Many people grow up with the impression (or the reality!) that church is boring, irrelevant and alienating.
Boring in that there is nothing to engage them. Irrelevant in that what happens during the service has little or no impact on the other six days of the week. Alienating in that if you’re not part of the “in-crowd” then you quickly feel like you’re not doing or saying the right thing; you’re not sure when to sit or stand, when you pray or sing, when to come or go.
Right from the beginning we in Christ City Church have done everything we can to avoid these pitfalls (you can be the judge as to our success or failure). So instead of church being boring, we hope you find it engaging and compelling. Instead of it being irrelevant, we hope that every part of the service connects to ‘normal life’ and the questions, hurts, doubts, joys and experiences you have had in the last week. And instead of being alienating, we hope you find it welcoming and warm, inviting and relaxed, and a place where everyone is treated as equals. One of the expressions that we often say at the start of our service is:
“we don’t take ourselves too seriously but we do take God seriously”
I hope we strike that balance. We do believe God meets with us when we gather together, so there should a sense of the transcendent. But we also believe that this is entirely normal as it’s what we’re made for, so we shouldn’t make it a weird or alienating experience. Here is a short video that hopefully explains what we do and what to expect if you come on a Sunday.
Do check out our Sunday Gathering page for more information and hopefully we’ll see you soon, 4.15pm at Synge Street Secondary School.