Cornucopia of Ideas!

• Run an Easter Egg Hunt in association with a local charity. Perhaps in the grounds of your church, or in a local park. You could charge an entry fee, with profits going to the local charity.

• Get your church to make a big collection of Easter Eggs – lots of different types and sizes. These could be donated to people around who find money tight, or are in hospital.

• Organise with your local school a Stations of the Cross. Different classes could take on a different ‘station’ each, building a different ‘set’ for each of the main events in the story from Palm Sunday to Easter Day.

• Rather than doing the traditional Maundy Thursday foot washing in church, why not do it in the open air?! In the grounds of your church, or if you’re feeling brave in a local shopping parade?!

• Invite a number of your friends round to watch a DVD film of the life of Jesus, with special focus on the Easter story part. Examples: “The Passion of the Christ”, Zeffereli’s film of Christ, or Agape’s Jesus film. Lay it on like a cinema experience, with ice cream and pop corn. Make sure you have a chance to share views about the film afterwards.

• Hold a joint Service of worship with local churches in your area, led by a local music band (especially involving young people). Look for a Service with lots of energy with lively songs of worship and encouraging a real sense of the Holy Spirit.

• Organise a street party in an area near you. Hospitality is a very key theme in the Christian faith (Jesus was always offering and receiving food and drink!). Try to get all the neighbours involved – especially perhaps with a focus upon either young people or older members of your community.

• Take some ‘Direct Action’ to clean up your local area! Get together with some of your friends and organise a few hours to clean up litter, grafitti, get rid of unsightly weeds etc etc. You might be wise to inform the local community police, and they might have equipment you can borrow. Do with your local community / residenhts association perhaps.

• Do a Community Survey, to try to find out what people would like to happen to make their community a better place to live in. There may be a local Christian community group you could work with on this! You might want to float some ideas for reaction; eg a Drop In facility. Beware promising in any way something that you might not be able to deliver!!

• Run a small Christian Festival or ‘Fun Day’ in a local park, open space or by your church. You could have a simple range of fun things especially for the children to do. Use highly visual art forms that will readily communicate with passers by, to get over the hope-filled message of Pentecost. End with a short open air Service??

• There are various Swindon charities that are offering food to people in need: for example the “Filling Station” and “The Food Bank”. Why not galvanise your church to get actively some food to offer these? Even better, volunteer to help them to distribute this food to the homeless or others in need?

• We all know that we must care for our global environment much better, to prevent global warming getting out of control, and protect the lives of those in the developing world. Why not research these issues and put on an exhibition to illustrate both the problems (pictures, statistics etc), but also some possible solutions?

• Organise a Harvest Festival Service somewhere other than in your local church – perhaps in or near a large supermarket! Obviously work closely with them to gain their support. Organise as part of it information on charities seeking to alleviate world poverty such as Wold Vision. They provide excellent Harvest Resource material, as do ‘One World Week’. As part of the Service take a collection boldly to support their work.

• Hope 08 suggest early September is a great time to harvest some of your friendships and contacts so far in 2008, through organising & advertising widely a Course which inspires people to explore Christianity. “Alpha” is the best known course nationally, but there are other more simple ones. Why not prepare by ‘tasting’ some others such as “START” available from C.P.A.S.?

• As a sign of your care for the environment, and to encourage people to enjoy God’s creation, why not create a ‘Quiet Garden’ (see their website) or an Area for Meditation, as an oasis of tranquillity in our stressed urban environment? Possibly utilising ideas from Japanese gardens, but with appropriate Bible texts at different resting points for people to sit?

• Try to pull together a truly community oriented Christmas Carol Concert or Service. Work on this perhaps with a local school (or two), and other community groups who can stir interest at this time of year especially. Bring in local choirs, bands, dance or drama groups in your church or (better?) a local community centre. Invite local community leaders to take part!

• Put on a Christmas Play or Musical, drawing on perhaps unexpected talent in your church or amongst your friends. There are lots of good scripts and musical scores around. Maybe it could be run in the open air at one of Swindon’s ‘village’ or district centres., if you’re feeling brave!

• Organise some carol singing, perhaps around the local streets, in a local covered shopping centre, or around local pubs (get advance permission!!). Rather than collecting for yourselves, give out Christmas tracts such as J.John’s “What’s the point of Christmas”, or give out sweets etc! Also try singing contemporary popular Christmas songs as well as traditional ones!

• Look for some practical ways to offer surprising blessing to people as they shop, and most likely feel stressed! Eg a ‘stall’ to offer hot drinks, mince pies, or a free present wrapping service, play festive music, do face painting etc.

• Work with the local media (who are specially receptive at Christmas), especially the local radio. Perhaps to broadcast an interactive carol service live from a pub or community centre! Churches in Leicestershire found it worked!