Since we last met

Since the last post we have met three times and they have all been in homes. On the first occasion in a home we ended up talking very intimately about the things that have afected us in a personal way - relationships, marriage and death. I don't remember ever having met and discussed with people such intimate details in this context. I did some counselling a few years ago at a Christian festival and the depth of issues we discussed then was similar to our discussions at Trees Walking. What we are doing here seems to be giving ourselves permission to talk about things we don't normally talk about in a church setting. It may be that we are all linked via Christ but disconnected as far as church goes and so feel the freedom to talk. I wondered how anyone new might come in to the group now it has started to settle. Would we be welcoming?

The next meeting was in my home. I tried to avoid meeting in my home, but my fears of being perceived as the leader seem to be unfounded. It was Shrove Tuesday so we had lots of pancakes and talked about a particular word. I called it 'Food around the Word'. It was a good evening and we had about eight people. I put the word 'Fear' in the middle of the table and we talked generally about it. I chose it because scripture exhorts us more than any other command to not fear. This didn't feel as easy as the other meetings we have had, but it is hard to be objective about this. The point was to to start us thinking about why we are fearful - perhaps about our fear of church or doing church elsewhere. It was also in anticipation of talking about faith later. So far people have come and gone and those who had no connection with church have not attended despite my hopes having spoken to them before we started. It gave me a good ijndication about how likely we were to be evangelistic or missional. The group do not seem to be fearful about taling about our faith but we don't want to impose on others' feelings or faith. We feared imposing on other people when they didn't want it. The faith of the group is very personal. Becoming missional will be a challenge.