The comings and goings of a community during the summer can make it hard to know how and when to reach out, but The Church of the Martyrs in Leicester have found a great way to casually, and rather comfortably, connect with its neighbours through ‘Sofa Chat’.
If you’ve walked down Westcotes Drive on a Saturday morning of late, you might have been greeted by Revd Phillippa, Revd Bertin or a member of Martyrs, hanging out on a sofa, sipping tea.
Having discussed ways in which they could reach out to and interact with the intercultural community around Narborough Road, they thought one of the best ways to do this was simply to be out there in the community, building relationship with people, making their faces known and demonstrating some Martyrs hospitality.
“We knew that having a sofa on the street would pique people’s curiosity and hoped that conversations would start naturally as people asked what we were doing – which they have,” explains Revd Phillippa.
The Martyrs usually provide a summer outreach programme - last year they did random acts of kindness, litter picking, prayer walking and a few other things - but this is the first time they’re tried ‘Sofa Chat.’
“We've had some great conversations with people over the last few weeks and hope that as people walking by become more familiar with us, opportunities to chat will grow,” says Revd Phillippa. “Some people just want to chat about what's going on with the weather, work, summer holidays, football etc, but we’ve also had some big pastoral conversations with people and conversations about faith that couldn’t have occurred if we weren't there on the street.”
It's important for the church family to connect with the community in this way, and Revd Phillippa says it’s been great to see people, including a number of their young adults, come along and join in.
“Every Sunday we are dismissed with the message that we should go out into the world to love and serve the Lord. Starting this work right outside church feels like a response to that command which enables us to respond to what God is doing there and then,” she says.
“We started this thinking about how we could be a blessing to our neighbours but have been amazed at how blessed we have been by people’s kindness to us as they walk by.”
The Martyrs would absolutely recommend trying this, or something similar, if you’re looking for new ways to engage with your community. Revd Phillippa says: “This has been really simple to set up, and we have loved being part of our community, meeting new people and having an opportunity to offer prayer to the people we meet.”