Rest and encouragement at a Small Church Hub 

'We discovered the amazing variety of opportunities offered by our churches for people to explore faith,' writes Hilary Taylor of the latest Hemel Small Church Hub

The fourth gathering of the Hemel Small Church Hub was held on Sunday 11 May, welcoming 25 people from six churches. After tea, cake and conversation, we worshipped followed by a time of bringing words or pictures from the Lord, which included a picture of a large tree with the sun shining brightly and the tree casting a long shadow.

Many people gathered in the shadow – a place of peace and respite, out of the relentless hot sun. This reflected the hub, being a place to come for rest and encouragement, a break from our busy lives.



We moved into four groups to tackle questions about how each church reaches out into their local community.

We discovered the amazing variety of opportunities offered by our churches for people to explore faith, to be valued and belong:

• To use our digital resources to connect with the community, as well as holding events such as boogie woogie carols at the local pub! 
• Prayer walking has brought good conversations with neighbours and many churches have seen people walking in on a Sunday. God is good!
• We also spoke of sharing our faith and one church has a five minute ‘share your faith story’ every Sunday to build confidence and to celebrate how God moves in our lives.
• Another church watches The Chosen together, leading to faith building discussion.   

We prayed for each of the 11 churches in the hub, seven of which are led by faithful lay people.
The churches offered to share expertise in various areas such as children’s work and updating websites/social media. Help was requested with worship resources and running events in the community.

As someone said “Very enjoyable, informative & encouraging”
 

If you would like to know more about small church hubs, contact Hilary Taylor