Kingdom Come
What is Kingdom Come? Why do we run it? How can churches grow in this area? We chatted to Nick Herbert, Assistant Pastor (Ministry & Creativity) at St Luke’s Gas Street.
One of the most exciting, surprising and sometimes awkward(!) activities we are pursuing as a church is an event called Kingdom Come. Once a term we gather together on a Tuesday night to stretch ourselves spiritually and step out in an attempt to follow the Spirit in a time of spontaneous worship and prophetic encounter.
Essentially it works like this: a group of musicians and singers gather in the round surrounded by the congregation and wait to be inspired by the Spirit with a new song, melody, drum beat etc.… As something starts to develop we all follow and join in at any level we can believe that God is inspiring a new song and speaking through the worship.
The only rule and this is key, is that we don’t sing any songs that we know. We have to reach out and sing/play something totally new.
We’ve found that each night has been an incredible journey into the prophetic with unexpected twists and turns and moments of breakthrough – shouting, singing and silence.
If nothing else Kingdom Come has taught us to challenge the structure of our worship times and encouraged us all to risk a little bit more when we gather together to worship the Living God.
What’s your advice on running a Kingdom Come event?
Gather the more experienced musicians/singers who are confident to step out a bit.
Try a different more inclusive set-up in your church – maybe ‘in-the-round.’
Have a few thoughts/guidelines for how the evening is going to work and how people are going to engage in your context – try not to say too much as this will eat into your time for actually stepping out! I find it can be useful to explain:
The biblical basis e.g. Psalm 98: ‘sing to the Lord a new song.’
This is not ‘worship karaoke’ (our favourite worship songs strung together) but singing a new song.
There might be some awkwardness – embrace it!
There may be times when we reset and start again.
Being open and asking God to speak to you throughout the evening.
Begin the time by waiting on God in silence until one of the musicians or singers feels inspired.
See what God does as the congregation jumps on board!
Occasionally you may have to reset the evening and wait again for something new.
Be open to God speaking and times of prayerful response at different moments.
Finally, Good luck!
Let us know how you get on – we’d love to hear about it!