Fresh TOAST is appealing to all

TOAST is the successful Fresh Expressions of church that is offering Saturday morning family worship as part of a tour of schools in the Halstead Area Team of Churches.

Starting with coffee and doughnuts,TOAST raises the tempo with modern children's worship songs, a Bible story, a talk, prayers and often a craft, and it all happens in 45 minutes.

Explaining where the idea came from, Revd Geoff Bayliss says: "Locally, Sunday morning worship has an established pattern and feeds the needs of many of our parishioners.

"Whilst reviewing our work as a team, we became increasingly aware that we could not, on a Sunday morning, both broaden the varieties of worship opportunities we offer and maintain the forms that we traditionally use.

"As Christians, we wanted the Christian faith to be seen as an integrated part of our towns and villages and not to be confined to our historic church buildings.

"We wanted to reach parts of the community where the churches were perhaps seen as having a lower profile.

We recognised a particular need for this in the southern part of Halstead."

The Halstead team then spent many months of prayerful consideration to settle on what would be the right thing to do.

Building on the existing links with local primary schools and using the skills and talents that already existed in the area TOAST developed.

Geoff adds: "Saturday morning family worship was a one-off event first, a trialthat has since continued.

"Yes, it takes more energy to run than a service following a set liturgy. Yes it is still
in the early stages of development. Yes finding and building a team of leaders is a
challenge. But Yes, it is enabling us to touch a broader part of the community.

"Yes, it is allowing the gifts of people within our congregations to grow. Yes, it is fun. Yes, it is enabling some of the well established members of the congregation to expand their understanding of worship
without feeling that they have lost out.
"What is the future? In a very true sense only God knows. We have a plan for the
coming months.

"Currently, we have used three of the schools in the area. Hopefully that will
grow. Currently, we meet four or five times a year. Developing a broader leadership
team may enable the frequency to increase.

"TOAST does not stand alone but is part of a group of activities that have
broadened our experience of worship. TECS (our team evening Communion service) is an experimental and informal communion service that once a month tours the Team, on a Sunday evening. It was originally developed with the members of our Youth Group in mind but these days
draws a congregation from across the age range.

"Songs and Stories (built on the principles of an Edward Bear Club: for children, carers and siblings) visits one school regularly as an after school club and one of the village churches once a
month on a Saturday morning."

And an annual Holiday club is held for the Team in Halstead. For more details about any of these
events, contact Geoff at g.bayliss41@btinternet.com

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