So … our first day of being new Pioneer Pastors of Narborough Congregational Church. Sarah-Jayne and I decided to take a walk around the village to try and make introductions and get to know some new people. Armed with a hand full of leaflets and a ‘can do attitude’ Sarah-Jayne and I set off to hit the streets.
First observations – when you walk into shops, the pharmacy, estate agents, a driving school, cafes and council offices, and are asked “how can we help you”, the answer “we’ve just popped in to say hello”, is met with very mixed responses!
What this all led to was plenty of very positive and friendly conversations with a village full of absolutely lovely people. Introductions were made and invitations handed out and everyone was full of smiles and words of advice and welcome.
We met Tom at the coffee shop, the girls on the cake shop and the couple in the cafe (there are no shortage of places to get coffee and cake in Narborough). We visited shops, offices and business and even chatted to people walking down the road, whilst starting to get our bearings and putting up posters on the community noticeboards.
We finished this first day, having spent much longer than expected walking around, sharing more stories and interactions than we’d hoped for. Having put in our ‘steps’ for the day, drank a little too much coffee, enjoyed samples of beautiful cakes and started to get to know the village and its residents.
We know we have lots of work to do – many of the people we met were not aware where the church building is, let along that it is still open. We also know that we are called to this village, surrounding area and community, and feel very blessed and excited about the opportunities ahead.
We’ve planned our first events (details on the events page), we’ve planned our first services (details on the calendar page) and we’ve started to tidy up the church building ready to welcome new friends. We have so many ideas and even more energy and are ready to ‘get cracking’ on building church and community together.
So “Hello Narborough”, thank you for the very warm welcome, and for all the coffee and cakes. Lets ‘do this’ and make a real difference together.
God bless
Chris