So we work a project to the Claremont Urban Hub. Thousands of people pour through the train staition, bus station, taxi station and car parks every day. We are there, on the streets and in the corridors, several times a week. We try to be alert to Jesus in the space where most people are too busy. We ask him to make us aware of the people around us there; we want to see under the surface, behind the material things, beyond the wealth and poverty. We try to connect with people in shops and offices, on benches and in coffee shops. We acknowledge God present in the centre of it all; we pray for his action here.
We call this "outsiders". Doing things that nobody really wants done; recognising that there is more to life than work, or even entertainment. This can't be planned. There are ideas, yes, but it means serving with no certainty of what God is going to do. It asks patience, willingness to wait for the next step. It is incredibly humbling - we can't make anything happen, and God might actually do things that we never get to see!This ministry is attached to Claremont Methodist Church as its community of belonging. But the aim is not to fill CMC up with more people - it is for us to serve people 'out there', whoever they are. We want to exist as an invitation to people who don't do church. We hope to be a no-church church where people can find and express faith and community.
Most people communicate a lot via social networking; we major on being physically there in the urban hub, but we are also there in the cyberspace sphere. www.outsiders-urbanspirituallife.blogspot.com
You can check it out. If you like it, you can become a follower. If you have friends sho might like it you can share it on facebook, or email them.
This is another one of those ventures that has to be done without any guarentee that God will use it. The only way people can find it is if their friends share it. So we wait to see what God will do!
