The Meeting Place

You’ve seen them. What a bunch of nutters, standing out there in Birdcage Walk in the rain, the snow, and less frequently the blistering Wiltshire heat, to proclaim the Kingdom of God on a Saturday morning. For six years the Healing in the Streets team from the Abbey has been faithful and has seen God’s immense faithfulness, with a steady stream of people coming for prayer between 10am and 12pm, and an encouraging number coming back or writing to thank God for His healing or His blessing. 

What has developed over the years has actually been very biblical. Healing prayer not disconnected from every other dimension of church, but connected in some way. Some have come to faith in Jesus Christ, some have made their way into the waters of baptism, some have chosen to come back week in and week out—Healing in the Streets is their church it seems—and others know the team members as a source of ongoing pastoral care and friendship. And recently the offer of a cup of coffee has been welcomed by market stall holders. Healing in the Streets +.

So in July we’re allowing things to emerge a little more, and Healing in the Streets will become the Meeting Place for a month. Churches across the UK have seen fruit when they've placed a new informal expression of church in ordinary market places. So the Meeting Place for us will be a trial of an Abbey Fresh Expression.

It will be small and beautiful and broadly be healing prayer, pastoral care and prayer, hospitality to Market Stall holders and passers by, and probably around 11am some sort of worship, music or creative arts (weather permitting.) In fact something undramatically similar to what has gone before. But we are asking the Spirit to lead us, to give us open and willing hearts, and to reveal to us how we might join with Him more fully in his mission in Malmesbury.

So a request to pray for the team, to come along and be a part if you wish, as church gets out on the street, and particularly an invitation to come for prayer or to be part of the worship or creative arts at 11am.