'God is not a
secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.
If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a
bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there
on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your
lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this
generous Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 5:14-16 MSG)
For a long time now, I’ve had the image in my mind of a
doll’s house. I’m sure it doesn't need explaining, but a doll’s house looks
like an ordinary house from the outside, however you can open up the front,
revealing all the rooms, furniture and little people inside.
When I look at the Everyday Church building in Southfields
from the outside, I see a doll’s house. Some of us have been praying for some
time that it would increasingly become a hub for the community – that we would
open up the front of the building (figuratively speaking), and allow local
people to see all the way inside. That they would begin to see all that God is
at work doing behind those walls – the people that He is at work shaping, week
in, week out.
One way that we’ve sought to achieve this is to open up the whole building to local parents and
carers on a Thursday morning. The toddler group that had been meeting on
Thursday mornings in one of our halls, was closed for a few weeks, and we made
some changes and developed the team somewhat. On Thursday 5th March,
a new look ‘Twiglets’ group was relaunched! The soft play area was set up, the
balloons were pumped and the queue of nearly 140 parents/carers/kids lined up eagerly
outside.
“Why go to so much effort to put on a fantastic
group for local babies and toddlers??” I hear you emphatically ask!
Because God loves Southfields. And He loves the people that
live there – whether they’re parents, carers or little kids. We recognise that
we have the space, resources and team in place to be able to serve such people
and in doing so, we’re hoping to get the opportunity to reveal some of God’s
goodness and love along the way. And we’re quite unashamed of our motives!
Every Sunday morning at church, we proclaim that God has a
great plan to change and use everyday, ordinary people. We believe that He will
be doing the same thing on a Thursday morning at our church venue. It might
just happen through playing with toys…or a doll’s house perhaps!
