Outside Worship Session
Part of the life of Hazelnut is a monthly creative service called Nomad. It is our aim to blog about each one as a template for an outdoor time of worship. Over time we hope our blog becomes full of ideas and resources that you can use. Email us with any questions or feedback.
What we did:
Our aim was to have 4 different experiences that would connect people with our space in creative ways. We then linked these stations to God in the talk.
- Station 1: Pot bulbs: We asked people to make and bring pots out of recycling. We had plastic bottles, cans and welly boots.
- Station 2: Prayer walk: We put the prayer walk throughout the garden and people reflectively walked and prayed. Click here for a link to the prayer walk resource
- Station 3: Chalk flower garden: We have a small white wall on our site. We had people draw flowers and trees to create a beautiful chalk flower garden.
Talk: Psalm 19:1-4
Schedule:
3-3:15 Welcome people, announce the plan, put people in bubbles
3:15 – 3:25 Pot bulbs, prayer walk, chalk flower garden
3:25 – 3:35 Pot bulbs, prayer walk, chalk flower garden
3:35 – 3:45 Pot bulbs, prayer walk, chalk flower garden
3:45 – 3:55 Talk on psalm 19
3:55 – 4:00 Final announcements and closing with Hazelnut prayer
Preparation (total cost £3)
- Potting bulbs: a local charity was giving out free bulbs we approached them and they gave us 50 bulbs. Dave who is a part of our team manages a piece of land that had a bag of compost. We were able to do this activity for free. People took the bulbs home or left them on site. We planted the left-over bulbs in a wildflower bed.
- Prayer walk: The walk was created by Joe Knight. He had used it in his church and he tweaked it for us by adding our logo and the Hazelnut prayer. We printed and laminated the prayer and stapled them to metal stakes (10 for £3 at local garden store) that could easily be put in the ground.
- Chalk flower garden: We initially purchased the chalk to draw one-way signs on the ground for COVID distancing. It proved a big hit with the kids. Our original aim was for people to draw flowers on the cement in front of the plot. However, because it had been raining, we adjusted and used the wall.
What worked
Having set up three different stations helped give people different options to engage in a way they wanted to. It worked for both adults and kids to mingle together and feel like it was one solid act of worship. The final talk was about 7 min. It was aimed at a more adult level which worked with these specific stations.
What could have been improved
Because of social distancing we split people up into bubbles that spent 10-15 min at each station. This worked in as far as COVID restrictions were concerned. However, if there would not have been restrictions letting people freely move about as they wished would have worked better on our site.