New Church

Tried out a new church on Sunday. Well a different one, not a new new one! Although I've heard rumours of a Vineyard church being planted in York - I'll keep me eyes open.

Anyway. Went with my friend Bek - short cycle ride, so not too far. We were a bit late and it looked a little shut up, but we sneaked in to what appeared to be a fairly old building that's been recently done up giving a large and airy feeling that's not so big you get lost in it! As we walked down to find a seat that small band was playing 'Your love is amazing' and there were no pews (not that that's necessarily important!)

It was a family service, so not a typical service. It was very interactive though - especially since it seemed to be a one man show. He did well at getting the children involved (distinct lack of youth). I enjoyed the service. There must have been 30-40 people of various ages. The two ladies in front of us turned round at the end and complimented our singing! lol.

We chatted to a number of people afterwards and had a long chat with the vicars wife explaining that we'd come across the church quite by accident as it was not advertised anywhere. They're going to sort that out! Through chatting to her and an email I received from the vicar previously (a very nice and helpful email) we discovered that they are part of three churches in the area, they do Alpha, are linked to New Wine, have cell groups using the four Ws (welcome, worship, witness, word), and seem to have a very balanced and good theology/doctrine (whatever the right word is!!). They do a tiny bit of community work and mission, but are up for supporting any suggestions. They don't have any students.

We also went to the evening service which starts with coffee at 7pm, before the service at 7.30. All three churches come together for this, so there were a few people who were slightly younger, but still no youth or students. The service is usually worship and word and looks like it could be pretty good - but they were doing a presentation on their experiences at New Wine (which really could have been adequately done in 10mins rather than boring us all!) so it wasn't great.

We are going to try it out again this Sunday - they're having a welcome back to church week - so that'll be interesting!