When i say church....what do you think of?

Work is pretty hectic at the moment as we're closing in on Christmas. The centre is full of promotion flyers. Full of promotion flyers in the hope that the centre will soon be full of people. Thats the big vision anyway. Full all day every day. This morning i was street walking meeting people and promoting the christmas showcase at Church.co.uk. I was surprised by people's general enthusiasm about the event. Prior to starting the rounds i was sure people would be put off by 'another' church event. But they weren't and it was an up-lifiting experience for me....

Part of the trip out and about was to drop off flyers regarding our carers and kids service called 'Hullabaloo'. We visited a number of Schools asking them to advertise our service to carers by putting up posters. Most happily obliged, some were a little less willing. But generally the trip encouraged me that we were working in partnership with other organisations. However, when we arrived at the NHS health centre for Children and Parents we were given a frosty reception. In fact it was more than frosty. We were told to leave instantly and that they had no interest in promoting our service. Now, whether that was becuase i was young or whether i mentioned i worked for a church or becuase they'd had too many services like ours come to them. Anyway, on what had been an encouraguing trip i was a little disheartened by the events at the NHS health centre. My feeling is that in order for the Church to begin to have a significant impact in Britian it has to begin to work with existing services. Around about 100 years ago Church.co.uk records show that it had on it's staff team 10 doctors who delivered around 120 children. When the government created the NHS the Church had no doctors and no babies were delivered. Now the government finds itself in a situation where the job is just to big (stories of there not being enough beds in hospitals!). Indeed the Government would have benefitted in the long run had it continued the services of the Church back in the day. And indeed the Church would look very different to what it does today. It would have qualified teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, counsellors, health visitors...etc etc.

The job facing the Church is to fill a gap in service provision that supports other orgnaisations and develops partnership working. A service that meets physical need first and then we can rely on God to work on people's spiritual needs...becuase he will but not if we keep talking at people instead of listening to them. A massive task, but it's begun....