At the market

Church communities always want to be a meaningful part of the wider community. We already are, of course. We each go to the shops, to our jobs, see our relatives, have a sign out the front of the church... But how can people really get to know us, and not just individually, but as the messed-up, diverse, connected group that we are?

One way is to get involved in the community. Host a soup give-away, draw up a roster for visiting folk in an Old People's Home, or field an indoor soccer team. But maybe then we'll never quite get around to talking about church or about what it is that joins us Christians together.

What one church up the north of Tassie does is to have a stall at the local market. I don't know what they have on the stall - I imagine Christian books and pamphlets and maybe some homemade jams to give away or sell for cheap. You could put a heap of effort into this sort of thing and be massively generous and welcoming... and informative. That's the good thing about stalls - they have an identity - it's not just a group of people, but this group of people. You'd soon get known as 'the church stall' (or something ruder), and if the people manning the stall were friendly types, they'd soon get to be known as friendly types. And maybe someone might come along who would like to learn something about what joins us Christians together.


H/T Peter