BEGINNING UNLIMITED

How do we make people feel welcome? Monday 5th September 2016 As leadership we are struggling with how we as a church should welcome visitors and new people. So far we’ve avoided having a welcome team, in the thought that that somehow means that those not on the team can be ‘unwelcoming’ that week. It seems an obvious and fundamental part of church that all of us should be welcoming. However, we’ve got to recognise that some people are naturals at talking to those they don’t know, and some aren’t. Some genuinely delight in a roomful of strangers and finding out their stories. I fear many more people are like me, where a roomful of strangers is intimidating and daunting. We are also hearing that some members of church resent the fact that they want to catch up with their friends on a Sunday, not always talk to newbies, and we want friendships to grow, to flourish. We know that some church members are struggling to feel that they fit in, that they belong. So our challenge to the

We're hosting an open mic night in church tonight. There are going to be live bands (including an in-house unlimited band, also known as (don't ask!) 'The Organ Donors')' a BBQ and an early summer message from the Rev Helen! Slots are booking fast. It has always been a popular event. An easy way to connect with young people. I'm excited for what tonight will bring, whilst remembering events past. Saturday 30th November 2013 Tonight saw possibly 100 young people in the church. Music seems to be such a part of young people’s lives. So many that we meet are either in a band or are friends with someone in a band. Tonight we simply opened up church and offered them a microphone. Cheekily we called it Live Lounge after the Radio 1 show. And the bands came and brought their supporters. Some of the music was amazing. Not all was to my taste, but then, it shouldn’t be. If it is appealing to me as a nearly forty-year-old then I’m guessing we’ve got it wrong. But

Follow this link for the information:  https://jmp.sh/VJFUfzI I never took gap year. I didn't have anything I particularly wanted to do and I was worried that with no specific plans I would end up wasting both the year and a lot of money. Perhaps I missed out by not being brave enough? I'm excited that yet again as a church we are looking for an intern to start in September 2019. It seems a long time ago that our first intern Jack started... Monday 3rd September 2012 We have an intern! An amazing guy called Jack has come to work with us for the year. From a chance conversation I had over a cup of coffee in March we have got to this point. We can’t pay him anything. We are offering him theological training of sorts, and his bus fare. That’s all. Anything extra he is earning with his job in a café. It will only give him pocket money. He is full of enthusiasm and new ideas. Fresh energy and vision. There will be times when he can’t get the bus home, when we finish too la

Tonight our church will be open between 12-3am, serving tea and toast to young people out in Exeter. Here are some extracts from the early days... Sunday 28th April 2013 For a long time James has wanted to start a night café. He is just unable to ignore the fact that Mary Arches Church is located opposite two nightclubs. This is where young people come and, if we are serious about going to meet them where they are, then this is where we need to be.  Last November James joined Street Pastors for possibly their wettest evening of the year. He returned absolutely shattered. Tired, yes. But more than that. He was shocked by what he had seen. The level of drunkenness, of violence. The broken bottles, the simmering violence, the language. Young people incapable and vulnerable after drinking too much. Abandoned by friends, either knowingly or unknowingly. Street Pastors have long been using our back room as a prayer base for their evenings spent in and around the town, but James s

Mentoring These extracts from the book are four years old. Since then the mentoring programme has grown in size, but retains its  individual  approach, and a central part of our schools outreach work. Friday 6th November 2015 People never seem to get bored of the age-old witticism, ‘Of course, you only work on Sundays, don’t you?’ We hear that on a more or less weekly basis. I presume they are joking. I’ve got to think that or else it would really start to wind me up. But even if they have given any thought to what James’ work might be beyond the obvious on a Sunday, I’m guessing they would be totally wrong about today. He, and about ten team members from church, have spent the day on Dartmoor. Climbing, abseiling and doing high ropes in the middle of a forest. In torrential rain. A team-building activity day. It was wet, cold and great fun, I’m told. With them were ten students from St Luke’s school, students who had been identified by the school as struggling or v

It is so exciting that tonight at church we have Bishop Jackie coming for a baptism and confirmation service. We have had many over the years. In swimming pools, with giant inflatables, in a freezing stream on Dartmoor. In church with an inflatable pool and a cream tea. Tonight everyone is invited to join us for dinner (it's curry) before we move into the service. Candidates, the church and their families will all join together to eat before we celebrate with them this wonderful moment in their faith. Here is just one extract of another Unlimited baptism... Sunday 24th November 2013 Laura got baptised today. She is a bright, bubbly drama student. She seems to be always laughing and smiling. Over the past year she has gradually got to know us and trust us. God has steadily been drawing her back to this point, drawing her back into a living relationship she knew as a child. Today she publicly acknowledged her faith before friends and family. It was a big deal for her. She

Eating Together As I've said before, food is massively important to us as a church. Every week you will find us tucking into homemade cakes on a Sunday, and at our Wednesday cafe. But perhaps my most precious moment of the week is on a Tuesday night, where the core of the church meet together for a meal at 6.30pm. Often there are around thirty of us. All the food is prepared on a flat-packed table with two hot plates and a rice cooker. There is no hot water in church. Washing up is done in stations with bowls filled carefully from the urn. It is amazing what you can do with what seems like very little. Initially we were not brave in our food choices. Chilli, sweet potato and chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken and a spring chicken casserole came out month by month. Now a team of student chefs have varied the menu amazingly. No two weeks looks alike. They also cope with gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options. Something we had honestly hoped to avoid but have

We don’t have favourites in our family. I can’t bear the thought that one child might feel more, or less, loved. I’m so determined to love my children equally it has become a joke. “I’m the favourite” is often to be heard being loudly declared by one or other. Often they try and trap me into expressing a preference. But as much as I will not have favourites in my family, the same rules don’t apply to the Bible. Because when I read the Bible I really do have favourites. Take the gospels. My favourite is Mark. I love the immediacy and the urgency with which he tells the story. Everything is ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘immediately’. He’s in such a rush to tell the good news he doesn’t stop to tell us about Jesus’ birth but jumps right in with the baptism and testing of Jesus. So keen is he to tell us about Jesus’ ministry he simply ignores the first 33 years of his life. And the read is breath-taking. The whole book can be devoured in a two hour sitting. Marks’ gospel was the book of the bible I k

‘This is what family must feel like’ Food has always been central to our church. In fact in the six years that Unlimited Church has existed we have never held any form of church service or meeting without food of some kind being involved. And it is not particularly because we ourselves are that interested in food. We are just convinced it is a brilliant way of bringing people together, loving them and valuing them and encouraging community. Every week we go out as a church and talk to young people in and around Exeter City Centre. We have done it right from when we started. We actively go out and talk to the young people of Exeter. We are not expecting young people who don’t do church to come and find us, so we are committed to going out to where they are.It is a small city and we find there are often large numbers of young people hanging around the shopping centres and cathedral green. The thousands of students at the sixth form college appear to have a lot of collective free tim