TED TALK 3: Jill Rice – The Church Meeting

Jill essentially argued that church meetings have become unnecessarily predictable, formulaic and programmatic. She suggested that meeting have become too religious and can easily become a club or spectator sport, but the real measure of a community isn’t what you get out of it, but what you contribute. She drew our attention to her own personal experience of a home church she was part of, a flexible little community that was more about supporting one another and enjoying company than running a program.

You can’t have a church meeting/discussion night without a good anagram, and luckily Jill provided one of her own, being WORD FRED to describe the values she felt was important for when we meet together. It means:

Welcoming

Organic

Relevant

Dialogue

Friendly

Relaxed

Expression

Discussion

The point is to paint a picture rather than set to set out a linear meeting that is clearly building towards an end, all meant to promote participation and a strong sense of ownership among everyone there.

Jill’s final challenge was that church meetings should have something to say about people’s vocations, their jobs, rather than seeing them as a means to get by. She argued for a strong undercurrent of connectivity between all of life instead of a sacred/secular divide that confuses many people and leads to an impression that the ‘real’ work of the kingdom is found within church programs.

 Feedback

Some people said they would like more shared meals and intergenerational events, and there was a strong message coming through of wanting to move into stuff that was less programmatic when meeting together. People said they would like to see more acknowledgement that every Christian is in full time ministry wherever they are, and would like to hear more about what it means for the gospel to shape our industry areas.

A few groups did mention that this is particularly hard to foster in a big community like ours and so we would have to get really deliberate and creative with informal gatherings and places to enjoy community with each other in different settings. There was also a concern that with too much informality over meals we would need to make sure it didn’t descend into the trivial and we need to remain intentional about discussions together.