Solomon's Porch photos

The sofa church idea

We recently attended a Fresh Expressions day where we thought about fresh ways of being church. We came away really excited about how we might do something ‘fresh’ within our Circuit in Crewe. The Methodist Church has for two of it’s five current priorities:
- Encouraging fresh ways of being Church

- Nurturing a culture in the Church which is people-centred and flexible

It seems that within the Circuit, there are quite a lot of people in their 20s/30s/40s (or at least, in that younger mindset!) It also seems to be that same age group that is generally missing from our church services on Sundays. So we started wondering if we couldn’t organise some different way of ‘doing’ church that might appeal more to that age group.

In the same way that runway gets all the Circuit’s youth together each week, we thought it’d be great to get our ‘middle’ age group together too. It would be really good to get to know each other better, pray about problems, discuss current issues (and experiment with worship in a place where we know no one will have a moan about it!)

We’ve recently come across a really cool church in the States called Solomon’s Porch, which calls itself a ‘sofa church’. It looks like it’s all battered leather sofas, hot chocolate, laid back worship and muffins. Looking at their website got us thinking: wouldn’t that be a great way to do church? Wouldn’t more people of our generation want to come to a church that feels as comfortable and cosy as their lounge?

We’re wondering whether something similar might work as a fresh expression within the Crewe Circuit. Curling up on a couch to think about God stuff with your friends sounds really appealing to us. So we thought, why not start a new group called ‘sofa church’ where you could do just that?

We’re not thinking that sofa church meetings would replace our attending Sunday services. It’s great to go to church within the community you live and it’s good to mix with people of all ages. We were thinking more along the lines of a weekly mid-week get together.

At first, we were imagining that sofa church could take place in our lounge. But those of you who’ve been to our house know that if more than four people turned up we’d be overflowing into the kitchen! So we had the idea of doing up the back room at St Johns where runway meet each Sunday night. It’s a nice size, the kitchen’s right next door for making coffee and the room could really use a make-over. We know the runway kids would adore having a trendy room for their meetings too.

In terms of decor, we’re thinking along the Costa Coffee lines: second hand sofas, cuddly cushions, wooden flooring with rugs, soft lighting and real coffee. If you can imagine neutral walls, with maybe one feature wall picked out in a rich red, some rope lights spelling out ‘cosy’, canvas artworks on the walls... it could become a really nice space. We think it should be possible for about £1000.

We thought we could take it in turns to lead the meetings and bake goodies to munch on. Perhaps the leader for the night could talk for a few minutes, show a film clip or read something from a book they’ve found interesting, then a discussion could follow. We could worship together, pray... all the usual church stuff, only a bit more relaxed.

So we’re after your feedback. We figure there’s no point storming ahead with the idea if people don’t really fancy it or are too time-poor to even consider another group. So if you could take moment to scribble down some thoughts or email us, or write some comments on the blog here, we’d really appreciate it.

Susie and Andy Fishburne