Charles Brammall explains why setting up a mission to entertainers, called ENTER, also meant setting up a church in the local school.
Our most important strategy to drive and support the mission was to plant ENTER and its church in Artarmon, a suburb close enough to entertainment workplaces and campuses to make the location viable. So we rented a little house and set up church in the commodious Artarmon Public School hall, an ideal venue. The LORD brought many NON-entertainment people along as well- families (especially school families), but also singles, couples, children, and elderly people. This included many people from out of area as well, and church was quickly morphing into more than just an entertainment church. So we restructured and chose the name “Artarmon Community Church” (ACC).
We wanted to encourage ownership of the church by local people, and also knew that entertainment people would be fine without having “entertainment” in the title. The important thing was that church embraced and welcomed entertainers, but also all people, and was relaxed, relational, and interactive. I encouraged people to put their hands up during the sermon and ask questions (but not make comments!), and they often took advantage of this. And we had a question time at the end of the sermon every week. These were remarkably helpful, a crucial part of people wrestling deeply with God’s Word, and they had a disproportionately positive effect.
Quite intentionally, we had three morning teas each week, as we thought food should be a central part of every Christian gathering (see the multiple references to eating together in God’s Word). All believers have the privilege of enjoying God’s good comestible provision for us together, whenever we gather. But in my experience this is even more important when believing entertainers gather around God’s Word. Partly because they’re so under-employed and therefore malnourished!
It also expresses our gratitude to God for His food (see Bob Dobson’s Acts 242 Study: “Why Do We ‘Bless Our Food’?”, Jan 31 2012). And it fosters getting to know each other and the fellowship of service. John Woodhouse has even mounted a good argument from 1 Cor II that every time we eat together we remember Jesus’ death. And in that sense all our eating together is the Lord’s Supper (“The Body of the Lord” in The Briefing, 4 Nov 1993). http://thebriefing.com.au/1993/11/the-body-of-the-lord/
So as people arrived at church, we encouraged them to help themselves to a hot drink and snack and take it to their seats and chat. We had the kids in church at the beginning each Sunday, and started with a kids’ drama, song, video or item before they went out to Kidzchurch (in lovely big classrooms). As they left we had another cuppa and snack and chatted for five to seven minutes, so things weren’t rushed.
This was quite deliberate, and people spoke highly of it as a more relaxed time to say hi to any new people or people they didn’t know. At the end of the service we moved straight into our main (and most comprehensive) morning tea, and this was a highlight. The coffee was good coffee, and the food was usually home-baked (a great service from such a small congregation). This also provided an opportunity for the “bakers” to serve us, and for us to encourage and express our gratitude to them.
We deliberately had this main morning tea in the same room as the service– to make it easier for people to stay. Also, to remove the potential obstacle of people having to walk to a different room or “church hall” for morning tea. It made it easy for people to transition seamlessly from the service into morning tea, and meant that less people rushed off without us getting to know them and looking after them. We didn’t pressure people to stay, but this little bit of encouragement was helpful.
The Scriptures were central in our services. Words are important. God is a speaking God, who we need to listen to. (Our main church tagline was “Listening to the Speaking God”.) So I encouraged the staff and leaders that the VOCAB we used was important too. We were quite deliberate in the vocab our service leaders used to describe morning tea/
- They would say “Church will continue now over morning tea.” rather than something like “Well that’s the end of the formal part of church. Let’s have morning tea now”. We were committed to signalling that morning tea was an integral part of church and just as important for fellowship as the earlier, more “structured” parts. (Although, we never wanted church to have “structured”, “formal” and “informal” parts anyway. We wanted the whole thing to be relational, relaxed and interactive.)
I wrote a kids’ drama each, based on (and to support) the sermon passage. Our kids and adults were the cast and crew. They were fun, often slapstick, larger than life, and with many colourful props and costumes. They were a highlight and one of the things that kept families coming back, and I loved writing them. I got it down to quite a formula, viz Sandy Galea’s “Kidswise” material (https://kidswise.com.au/). It was sometimes tricky to cast them from such a small congregation that was already working so hard. But people were generous with their time and talents and enjoyed taking part. And none of them had any lines to learn.
