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 it was about more than music. Every bit of available space in church was put to use to show the young people that they matter, that making them feel comfortable and welcome in our space was important to us. We had drinks, a nail bar that they thought was for pampering but was actually an excuse to be able to engage in conversation, games consoles projected onto the ceiling, giant garden games.
I spent most of the evening in the back room preparing hundreds of hot dogs. I can’t deny that the smell was appalling. Half way through the evening food was shared around, and there was a brief moment where James told them why we were doing all of this. That actually, unashamedly, this was all about Jesus. Of course, some left and others switched off. But more, I think, were intrigued. Several asked for prayer from the team, and the team then had the very great privilege of helping these young people encounter God. Some young people learned, perhaps for the first time, that God is not distant and apart, looking down from his seat on a fluffy white cloud. He is right here with them now. And He knows them and He loves them.
For the young people impacted by tonight, they still have a journey ahead of them. We are grateful to be able to journey with them.
Friday 27th November 2015
It’s good to be able to laugh at ourselves. As a church we take God very seriously, ourselves not so much! Because of that atmosphere, that it’s all right to give it a go, everything doesn’t have to be perfect. Tonight I did give it a go. I put aside what other people might think, whether I was good enough. I just gave it a go, with the knowledge that if I did my best, then no matter what happened, that was all God asked of me. Oh, and not to give myself a hard time if it didn’t live up to my own standards of perfection. So I took a slot at Live Lounge. We knew that this time there weren’t as many bands coming as usual, so Pete had encouraged anyone who could to prepare a song so that we could fill the gaps when the mic was empty. I’ve never wanted to before, but today it felt that it could be fun. So I spent the afternoon messing around with electric harp and voice, working out my arrangement of a pop song, and tonight I performed. It wasn’t perfect. I’m glad it wasn’t recorded. But I did my best. I had fun. That was all God wanted from me tonight.
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