The community of church

On mission I learned about church in the innercity and about connecting with strangers. Actually I've since realised another thing - that I already have relationships with various people in my community; it's just that they're not very good relationships. So I don't need to feel overwhelmed at the thought of getting to know new people. These people are already part of my life; it's just that I need to get to know them better.

Another thing we witnessed on mission was community. I went along to a few different church groups - an evening community group in the pastor's house, a lunchtime workers' group in the workplace and a morning Mums' group in the pastor's house again. Each group did different things, but they were all marked by the loyalty and care of their members. Maybe we only noticed this because we were newbies looking on, or maybe there's something special going on at St Peters. Shane the pastor and his wife Ali were certainly eager to be hospitable and made all fifteen of us feel at home. I also noticed that Shane's focus on community came out in the church services - with plenty of communal reading aloud of Bible passages and confessions of faith. It was all good stuff and a privilege to be part of it for a week.