Our article this month comes from Br James Woolford, member of the YCC and also the minister of the Moravian congregations at Baildon and Dukinfield.

This Pentecost Weekend the Yorkshire district launched an event called ‘Come Alive in 25’. This was put together as part of the Provincial Board’s grant that was made available to the districts to use with a focus on youth work. We met together to plan how best to use the grant in a way that would be sustainable and hopefully grow the work of each congregation and the idea of ‘Come Alive in 25’ was born.

It seemed apt to launch something new around the season of Pentecost, a time when we remember what is often referred to as the birth of the church. The plan was to have each congregation plan and run an event that is aimed at children and families on the Saturday and then join together for an act of family friendly worship which would be followed by a Barbeque and games as an act of collective fellowship. The reasoning behind doing it this way, rather than simply organise one big event, was that families are far more likely to return to a church where they’ve had a positive experience. Therefore, if we wanted to help each church grow it needed to be a more localised effort but under one banner. What those events were, how they looked and who they targeted was left to the congregations to decide. This gave them the flexibility to look at what they could do best and what would serve the needs of the area of outreach as well. After the planning, proposals for the funding were submitted and we worked together to make it a real opportunity for the churches in Yorkshire to ‘Come Alive in 25’.

Of the six congregations in the Yorkshire District, four held events on the Saturday. At Baildon they hosted the ‘Minister Of Magic’ show, which I talked about in last month’s Messenger, and whilst it would have been nice to have a few more people present, all who came really enjoyed it and, crucially, spoke afterwards about learning more about faith. Fulneck hosted an animal themed afternoon with storytelling from a local group and arts and craft from the school and community. They also shared food and had a really good attendance with many new faces turning up. Horton held a neighbourhood coffee morning with ‘Knit and Knatter’ and children’s crafts on Pentecost as well as free play toys aimed at those five and under plus siblings. They had two new families and two individual people arrive, and they spoke afterwards about a desire to come back to church one day soon. Lower Wyke held a sports and craft day with the Pentecostal theme throughout with decorations provided for by our Adventurers Youth Group (those aged Year 3 and upwards). They provided written descriptions of what Pentecost is as well as chatted to the young people and families who joined us about its meaning over the craft activities.

Then on the Sunday we gathered at Lower Wyke where the service was led by Sr Maxwell, Br Cooper and myself as we looked at different aspects of the Pentecost story, from Peter’s Strength to the Early Church’s formation, to the believers being scattered and sent out to do mission to the world. The service was very well attended, and it was wonderful to gather in fellowship and song as we learnt some new hymns and sang some more traditional ones as well. Following the service we met in the church hall (the weather wasn’t on our side) and shared in great food and fellowship together.

Looking back at it now, there was so much good work going on that weekend, but it all started from looking outwards to our communities and asking ourselves, what can we do that will help enable people to feel comfortable in a church environment. What can we offer? How can we open our doors and show people the love of God is alive and well and available for them? We hope and pray that the fruits of our labour grows into more people knowing that our churches are places of love and welcome and that those we have reached will grow in faith, strength and trust in us to be a place of warmth and love. Finally, we pray that our congregations learn from this and take confidence that the Spirit of God is as ‘Alive in 25’ in the same life changing way as in that first Pentecost Sunday.