Heartheadhands day at
Trinity Cheltenham 8 of us went for the day, mostly to hear the speaker Kenny Borthwick, whom many of you will remember from New Wine a few years ago.
The day started well with gallons of lovely proper(!) coffee available. The church was full with ages ranging from teenagers to a few more elderly, all of whom were obviously at ease and looking forward to the day. It was very reminiscent of the New Wine demographic and culture. Their band led us in a lot of inspirational worship songs, and then Kenny spoke about bringing all of ourselves to God, and not parking the bits of ourselves we don’t like,( or the parts that are hurting), outside when we come to worship. God wants all of us, not the sanitised version. He was also speaking about his experiences in a very different social environment. That gave us a lot to contemplate both at the time and to take away for reflection.
After lunch we broke into large groups for various topics- unfortunately some of the groups were oversubscribed, so we couldn’t all fit into our first choices, but even though most of us weren’t that inspired by the session, it did give pause for thought. It was about putting God first, and making time for Him.
When we all came together for worship to finish the day, the church ground floor had been transformed, with all the chairs put away to give a large floor space for standing, sitting on the floor or even dancing for those who felt moved to dance. It made excellent use of the available space to facilitate different kinds of worship.
It was well worth the trip, which was a good day out just to hear Kenny, but it also reminded me how things like flexible furniture, monitors/screens for the words and quality refreshments from welcoming volunteers can really facilitate worship and learning, but only when the heart is right.