Have you ever heard of The Hundred? It’s a cricket format and as a family we love it. Over the last few seasons we’ve travelled the country watching games live. For some people they couldn’t care less about it, some people have embraced it and for some people they instantly recoil as it is not proper cricket and should be banned. I have seen friends online mock it and call it an abomination.
The thing is that my boys, who first fell in love with the fireworks and fast action of the hundred, now both enjoy test cricket (yes the boring 5 day version), one plays for their local team, one skirts with playing for their local team, both love being in our small garden and bowling or batting as I offer my coaching assessment from my two seasons playing primary school cricket. You see, the hundred, although not ‘proper cricket’ has been a gateway to the cricket world for my boys.
Over the summer at church we left our building and went down to a local area of grass, on the river bank and held short 30 minute services there where we sung, told bible stories and discussed in groups and prayed in groups, even had a dedication for a child. One person whom I know, and not local, scoffed when I shared what we are doing ‘but that’s not church, you can’t do it in 30 minutes’. There are even those in our own congregation who have stayed away and I know, even though I was on sabbatical beforehand, there was real reservation about it. It seems like it was ‘The Hundred’ all over again, not proper church.
I write this 4 weeks into our 5 week stint of ‘not doing proper church’ and the number of new people that have joined us is easily in double figures. People seeing the social media posts, driving over the bridge where we were and seeing us and joining us the next week, people who have not been to church for years seeing us and wanting to test the water.
Who knows if they will stay with us and move onto the test match version of church (I suspect most will).
So people may scoff at the perceived lite version and yes we may not want it all the time, but if it’s an entry point for people to explore and join in then surely that must be the most important thing…. Oh and the same applies for church as well.