I looked after the kids from Friday to Sunday (as well as Geoff and Kids) as Kim went down to a organic women's sleepover weekend. These womens weekends seem to happen about once a term. Some comments about womens weekends compared to "womens conferences" that are all the rage in organised church.
1. Hardly any organisation is needed. Besides Ladies contacting one another and agreeing on a place to stay over (which is usually one of there homes and has been held in different cities) there is basically no other planning. The women come with there heart prepared to share and give.
2. No food is really organised, instead women as they want bring food and wine in incrediable abundance and share pot luck over the weekend. Basically it is a total feast. At the same time some women who may be busy working may bring nothing.
3. There is no theme and no guest speaker, just a committment to be real, share, pray have communion and eat together.
4. There is no promotion of the gathering, just women to women invitations.
Kim has said to me that for her this is a brillant way of connecting together with other believers, of being real, sharing about real life, getting recharged and refoccussed. At the same time because it is once every 10 weeks, it does not distract her away from being the church in real life.
At the momment it would be fair to say that this Kim is finding most of her Christian community through these expressions of gathering not house church so to speak as we work through this in between stage.
