A myriad of new 'alternative' worship and outreach events have sprung up all over Britain. In our new series Karl Allison and Francis Blight will be journeying the length of Britain to report on the good, and not so good, initiatives aiming at wrenching Christianity into the 90s.

There's a band playing "Lord, I Lift Your Name On High" over the bassline from "Summer Nights". They're called Belief System and it's their 'first real gig'. There are about 40 young people milling around the side chapel, listening to the music and buying cocktails from the bar. Welcome to the 8.30 Experience.

As the band kick into a U2 cover, the kids buy drinks called The Tax Collector', The Torn Curtain' and, curiously, 'Steve Taylor's Wotsit'. The whole thing has a truly laid back feel. And it's all non-alcoholic, of course.

The event has been running for about 18 months now and is the responsibility of the church's curate, Kevin Walton. Apparently, there's no real pattern to what goes on. The bar is a permanent fixture, but everything else changes. As well as live bands, they've tried dance events, quiet candle-lit small groups, alternative communion and much else besides.

"We've experimented," explains Kevin. "We've used different parts of the church. We've cleared the pews out and hung cloths around the pillars and used lights and slides. We find that it's quite atmospheric in an old building like this."

It seems that those first 18 months have been spent in preparation for what's yet to come. Kevin continues: "When we first started, our vision was to look at forms of worship that enabled people to worship God. More and more there's been a tendency to focus on live music, chorusy type events and most people here have got some church contact and have been able to relate to that. We're ready for a new injection. We're ready, I think, to look at more experimental ways and to think more about reaching out and publicising it to non-Christians. It's hard work and there's always the question of 'are we doing the right thing or are we just following the trend?' But we're seeing people taking leads who wouldn't take leads in the church otherwise, so we've just got to keep at it."
Karl Allison

HUSH
Kings Church Centre, 673 Galvin Road, Slough
Every two or three months
Next one: 21 October, 8.00pm

Kings Church has recently converted an area of office space into a 1,000-seater church centre. On the night this was set up with drapes and lighting to make an excellent venue. This was the third Hush but the first that I had managed to get to. With bouncy boxing, a live band, Dee Jay and escapologist Steve Legg, there was never a dull moment.

When I arrived the band Big Spoon Mama were just taking the stage. All its members including lead singer Paul Matts are part of the church. They combined original material, which was at times reminiscent of the Pogues with a couple of Blues Brothers covers. Their performance was impressive and my only quibble is that the vocals were too low in the mix.

Big Spoon Mama were followed by Mark Cooper on the dubs, who must rate as one of the best house Dee Jays that I have heard in ages. Mark was well known on the club scene before Jesus turned his life around and Kings is very blessed to have someone as talented as him in the church.

The spiritual input came mostly from the talented Steve Legg who after performing a straightjacket escape preached a clear gospel message to an attentive audience.

Ivor Peters, one of the event's organisers, sees Hush's main aim as building a bridge between non-Christians and the church. The boldness of the Christians at the event was very encouraging; with cheers from the crowd every time truth was proclaimed from the stage.

The evening as a whole was slickly organised and the two to three months between events show how much preparation goes into ensuring a hitchfree event.

The event has now been reorganised and has ambitiously set itself a monthly schedule. The number of young people at Kings is testimony to their commitment and prayer. Please pray that Hush and Roots will bring many more in.
Francis Blight

As publsihed in CR24:
NOS
Pondsforge International Sports Centre, Sheffield
Weekly, Sundays, 8:00pm

Less of a review, more of an update on the biggest and sometimes apparently baddest alternative service of them all. Since CR last visited NOS a couple of years ago, they've not only collected controversy like Imelda Marcos collected shoes, they've also moved to a new venue and a new time. (How can the Nine O'clock Service start at eight?)

As you enter the Rotunda it is immediately apparent that NOS are able to operate on a scale way beyond the means of most alternative groups. The walls are covered in projected shots of the cosmos and video screens hang neatly between the pillars. These screens display a remarkable mix of live footage, pre-recorded effects and the words to the songs. In the middle of this circular scene are the worship leaders, free to dance whilst singing into their headset microphones. Around the outside there's a happily diverse age range of worshippers. Apparently it takes a team of 100 people to put all this together. Whatever we may think of their theology, there is no doubt that NOS remain the standard by which all other multimedia projects should be judged.

