Café church: real church or just a step on the way?
What is the X factor within a rural café church?
It looks as though café culture is here to stay. Indeed Costa Coffee has given churches permission to use their shops for regular meetings. Perhaps this is why examples of Christians developing café churches continue to emerge in many social contexts.
In the latest issue of Encounters on the Edge, George Lings, director of the Sheffield Centre – Church Army's research unit – follows an important question: are ‘café churches’ really churches or do they embody stages towards this?
George tells the intriguing story of a small rural congregation in Norfolk, running a multi-faceted event called Xpressions Café. This example works with café, all-age worship and faith exploration concurrently, each held in four parts of an overall venue. It ostensibly embodies the necessary stages argued for in previous Encounters on the Edge issues on café church.
The components are called Xpresso, Xplore, Xpressions and Xperience. George examines how these elements work together, the progression across them and how each different space works. He concludes that most stages work well and together they make a plausible case to be church – but there are still some gaps between them for people exploring a faith journey.
Although the components here begin with X, a very significant element of the story is the release of gifts in lay people who never imagined they could do so much, hence the tag, X factor.
Encounters on the Edge 45, "The X factor within: Rural café church", is now available and is priced £4. This is a key resource for those working with café church or considering starting one.
To order, contact the Sheffield Centre on 0114 272 7451, e-mail ask@sheffieldcentre.org.uk, or go to www.encountersontheedge.org.uk
