with an amusing sketch in which a dahlia (Becky) and a dandelion (Dermot) debated their own importance in God’s colourful creation. There was a choral item by a small group and Dermot spoke on various moods of harvest before the lively hymn ‘You shall go forth with joy’. We certainly did, and the happy fellowship continued with tea and coffee in the hall afterwards, with many joyous reunions. It was especially good to have former Sunday School pupils bringing their own children now to enjoy Sunday Starters and the Girls’ and Boys’ Brigades.