During the early summer of 2006, I was still a bit wet behind the ears and was so new to the work of being a minister, that I would give anything a go. One of the men in one of my churches who was fairly new to a life of faith came to me with an idea “Bite Sized Worship” his idea was that in the fast paced world, people didn’t want to devote a full hour plus more to Sunday worship and so he had come up with the idea of a twenty minute act of worship, fast moving and snappy, with, remembering Chris well, doughnuts and coffee for afters. I thought that the idea had legs, so during the summer, we planned and schemed and in September 2006 we launched our new concept with a press release, an article in the Eastern Daily Press, and me appearing live on BBC Radio Norfolk. It wasn’t to be, maybe the Church wasn’t ready at that time, maybe we got it wrong, trying to replace our normal Sunday morning slot with something so radical, but after several attempts, the idea was put to bed. That particular Church rose to a load of challenges during my time there and we were revolutionary in other ways, but this one initiative didn’t work and yet I still believed that it was good idea.
When lockdown hit in 2020, I was now based in Ipswich and we tried to react quickly to a very different looking world and within a week of the Prime Minister confining us to our homes, thanks to the wisdom and ingenuity of a few people and the gift of time from the pandemic, we had a new website up and running and we suddenly realized that there is a whole world out there to be tapped in new and creative ways, and within days “thought for the day” was born, hence me sitting here writing this and hopefully somebody out there reading it! If you quickly do the maths you’ll reach the conclusion that we are now fast heading towards seven hundred and fifty thoughts shared and we have a team of writers who churn these out day by day and week by week, and an army of people who spend five minutes or so a day (or when they can find time) reading them, some you like, some of you share and some of you even comment, which is lovely and very much appreciated.
Early last year, another wise man, from a different church to the one back in 2006 came to me with the idea of a short, snappy act of worship, around fifteen minutes in duration, with a song, a prayer, a Bible reading and a short message. A lightbulb flashed on in my head and I explained the concept we had tried and failed with a few years earlier, not, I hasten to add, in a “we tried that once and it failed” way, which I never find helpful. The world is different today and the medium different too, and during last summer we launched “Bite Sized Church” on line, using the Circuit Website and social media and it was a hit from the word go and now almost a year on we have contacted hundreds of people thanks to the work of a small team of people who make it possible. I would love to tell Chris, the man in Norfolk who initially came up with the idea that he was right after all. Sadly he died a couple of years ago, but in part, I see this as legacy to a visionary man and a second chance for the church.
I mentioned Thomas in my thought last week. We need to remember that Thomas hadn’t blown it for good by not being there on Easter Day, Jesus gave him a second chance. Peter must have thought he’d blown it when he denied even knowing Jesus, yet we see Jesus meet him on the shore of the sea of Galilee and forgive him. There are times, when we don’t quite get it right, sometimes the timing isn’t right, but one of the greatest gifts we have is the gift of the second chance, and a third and so on. If you want to have a look for yourself, make yourself a drink and Click https://methodistic.org.uk/category/bitesizedchurch/