Excuse my slightly blasphemous Snapchat – I have an unconventional relationship with God; just ask Him about the baptism thing… You made it to Post #2 so congratulations.
We resume this programme with me being coaxed into church, not bursting into flames, and standing awkwardly at the back for another 10 minutes.
I arrived by myself, not having a clue what I was doing; having Googled churches local to myself and looking at the websites to find the ‘least churchiest church ever’; I stumbled upon Gas Street’s website and was greeted with a picture of Tim in his Reverend Dog Collar with a denim jacket on over the top, and I thought ‘yes, this I can vibe with’ and saw they were holding a ‘Good Friday’ event. So I went.
My dad dropped me off, and I sort of hovered outside for a minutes unsure of what I was doing. After about 15 minutes I’d been slowly convinced to come inside by Nick Harding, even for just a few minutes, and it wasn’t what I’d imagined at all. There were art installations all around me, really modern ones as well – I remember seeing this (rather intimidating) massive painting of Jesus on the cross and a sign made of copper piping reading ‘watch + pray’. Nick’s wife then took me around the room pointing out the various ‘exhibits’, she took me to the fragrance tent which she told me was her favourite; it was a journey of smells Jesus may have experienced taking you through Good Friday. This was a 12 hour event, I arrived around 11am and figured I’d stay for maybe an hour or two – but I was introduced to Bea (Fiona and Nick’s daughter), Honor and Mary (the youth leader). They were all so normal, and friendly.
I stayed until 9pm. It was such a chilled out atmosphere I felt comfortable sitting and staying in the background, the installations meant there were things to do and look at but there was no real agenda for the day. The closest thing to an agenda were the different activities happening each hour, ranging from spontaneous dance to spoken word. I sat at the back in the prayer corner and met some lovely people who I’m still friends with, and they prayed with me and they listened to me and they didn’t make me feel judged. So I came back on Easter Sunday. And then the following Sunday. And the Sunday after that. And now I’m on the host team for the 6:30pm service every other week.
A year and a half later and when I go to church I feel like I’ve come home. My birthday was on Good Friday this year and again I spent the day at church, hosting an event I’d helped create.
This year in March I was reaffirmed; when they announced the baptisms I knew God was telling me that He wanted us to go Facebook Official™*. The date? 19th March.
*You can view my spectacular** reaffirmation baptism on Facebook so I guess we did go Facebook Official™
**I’m not being big headed, it’s only spectacular because I fell in in front of around 300 people
Lucy, In a World of Edmunds 