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mission shaped church

services is fairly contemplative, and some sort of meditation is

usually included. Other features are ritual, discussion, and

liturgy that engages people rather than being passively

consumed.

Grace is small, experimental and to a degree fragile.

Relationships are essential to making it work, and to this end

people are encouraged to stay around and chat after services.

The team leading Grace is essentially a small group of friends,

loose at the edges, without any specific roles or hierarchy

except what flows from a person being good at some aspect

of something. There is no direct involvement by ordained

clergy except by invitation.

Grace does not `target' visitors but invites them to participate

in the worship at whatever level they feel comfortable,

recognizing that all are on a journey of faith. The aim is to

provide an `open door' into the presence of God for those who

are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with conventional church

culture. By being less prescriptive about what people get out

of the service, and by allowing the mysterious, ambiguous and

allusive, space is made for participants and God to relate on

an individual and personal basis. There is room for people

who have doubts or questions.

who and what is alternative worship for?

Some stereotypes need major adjustment:

  It is not mainly for youth, despite a universal preference for evenings 

for worship. Young adults upwards are the typical group.

  It is also quite clearly not an evangelistic attempt at being culturally 

cool. This is not some form of Seeker Service for the artistic.

  Alternative worship is not an attempt to re socialize people back into

`real' church. These groups have a remarkably strong sense of

community and their own identity. What occurs for those involved is

church, understood as their place of Christian belonging, believing 

and behaving.

  Alternative worship groups do not necessarily meet every week and 

some churches have used occasional alternative worship services 

as a gentle way of branching out from a more traditional worship 

style.

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