My first day

So.... this Sunday was my first one at Hope Church Durban - the core of my purpose in coming here.

It's always interesting seeing how reality differs from expectation, and this Sunday was certainly different from what I expected, though not bad.

This weekend was an unusual one to start with as the majority of the leadership are at our conference in Johannesburg. Also it's a holiday weekend here (Monday is a public holiday) so lots of people are away in general. That's meant a lot of reshuffling to make the travelling act that is a church plant happen this week, meaning I hit the ground running on the setup team and also working with the 9-12s group immediately after being introduced to the church.

As I said, this church plant is like most in that it has no fixed premises of its own, meaning that everything has to be set up each week and everything has to be taken back down. It takes a remarkable commitment of teams across the church to make this all happen. All our gear is stored in a trailer in a garage and that has to be hitched up to a suitable vehicle and brought over to Glenwood Prep School where we meet. It's a funny thing to see a church meeting collapsed into a regular trailer and bundled into a garage. If anyone ever wanted an example that the glory of the church is not in its outward appearance then this is it! All the stuff is then unpacked and set up by a variety of people. Those on the setup team start at 6:45am for a 9:00am meeting (if the meeting were any later it would just get too hot when it comes to summer time) and do everything from fetching big stacks of chairs from the other side of the school site to posting direction signs around the neighbourhood so people know that this building is where we are, because there's no other clues! And whatever goes up must come down, so at 11:00am or so the same people (although graciously helped by others) are loading up the trailer and moving more chairs and so on, now in a lot more heat! It's a tiring service, and it's remarkable to see literally a few dozen people all scurrying about like this in one way or another to set up from scratch each week.

One of the benefits is that the church is completely mobile this way. There's no reliance on a fixed premises, or even a fixed way of doing things. So when a team from Leeds came out last month they were able to set up a very similar thing on the university campus. People get used to expecting that they'll all have to pitch in and set up loads of stuff if they want to do anything, so it just gets done. I guess that's it - there's a "get it done" attitude rather than one of convenience. It also builds lots of teamwork, character, and relationships, and develops talent in a lot of people as they learn to set up PA, or run the hospitality, etc. When churches like this grow bigger and get a building of their own they often have the great opportunity to continue with the norm of high participation and so can continue to accomplish great things as lots of people just carry on serving even though there's less to do. As much setup is a trial of church planting, it seems very good at helping the church to develop healthily with everyone being involved, people working together, leaders mucking in at ground level, and developing a common sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Thursday morning Megan Land (pastor's wife) comes into the office to do some photocopying for the Kids' Church and basically says, "Because people are going to Jo'burg we're really short on people. Do you reckon you could take a group of kids?" I was under the impression that I'd have a bit more support than I did, but agreed to do what needed to be done as best as I knew how. She then mentioned that the group would be primarily composed of a group of half a dozen boys from the local township who've been coming along recently. Apparently I'm just what they need - a young (though they started the guessing for my age in the 40s!), authoritative male role model, so I was told I'd be fine. And on the whole it was. I think I expected them to be a lot more crazy than they were. It was weird.... a lot of the time they were very deadpan and didn't really respond individually, but only on group consenus. They were obviously not used to schooling nor to much organisation as they would wander off at times with seemingly no particular intention. It was very hard to gauge quite what these guys understood of the gospel, even of the idea of God, and also what their lives are like, so that made communicating quite difficult. However we did seem to build some repoire and have some fun. It was cool trying to learn how to pronounce some of the names, especially Xola, where the X is pronounced as a sort of kiss of the roof of your mouth. The best bridge builder turned out to be their ride home. They all piled into the back of Vernon (one of the church members) van and were driven to the Land's house, from which they can walk. I was dropping someone else to the same place and followed Vernon. The kids loved flying around in the back of the van and always wanted to go fast over speed bumps, etc. They were waving from the back, egging me on, getting me to catch up, and we had a fun little rivalry going on for a while. When they left they were all smiling and waved goodbye - it was the most responsive they'd been all day. I look forward to getting to know them some more. Moral of the story - the way to forge a good relationship with a 10 year old is to expose them to mortal danger by automobile!

So first Sunday down... I'm sure next week will be very different. But it looks like we've got a very good, diverse, God-glorifying church in the heart of Durban here, and long may it continue to grow!