St Wilfrid’s Calverley have piloted an unusual weekend for their parish, which they've described as a cross between a week of mission and Back to Church Sunday.
Vicar, the Revd Phil Arnold says, "We wanted to put on some events at the start of the school year but weren’t quite up for a whole week of mission, so we decided to try a weekend of fun activities to re-connect with the community".
The events included a sports quiz, a coffee shop, a Dads' and kids' football match, and a ceilidh. Then on Sunday afternoon, after regular worship services and baptisms, they held a pet service and a family film.
Phil adds, "The weekend was a great success. Most who came were not regular church attenders, which is exactly what we’d hoped for.
"We also launched JSP Lite, which is a recap of the Jesus Shaped People process.
"It seems to me that this approach is very transferable to other parishes. It was relatively easy to organise and cheap to run, with events on a pay-as you-feel basis.
"Most importantly, it was a lot of fun and helped us to combine our call to connect with our community, with our call to worship God and share our faith. I’d recommend trying it!"