the worship experiment: uk, week 8

St. John's, Houghton
22 November, 11:00am

Warm. That’s how I’d describe the people at St. John’s Anglican Church in Houghton. As I walked in the door, I was greeted by a member of the congregation who noticed I was a visitor. Not only did she strike up a congregation, but she sat beside me. She even invited me to her small group in the middle of the week!

This church is in the same parish as St. Peter’s, so the Vicar recognized me and came to talk to me after the service. I told him that I had visited HTB and he mentioned that he believes the UK churches with growing, flourishing congregations are the ones with a staff ratio of 1-50. He said that their churches don’t have enough staff to really reach out into the community and do all they would like. He asked me how many staff were at the church I came from, and observed the similar staff ratio there, although The Chapel’s at a lower staff-layperson ratio than his theory. But I’ve observed that the English churches generally have more staff than American churches.

The service was similar to the evening one I experienced at St. Peter’s; there was no band this morning, just a piano. I was told that they have a band 2-3 times per month, and St. Peter’s has one each week at their 9:30 service. We sang four songs out of the Mission Praise book, scattered throughout the morning (lyrics were also on the screen). There was an older man leading the service, who didn’t know all of the songs, so the congregation tried to rely on the piano for the one they didn’t know, but it didn’t work too well. He also introduced each song by talking about the lyrics (a lot).

After the first song, was a congregational reading and prayer out of a liturgy book, then there was a time of focused prayer. Then one of the pastors (who preached as well), brought up a couple of little girls and they taught a kids’ song to the congregation—actions and all. The congregation really got into it. After this was the scripture reading and sermon, from I John 3:1-10. After the sermon, we sang one more song and had a benediction. As people were leaving, a table was brought in with drinks and biscuits. I think every church I’ve been to has had refreshments after the service!

I walked through the side of the church to leave and found a large section of the church I didn’t know was there. There was a hallway, some classrooms and a large multipurpose room. There was a large display on the wall with information about the two churches, staff, and Christ. It was very well done. I just more people were there who are inquiring about God. The church has about 90 people, most of whom are older, and St. Peter’s has about 130 and is a younger congregation. But each congregation has more members then most churches in the UK.