Encounter Group
Encounter services – What are they?
A few years ago some of our young people were enthused by a visit to Soul Survivor, a week of Christian teaching / worship at the Bath Showground. When they returned they wanted to have a service on a Sunday evening with a relaxed atmosphere, more modern music and innovative teaching and format. They were empowered by the church council, formed the Encounter band and services commenced.
After a couple of years this service was transferred by the church council to the 3rd and 4th Sundays at 10.30am to appeal to a younger congregation and those not so young that prefer a more relaxed, modern form of worship. Services on the 1st and 2nd Sundays carry on in the more traditional Common Worship format.
On the 3rd Sunday we have an Encounter form of Holy Communion with the Eucharist at the heart of the service. On the 4th Sunday we have an Encounter Morning Prayer where we try to interact with the congregation more. At both these services we use our new multimedia system with the service format projected onto a screen, which enables us to use appropriate videos and Powerpoint presentations to enhance the worship.
Music is an integral part of our Encounter worship and blocks of song are often used to praise the Lord or assist our spiritual journey. Encounter services are a dynamic format that is ever changing, planned by a small group of people. Constructive suggestions are welcomed, why not join our planning team, you will be welcome.
So come along and try our St. Martin’s Encounter services, you will be warmly welcomed.
The band recorded a CD with the able help of sound engineer Ian Hollis of Booland studios. The songs were all mixed and produced by Ian, Duncan, Ash and Lee. We were very pleased with the result, and are very proud of our first attempt.
You can hear a sample of the CD here by following the coloured links. Clicking the links will open a new page, don't forget to use the back arrow at the top of your browser to return to this page. You will need speakers or a headset to listen to these samples.
We are very fortunate to have a group of young Christians at St Martins, Desford who actively participate in worship by organising services and contributing to our church life in the wider sense. We asked Charlotte Astle to provide an overview of the origins and activities of the Encounter group and reproduce her reply below.
“I wouldn't say the Encounter group was limited to the band or our youth members though we do try and take them to events with modern worship styles where they can meet other young Christians and come back excited and enthusiastic about what God wants to do in their lives and in their church, eg. Soul Survivor, Worship Central, Christian Praise.
'Encounter' is the name that we first gave to our services when we started to do something a bit different with them. We recognised that services in church had a lot involved with them but first and foremost we wanted to create a space and time where people would feel that they were really 'encountering' God and His kingdom. I suppose then that the 'Encounter Group' would be all those involved in planning and implementing these services. These include ordained, lay and other congregation members of varying ages, I'd like to think we all have skills in different areas some are speakers, powerful intercessors, musicians, some are good with media and technology or great organisers but we are united by wanting to communicate something real and powerful about God's kingdom and wanting to support the congregation- our family, as they move along in their journey with God. We meet once a month (usually in the pub) with bibles, song books and lots of good ideas and the 10.30 services on the 3rd and 4th Sunday of each month are the result of this meeting.
There is a great deal of planning, resourcing and organising that goes into each service and everyone involved gives up a lot of their time in order to make the services happen. We are always keen to have new people with different ideas involved, after all this is our church, you don't have to be on the PCC to be a stakeholder in it”.
Charlotte Astle.