Respond to the Word

You might like to have a bring-and-share meal as part of your worship today. Make sure it’s clearly within the worship, not an optional ‘add-on’. This means letting folk know beforehand that they’ll be eating together and asking them to bring some food.

If you’ve laid out your worship space in café style (see Prepare the space), give people a few moments to enjoy the ‘goodies’ whilst sharing their concerns and joys and talking about their week.

How do you welcome strangers? Are you showing them a face that will attract them? Using a flipchart or OHP, brainstorm how you could improve the welcome you give to new worshippers. Bear in mind that every church sees itself as ‘friendly’. A church visitor tried to stay for coffee after the service, but was told that it was only for the regulars. Does your church have an equivalent blind spot? Have a look at some of the friendly and not-so-friendly welcomes the mystery worshippers from the Ship of Fools website receive (see Further resources ).

Try using a prayer style that is different from your usual format: perhaps some candles and Taizé-type reflective music, offering worshippers space to ‘tune in’ to God’s Spirit and reflecting the informal, relaxed feel of Abraham’s meal with the strangers. Even scarier, how about silence for five minutes? You will need to help people into the silence. Suggest they look at the thoughts that crop up and then imagine bundling them up and giving them to God.