We made the last of the "required" church visits with the students on Sunday. This was All Souls Church here in London. All Souls is an evangelical church in the Anglican communion. If you read theology, you may recognize the name of John Stott. Stott was the pastor of All Souls for a long time. The church feels much more familiar to us than the more traditional Anglican churches.
I really love All Souls. It looks like a church should look to me. There are almost literally people from every tribe and tongue blended together. They talk about having 99 different nations represented in their congregation. Looking around it's obvious that everyone is welcome. And they have a vision for reaching the world for Christ--in fact, that was the theme of this past Sunday's service.
All Souls mixes a lot of things together. They seem very interested in reaching out to those who are interested or "seeking" faith, but they don't come across with quite the same level of slick polish that many seeker-sensitive churches do. There's more of an informal, old-home feel to the way people go about the service. They are high tech (monitor screens for the lyrics, etc.), but they also still work in liturgy, the Lord's Prayer and some responsive reading. They are welcoming to all, committed to social justice and bold about the mission of evangelism all at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment