We set up Big Issues housegroup to meet the needs of a group of people who had been at Holy Rood for a while and who wanted to explore and develop their faith in a more informal setting.
Why "Big Issues" ? Because each time we met we kept on talking about the big issues in the world today, or in the church and so we felt that it might be quite appropriate for us to try to keep our focus on the bigger picture. We’re hoping to find a solution for world peace any day now…
What unites us? Well apart from the fact that we’re all Christians, we are all in our 30s/40s, married, with kids ranging from babies to teenagers. The last three factors were not a prerequisite for the group, it’s just the way that things have happened so far. We share a pretty quirky sense of humour, a wide variety of past church background (almost none of it Anglican!) and a slightly chaotic/relaxed approach to meetings.
So what do we do? We meet on a Thursday night from 8 till about 10.30ish usually in Fareham but occasionally elsewhere. Our meetings always include time for prayer, sometimes we do a structured study, at others we just chat and share what is going on in our lives, sometimes we sing, sometimes someone will bring along a passage from the bible that has spoken to them or an article that has made them think.
We do want to be open to what God is saying to us and so we don’t plan too heavily what is going to happen each week. So for example in the last few weeks we have looked at media bias in the news (planned); the next week we discussed what God’s/ the church’s idea of ‘anointing with oil’ is, as one of the group was preaching on it (unplanned), the following week we talked about the role for non Christians in the church (unplanned) and this week we’ll be playing ‘Therapy’ to get to know each other a bit better.
Well that’s the plan anyway, but we’ll just see what happens. Our aims for the group? We want to provide an environment where people can be themselves, be accepted for who they are, listen to others’ ideas, develop in faith through sharing different opinions and experiences. We want to be outward focussed, supportive of mission, honest with each other, open to God.
If this appeals to you, then please do get in touch with Phil and Gill Berry via the church office on 01329 661154 or email holyroodchurch@googlemail.com