The animal farm visited the church grounds this week as a small number of farm animals were brought in to allow a group of children and their mums to pat the animals. I thought this was a brilliant idea by the Little Royals committee. Not so much because it gives children exposure to farm animals they might not otherwise get, but more importantly because it allowed for a connection of unchurched families with Christians from church.

I heard that just over 40 families were represented at this small farming expose, which is a fantastic result for a small event. I am very excited about things like this because it helps to establish CONNECTION with people and connection can lead to CONVERSATION and conversation can lead to COMMUNICATION and communication can mean an opportunity to present the good news of the gospel, little by little, in a respectful and gentle way. Congratulations Little Royals organisers on creating an opportunity to connect with the unchurched!

This event also reminded me that as a church we need to be focusing on areas of strength in our attempt to create opportunities to connect with others and with so many young families in the church this is certainly one obvious area of strength.

I think we need to acknowledge, celebrate and pray for these steps of connection with the community because they can be few and far between and let’s face it; it’s hard to get unchurched people to attend anything to do with church. Our challenge is to demonstrate, to a highly sceptical community, that we are not wacky (well most of us aren’t) and we enjoy doing normal things. Let us together look for opportunities to get connected, in order that we might build friendships - and as a result share our Christian faith in a relaxed and informal but highly effective manner.

All of this sits well with our current sermon and study series on Jesus attitude of acceptance towards people. The gospels demonstrate that Jesus met and accepted people right where they were in life and it was into these ‘ordinary’ circumstances he demonstrated acceptance, love and eternal hope.

Remember to pray for Dave Vaughan and Grant Zippel as they are involved in Motorsport chaplaincy at the upcoming Clipsal, another great opportunity to connect with and support people in the community.

Celebrating community connection