If you got interested (e.g. during the Camberley Connections week in March) in what "Being a Christian" is about, Christianity Explored does exactly what it says on the tin!
It is a chance to explore the Christian faith in a relaxed environment where no question is out of bounds.
The course will be running at St. Paul’s Church Centre from Tue 16th Apr for seven weeks starting at 7:30pm.
If you are interested, please contact Revd Russ Gant by email or call 07414 631359.
Camberley Connections ended on Sunday 17th March. Over 9 days, 14 students from Oxford came to help out, 9 local churches took part and countless church members put on 107 events which offered the opportunity for many people to ask questions and talk about their faith. There were many offers of prayer, most of which were appreciated and many of which were accepted.
Revd Claire Isherwood encourages us to live out the strapline for the project ‘sharing lives, sharing stories’ saying: “That was the end of the beginning! Now we look for ways to build on our new found confidence in sharing our faith stories with those who don’t yet know the love of Jesus for themselves.”
Keep an eye out for more updates as I catch up with coverage from the week!
Revd Mark Chester from St Paul’s challenged a team of 9 church goers to provide a banquet, including food and entertainment, for 50 people on the Old Dean in Camberley, in 1 week. They had a budget of £50 which they had to return at the end. Frank Long (Project Leader), describes how the challenge went.
With thanks to the BBC.
Last Saturday, 9 March something special happened on Park Street Camberley. Jane Mallac describes the day...
"When we were originally thinking about what this event would look like, it was suggested that we hold a pre-Mothering Sunday card making event in the open air in Park Street. Great idea, BUT…! Wind, rain, cold and card making don’t really go together. So, we had to come up with another Plan A (tables out on the street definitely being Plan Z!).
One of us with a very sweet tooth has been going along to the La Di Da Cupcake Café in Park Street, a brand new venue in Camberley, very pretty, very PINK, very girlie (though men have also been known to brave the girliness!), and cupcakes to die for! Would they let us put up tables in the café? We felt we could draw people in, they could give us the space we needed, nice and central to town, and people could have some fun drinking coffee, eating cake, making a free card, and hopefully be open to talking to us.
First prayer answered, Jess the lovely owner of the café said ‘yes’ – YAY! We had a warm and dry venue! A little bit of advance advertising, demonstration cards to make, packs of materials to put together, the logistics of getting chairs and tables, nine helium balloons, and one A-board, and all the craft materials down to the café by 9.45 on Saturday morning, and of course, lots of PRAYER, and before we knew it, we were off!
We felt that God really anointed and blessed our time at the La Di Da on Saturday. The café was super busy, and had a real buzz about it – two baby showers, an eight year old’s birthday party, and we were given a prime position right in the window (thank you Lord!), to do our creative stuff. From the outset and for the next three hours, we hardly had time to draw breath. Parents would come and bring children to make a Mothering Sunday card, so, whilst supervising the children, we would also try and juggle having a chat, telling people who we were, why we were there, and gently steering the conversation towards ‘God Chat’.
We were amazed how very open and forthcoming people were, how willing they were to answer our questions. One young woman with her five year old daughter asked for our address – hopefully she will one day bring her daughter along to join in the fun of junior church; another young woman with young children was asking questions about evolution – not easy to juggle probing questions like that whilst helping a two year old to make a card! We recommended Alpha, gave the church number and leaflet, and she took away a copy of Marks Gospel. A dad was happy to stand and engage in conversation whilst his daughters made cards for their lucky mum, at the end of which we gave him the gift of a St Marks Gospel, and encouraged him to read it. He is thinking of getting his daughters baptised, so it was relatively easy to talk to him.
Another man was happy to answer questions, but declared that he didn’t believe in God. We were not fazed by that – who knows, maybe this is the start of his God journey, and we may never know the ending, but God does, and that is all that matters.
So, looking back, it was totally exhausting, but we all felt encouraged that the afternoon had gone well, and we are grateful to God and the lovely people we met for making it easy for us, and to the La di Da Cupcake Café for giving us a venue to make it happen."
Hear that? Yes it's the sound of Funky.
Finished University No Kids Yet (Funky) A team from Camberley Connections was issued a challenge this week, to provide a free community banquet, in 1 week, raising the funds themselves as part of the challenge.
Revd Mark Chester from St Paul’s challenged a team of 9 church goers last Sunday to provide a banquet, including food and entertainment, for 50 people on the Old Dean in Camberley. They have a budget of £50 which they have to return at the end.
Issuing the challenge in front of the entire congregation, Revd Mark said: “At 7pm next Saturday 16th March, you are challenged to host a banquet in St Martin’s Church Hall, Old Dean. Your guests will be anyone who will come. You should aim to have a minimum of 50 guest, and you have 6 days to organise it from scratch. Here is £50 to get you going, but fundraising is part of the event and you need to return the £50 next Sunday morning.”
Any profit made during the challenge will be donated to the local charity Besom, which provides food packs to those in need.
The challenge is all part of a week of events known as Camberley Connections, to encourage people to share their faith stories with others.
For more information on Camberley Connections, the community challenge, and the week of events, check out the website at camberleyconnections.org.uk, find them on Facebook, or follow the twitter hashtag #CamConX
Andy Salt talked with Emily Jeffery from BBC Radio Surrey & Sussex on Sunday 10 March, about Camberley Connections. Listen to what it’s all about.
With thanks to the BBC. The full version of the programme is available here.
