Every Sunday when I get home from church I resist the temptation to blog how great it's been.  I don't want to become a boastful minister but my church is just a fab place to be on a Sunday.

Today we had the temporary, industrial grade, gas heater blasting hot air in to the Gathering Place and there as barely a murmur as people relocated themselves to available seating.  Granted, given the snow the frailest and oldest had wisely stayed home, the outliers were all snowed in so couldn't get in anyway, but we still had around fifty adults and a good number of small children.  We offered tea and coffee both ends of the service, so those who'd got cold coming in could warm up, and we had fleecy blankets for chilly knees.  So there was no clever sound recording, so we were a little less slick than usual, but so what?  It was good to be together.

It was my Sunday to go with Sunday School rather than preach, so I had fun with the children who were begining to think about how to tell the story to the adults in a few weeks time.

The student lunch was just brilliant - we had a good dozen or so students, even though some were away, including a two or three who'd been invited along by friends, and a similar number of church folk.  We enjoyed several varieties of homemade soup, bread, cheese, hummus, marmite (yeay!) and home baking.  I loved watching the students, some of whom only ever meet at church, just chatting and taking group photos.  And at the end they all mucked in to help clear up, thanked us for lunch and headed off laughing in to the snow.

You don't have to be a trendy church to be a place students will come to, you have to be a hospitable church.  Our students know we love them just as they are - searchers, questioners, doubters, fundies, mixed and muddled - and we are just delighted to have them among us.  Truly a souper Sunday morning.