(I am still available to do this for churches/ministries/events that would like a drama to accompany the sermon or address. Or to train people in writing, directing and acting in them. Please get in touch on 0418650922, or [email protected])
Another intentional decision was to mix up the order of events in the service each week. Sometimes, we’d launch straight into the Bible reading and sermon right at the beginning of the service, after the welcome. Other times, we’d leave the sermon right till the very end. Sometimes prayer was after the sermon and based on the sermon’s content, and sometimes it was before the sermon, introducing the big idea of the passage. Sometimes, prayer was right at the beginning of church. And sometimes, it would only contain confession (including saying a plain English prayer of confession together).
We would sometimes start with a song and other times an interview or book review. Sometimes a two-minute talk by one of our young guys I was meeting with and training, on a topic, doctrine or verse. Sometimes a musical item, puppet show, short film, or a drama. We were committed to “taking the mystery out of Christianity”, a mantra of Ray Galea’s, which I love, and has been seminal for me.
To that end, I also re-expressed the Anglican Prayer Book II wedding service into plain English, maintaining its sound theology entirely but just clarifying it. Many couples and guests have said to me after their weddings: “That’s the first time I’ve ever really understood what Christian marriage is, from the Bible! It was so clear! Is that a new introduction to the service or something?”
I also do this with funeral services, with the same result. I’m utterly convinced that time is too short to muck around and express the Gospel in gobbledegook- Messiah is returning.
I hold these convictions because
of sitting under the ministry of several people who’ve had an indescribably deep effect on my theology (and particularly Biblical Theology). Also, my ministry practice and personal Godliness. Particularly Ray Galea, John Woodhouse, Peter Bolt, Simon Manchester, and Lois Hagger. Also, Debbie Mullins, Brian Telfer, and Phillip Jensen. To them and to the LORD of Hosts, I am literally eternally indebted.
Sometimes, our prayer time in church would consist solely of thanksgiving for our Godliness, or issues in Sydney or our Bible colleges, non-Christian friends and family, or other niche ministries. One person would lead from the front, or two or three. We made sure people said “I’m going to lead us in prayer”, or “please pray with me”, rather than “I’m going to pray for us now.” This was also a deliberate decision, as we didn’t want to suggest that someone could pray ON MY BEHALF. We wanted to signal that we were praying with the leader, not just listening to him/her praying on our behalf (for which there’s no Biblical model anyway). Sometimes, no one would lead, but we would break into pairs for prayer, or small groups, genders, or families, or even ages.
Sometimes at ACC we would finish with a benediction, or say a corporate prayer of confession together, or a creed together (including the Athanasian, which is VERY long!). The aim of this variety was so that people would arrive each week not knowing what would happen and when, to keep things fresh, engaging, and motivating. I realise this is controversial, and some people believe the order of items in the service should always be the same so people know what to expect and feel secure and not discombobulated. But we found the opposite to be true. This strategy was quite deliberate, as I was disillusioned with some other services I had been to, which always had exactly the same format and order of items. It seemed to me unthinking or a tad lazy.
With church at Artarmon Public School hall, we began growing with local people, including families from our Holiday Kids’ Klus, SPLAT” (Sport, Life, Art, Theatre), which we held each year. We grew for several years, which was thrilling. But then the Principal decided, for some strange reason, that my personal footprint in the school was “too big”. I don’t know why this was the case- maybe because of SPLAT’s popularity? Or because I was a parent and Protestant Scripture Coordinator (as a local minister). Whatever the case, she eventually asked us to leave, which was heartbreaking and highly frustrating. We had to pull up stumps and search for a new venue, which proved difficult. The hall had been perfect, and Artarmon is notoriously venue-poor.