I've just got home from the first Cafe Church at Costa on the Cowley Road. There were about 25 of us, including 4 or 5 people who I'd not met before. It was great to meet new people, and a great venue to sit and talk about things that really matter.
The subject for the evening was 'Confidence', as in self-confidence and self-esteem. Now, I can confess that I went to the evening thinking that the subject would be of interest to others, but not something that felt tremendouly meaningful to me.
How wrong was I! We ended up talking about how we can feel intimidated if we compare ourselves to successful and beautiful people, or feel great about ourselves by comparing ourselves to people that we feel we can look down on - but that neither kind of comparison leaves us with an accurate understanding of ourselves. And we spoke quite openly about the way in which accepting God's unconditional love for us cuts right through all of that and makes us secure and confident without being all self-conscious about it - and that the Holy Spirit is brilliant at giving us experiences of God's love, in order to make it real to us.
So, anyway, brilliant evening. Thanks to everyone who made it happen!
P.S. On Sunday, I popped into the end of the Rose Hill Kids Club, which was similarly positive. The number of children increased to 20 (from a maximum of 4 previously). Well done to Hanna and Angus for doing what was evidently a great assembly last week!