As the beat dies away, we are invited to sit and listen to the teaching from God's Word. There follows a lengthy, fascinating (and to my ears thoroughly sound) exposition of Jesus' healing of the Gadarene demoniac, once again enhanced by the slick projection of Scriptural passages at the very moment they are mentioned.

The service concludes with more worship and then everyone is invited to stay and chat in the cafeteria area. There were many things that impressed me about NOS, not least of which was the very warm welcome that we received from people clearly commissioned to the task. Then there's the Information Desk where you can pick up flyers and get straight onto the computer mailing list. There's the Resources Table, featuring books by theologians as diverse as Hans Kung, John Drane and Jurgen Moltmann.

Despite all this, I came away with some concerns. NOS has a theological identity every bit as strong as the way it chooses to express those beliefs. And whilst it may be difficult to attack themes of global redemption and seeing the community (or Kingdom) of God in the broadest possible terms, I'm left wondering how much of it is ultimately concerned with self-discovery rather than approaching God. The worship songs contained lines like "We have found our dignity" which may be a blessing from God himself, but seemed a bit too close to mere mutual encouragement within the group to me.

But the last thing I want to do is label NOS as heretics. Indeed, I fear that part of the problem may be an isolation from much of the body of Christ and I wonder if the resolving of this would have great mutual benefit. Their identity is strong, their standards are high and their vision is clear. Above all else, they are seeking to live in community, abandoning the traditional patriarchy of church leadership. As one of the leaders delightfully expressed it, "The posse is the priesthood."

I seriously recommend that you check NOS out for yourself and make your own mind up. Try the Mass which is held on the second and fourth Sundays in the month, or the less structured service that I enjoyed on any other Sunday. It certainly makes you think.

WAREHOUSE
Held at St Cuthberts Church, Peasholme Green, York
Sundays (1st and 3rd in the month), 8:00pm

St Cuthberts is a church that's superbly equipped to hold precisely the kind of alternative service that the Warehouse group are currently running within it. Somehow, the ancient and almost mysterious walls only serve to enhance the warmth and positivity of what's happening inside them.

From the moment that the first wafts of incense reach your nostrils, it's obvious that this is a very lovingly conceived service indeed. I've walked into a communion service (3rd in the month) as opposed to the celebration (1st in the month) and so the ambient dance music is turned down to become just another ingredient in the already ambient atmosphere. About 50 people sit around a central table that's covered in candles and the bread and wine. The first circle recline on bean bags whilst the outer ring sit slightly above them on chairs. Above our heads hangs a three-dimensional object with slide projection on each side. The worshippers are hemmed in on each side by a television showing fast-moving images of nature or urban chaos, depending on what's being said. The walls complete the picture, beautifully decorated with religious art, courtesy of yet more slide projection.

The service contains teaching, softly spoken into a mike and blending with the background music, times of reflective worship and all the traditional features of a 'normal' communion service. Warehouse have achieved that most elusive of combinations; that of being both thoroughly alternative and thoroughly orthodox.

The Warehouse group have been together for about five years and have their origins in an attempt to reach out to young adults during a Billy Graham mission. They operate under the authority of their parent church charismatic Anglican St Michael le Belfrey and have a strong focus to their work. I spoke to the group's coordinator, Julian Gray. "The primary thing about us is that we're not out to do evangelism, we're here as a fellowship team and to go the way God leads us. But we are particularly focussing on getting alongside young adults in the club scene.

"We're fumbling in the dark like most people, but we are engaging in friendship evangelism in a particular area of the club world which means you've got to get alongside people. You've got to understand the culture of the people you're talking to and that's taken us a long time because that culture is always moving. But the evidence that we are in their confidence is that we've been invited to do the visuals at a number of clubs they are running."

I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Warehouse. They have a way of putting people completely at ease with all that they are doing, which is no mean feat when you're experimenting. The ambience worked for me. I came away feeling relaxed and at peace, probably something only such a completely God-centred event could achieve.