We're always hearing how the church in England is deader than a doornail. You'd be hard-pressed to make that case after visiting St. Thomas Church in Sheffield. St. Thomas is actually two closely related but separate congregations -- St. Thomas Crookes Anglican and St Thomas Philadelphia.
We're attending the Pilgrimage Conference which the two churches offer in order to share their vision of mission and ministry. Today we met at the Philadelphia site which is a campus of about six separate buildings that were once industrial buildings in the city centre. The main building is a big ware-housey structure with lots of room for everything.
We arrived last night in time for their evening service. It's the "smaller" of their gatherings, but by 6:30 there were at least 250 people, 90% under 30. It's pretty charismatic -- lots of hand-raising. The music was really good praise and worship style, led by a highly accomplished band.
Anne McLaurin is an Anglican vicar and our host for our four days in Sheffield. She preached. Her sermon was thoughtful, clear and actually kind of low-key. She was preaching on John 3, and the necessity of being "born from above."
Today's conference sessions were meant to introduce us to the theology and missional vision that undergirds their work. Their twin theological watch-words are Covenant and Kingdom. Covenant refers to "who we are," our identity as people in relationship with the living God. Kingdom is "what we do" -- and
they take that really seriously.
St. Thomas has an incredible diversity of ministries in the city with all kinds of groups at the margins of the church -- and in some cases, the margins of society. What seemed like a never-ending group of young adults talked about their work with street people, with disaffected teens, with Roma migrants, with students, with people in the workplace. It's all about incarnating the love of God which they have experienced in touching others.
This is missional church like it's supposed to be.
We're attending the Pilgrimage Conference which the two churches offer in order to share their vision of mission and ministry. Today we met at the Philadelphia site which is a campus of about six separate buildings that were once industrial buildings in the city centre. The main building is a big ware-housey structure with lots of room for everything.
We arrived last night in time for their evening service. It's the "smaller" of their gatherings, but by 6:30 there were at least 250 people, 90% under 30. It's pretty charismatic -- lots of hand-raising. The music was really good praise and worship style, led by a highly accomplished band.
Anne McLaurin is an Anglican vicar and our host for our four days in Sheffield. She preached. Her sermon was thoughtful, clear and actually kind of low-key. She was preaching on John 3, and the necessity of being "born from above."
Today's conference sessions were meant to introduce us to the theology and missional vision that undergirds their work. Their twin theological watch-words are Covenant and Kingdom. Covenant refers to "who we are," our identity as people in relationship with the living God. Kingdom is "what we do" -- and
they take that really seriously.St. Thomas has an incredible diversity of ministries in the city with all kinds of groups at the margins of the church -- and in some cases, the margins of society. What seemed like a never-ending group of young adults talked about their work with street people, with disaffected teens, with Roma migrants, with students, with people in the workplace. It's all about incarnating the love of God which they have experienced in touching others.
This is missional church like it's supposed to be.
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