Gospel Cocktails (3rd and last post): waitress service

It was a joy to see our church membeFiona Doughton, Brenda, Pauline Wigmore and a queue at the cocktail standrs serving the punters at the Flower Show.

It’s not part of our church culture or tradition to be so ‘out there’ in terms of pointing to an invisible Other.  Our congregations serve the local community in a myriad of valuable ways:  they raise money for the hospice, raise awareness of issues surrounding Alzheimer’s, support the Youth Centre, form the body of the Rotary Club, WI, Townswomen’s Guild and more…  They’re also comfortable generally promoting the church – the building, the services, anything tangible.  But ask them to talk explicitly to someone else about God, or their faith… that’s not something they’ve been used to.  They’re not particularly cocktail drinkers either, as far as I know…!

Preparing for the event, we reflected on some of the treasures of the Christian way:  joy, peace, hope, faith, forgiveness, life.  How could you express these qualities in terms of flavour, colour and texture?  It proved a creative activity involving experimentation with juices and mixers, and asking others for their opinions.  One of the men made the bar!  Then all the church team members learnt how to mix a cocktail…

Behind the bar they served, resolutely refusing payment.  Aged between 8 to 91, waiters and waitresses rose to the occasion and dressed in character – bow ties, pinnies, Hawaian shirts!  Again, trying to embody Biblical images of God, we were working with ‘I came not to be served, but to serve…’

They hawked their wares with ease, in a way they wouldn’t have wanted to if we’d been inviting people to church, or trying to ‘sell’ faith in some way.  I think many of them (us) got a buzz from putting across something of their faith in an imaginative, playful way without having to find their own words.

As far as the recipes are concerned, if you’re reading this and thinking of having a go I suggest you don’t use our recipes.  Deciding on the names and experimenting with the contents was a valuable part of the whole process:  an opportunity for everyone to reflect what we wanted to share with others of the riches of God, and what the experience of it might mean.

It took a while to get the cocktail idea off the ground.  It seems you have to model a new concept – put it in the domain of the concrete – before most people will buy in to what you’re proposing, however carefully you might try to explain what it involves.  ‘Gospel Cocktails’ were mooted in church for a year with no response at all.  Finally a group of about five people agreed to explore the possibilities, and we did a demonstration in a service one morning to put the concept across.  I was chuffed with the number of individuals who volunteered to do a stint behind the bar after that, and they did a great job.

I’ve already been told we’re doing it again, and we’ll make the most of it next time – we’ll have a whole Cocktail Day in preparation, learning about classic cocktail-making, and trying out some new products for Portishead summer events…

 

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