Park up…

In the relatively short time I’ve been a site pastor, I have discovered there are many things about my role I was not expecting – many things that certainly weren’t on the job description! One of the things I did not ever consider is that I’d be writing a blog about car parking. But, here we are…

On Sundays we are welcoming higher numbers of people to church which is so exciting. People are coming along, and they are chosing to stay. At least – they stay if they are able to find a parking space! We’ve always known that car parking would be an issue for us in our new church home. There are usually some spaces along Invincible Road, but with increased numbers, as each week passes our carpark is getting full earlier. This often means that newcomers, who perhaps aim to arrive just before 10am, are unable to find a space in our carpark.

Hosts & Guests

In my family home we live on a fairly main road, which also doesn’t have much easy parking. When we welcome first time guests we try and remember to park somewhere else, to make it easier for them to find us and park on our drive. Yes - you know what’s coming next!

I arrive early at church each week, so there is always a space in the car park when I arrive. If I’m honest, I’ve been parking there without giving it much thought. Recently I’ve been challenged to treat my church home as I do my family home - to consider if I’m being a good host, and to make space to welcome our guests as well as I can. 

So I’m going to park somewhere else to release my car park space to a guest. I’d encourage all of us who call Kerith Farnborough our ‘home’ – unless you have a legitimate reason to park in the carpark (and there are of course many!) - to try and park a bit further away and take a short walk to our building, to bless those who really need it.

New spaces and new faces

I know what you’re thinking – lovely idea, but where can we park?! Well, we’ve been having conversations with some local businesses and I’m pleased to confirm that two locations along Invincible Road, Howdens and Water & Air Technologies (pictured above), have given us permission to park on their forecourts every Sunday morning. They just ask that we keep their storage facilities clear and accessible, and that we are aware that as individuals we each park there at our own risk.

This should provide us with quite a few extra car parking spaces and it’s a short 5 min walk to our building from there. This will hopefully mean that in creating more spaces in our car park, there is more room to welcome those who are wanting to come to church. Our prayer is of course that our guests decide to stay - and that one day they will join us as hosts!

I can’t write this without saying thank you to our amazing HOST team volunteers who help us with our carparking each week. Please do thank them next time you arrive at church, and if you fancy joining them, get in touch with us - we are going to need more people to welcome all our new guests and get them parked safely.

So there we have it, I blogged about carparking…look a little closer though and this is actually a blog about our growth, about what God is doing among us and about the kind of community we want to be as we Help people find their way back to God. This is a really exciting season for us and I’m so glad you’re with us for this journey.

Sonia, Site Pastor