The vicar of St Peter’s Church in Yateley has invited local residents to come and join him at the pub and chat about life, over a pint.
Revd Tim Storey booked a table in the pub garden of the Dog and Partridge as part of a series of events for the church’s “Year of Reaching Out”. He wanted to give people the opportunity to talk through questions about faith, life and death with the aim of engaging with the local community.
He said “The reality is that most people in Yateley know St Peter’s Church. At Christmas, in particular, we are inundated with people. We have around 700 people at our crib services on Christmas Eve. They know the church is here but we feel rather than constantly bombarding people and asking them to come to us, the idea is we will go to them. So we thought we’ll go to the pub and invite people to join us and see what happens. Our vision statement is about going deeper into our faith with God, going deeper into the word and deeper into all that we believe and then reaching out. We’ve done quite a bit of going deeper and seeking God and now we want to reach out.”
Training evenings, prayer and conversations about the key questions in life and society have been taking place across the church community over the past six months in preparation for the “Year of Reaching Out”.
In the pub garden Revd Tim has been joined by members of the local community and pub regulars and some challenging subjects have been raised.
The main issue that most people wrestle with in life and when it comes to faith is suffering, so that comes up in many conversations. I’m definitely not looking to preach or to offer trite answers but to explore these subjects together. We want people to be able to talk about issues that are very real – faith based issues and issues that we often struggle to address. For example, we don’t do death very well these days. We often sweep it under the carpet, so for me helping people with that is something we as a church should be seeking to do.
Revd Tim Storey
Other activities so far this year have included house group invitation events such as a cream tea, sharing testimonies and a major presence at the town’s May Fayre. A recent Family Fun BBQ for the community was attended by around 300 people, including many non-church members. There was free food, ice-creams, bouncy castle and children’s games. There was also a talk by preacher and comedian Andy Kind. Great conversations were had and relationships built. The sun shone and the BBQ ran out of burgers!
The church is now considering creating an even bigger family fun event next year and making the visit to the pub a regular event.
We recognise that in the world today people are often very wary of faith. They may have had a difficult experience of it or have the wrong impression. So getting people talking is key. I think people do have an interest in the simple questions like “who am I?” and “what is this life about?” and I would like to see them feeling freer to talk about it. The aim is that hopefully we can encourage people to think about their faith, think about the questions of life and ultimately, we’d love to see them join an Alpha course. Our vision is to be rooted in word and spirit, to seek God in prayer and worship and to reach out in the presence and love of Jesus, so these events are not an add-on but at the heart of fulfilling Jesus’ command to take the Gospel out into the community.
Revd Tim Storey
