As predicted, and to put it mildly Sunday September 30th was extra busy. At 10.30 Shona led our Harvest Thanksgiving Service. This in itself was a three part affair with a special monetary offering which raised £461.50 for BMS World Mission and Christian Aid, a huge selection of tinned or dried foodstuffs and toiletries that’s either gone to a local food bank or into our own Lord’s Pantry and finally a beautiful display of fresh fruit and veg complete with a Harvest Wheatsheaf – and mouse.
Then at 11.30 Graham joined Shona to chair one of our occasional all together Church Meetings. Accepting that on Sunday mornings MBC is currently functioning at maximum capacity the hundred and fifty present were invited to follow on from the the ten “What do you see” questions that have been circulating both on line and on paper for a good couple of months by discussing and then feeding back their thoughts on two quite specific questions 1). Who are we making space for? and 2). What sort of space should we offer?
Naturally there were a whole raft of different answers; from making space for international students and for new Christians to providing bouncy castles in the car park and designing a bible based set of Jenga blocks. All comments were of course duly noted and an assurance was given that our Leadership Team would give them their full attention.
The next step, then, is to move on to a number of what are being called Pilot Sundays, days when at least some of the suggestions made can by put into practice. These will be Sunday 14th October, Sunday 4th November, Sunday 2nd December and then the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th of January.
Although one could argue that the initial consultation process is now drawing to a close Graham and Shona felt it important to stress that both they and the whole of the Moortown Baptist Church Leadership Team are still keen to take feedback and they urged people to keep thinking, to keep talking and to keep praying.
Finally, at 12.30 and to round off the first part of our busy, busy day over a hundred of us stayed on and enjoyed a splendid Shared Lunch. To the small band of volunteers who “manfully” set up, cleared up and washed up we say a very sincere thank you.
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