We’re very good as ‘Church’ at putting on events. As G2 we have Sunday meetings, cell groups, leadership meetings, cluster meetings, alpha courses, special one off worship events, men’s weekends. And as part of St Michael le Belfrey we have multiple congregations, we have prayer meetings, team meetings, Church weekends, carol services. We’ve got the whole ‘event’ thing pretty nailed.
It might sound strange, but I see the future of the Church, if it is to grow and see change in the future, is found not in more events, but in non-events. Nobody gave permission for non-events to happen. No one made them official. No one put them on the Church notice sheet or the video news. No one told me about the non event from the front of G2. I heard about it from my friend who I bumped into. I saw it on my facebook wall. I got a text from a mate.
I think of the guys I know who all enjoy smoking pipes, drinking real ales and talking about theology. They didn’t ask anyone if they could meet up. They aren’t a part of the wider Church structure. But what they do is very much Church. It is encouraging. It is challenging. It is brilliant.
I think of the student who wanted to study more of the Bible. He invited a few of his friends to meet him every week in the campus bar. They just sit and study the bible in more depth together. No one on our Church leadership instigated it. The student didn’t wait and complain that there wasn’t something that existed officially. He just did it.
This is, I think, something I am being challenged about at the moment. The ‘Church’ doesn’t need to be an official thing that runs things for its members. It is a community of people, growing together and challenging each other. And out of that comes non-events; messy, non official and unpredictable . Non-events are risky but not afraid to fail. They mold around the people that are involved.
What is it that you want to see more of in the Church? What are you waiting for? Permission? Responsibility? Someone to ask you? The age of the non-event says that none of those are good enough reasons not to do something.
Josh Cockayne is a leadership parish assistant for G2 and a regular blogger. He recently graduated with a degree in philosophy and enjoys espressos and single malt whiskys. He is engaged to Ellie.
