The Atheist and Humanist campaign to appear on buses in London from January. As Christians do we believe this is the start of something terrible, or could it possible be something we could take advantage of? Instead of only seeing negative this campaign might create discussions and opportunities to talk with people of many opinions on what that word 'probably' means!

So What is Rock Solid

Rock Solid in our context is not a church at present, we do not intend it to be a church with pews, vicars, liturgy. We will not force or encourage any young person or adult who we meet through this group to attend a local church.

We are a mixed group, with adults who are believers in Christ and who passionately want to share this passion. The young people come from a variety of backgrounds, some go to a traditional/inherited church, some may enjoy this some may find this doesn't inspire them, some have no experience of church. The different groups come together, not knowing where each stands but all hear messages about values we believe God teaches us, we aim to have fun, God's message is about living life to the full, we do this through games, chatting, building friendships and discussing issues or values and faith.

We hope though this they may seek to learn more for God, and hope that this will take a form of church, not changing entirely how we express ourselves but leading people to know God for themselves, yet always being open to those young people who do not yet know God.

The start...

We started our Monday night Rock Solid group three weeks ago now. Perhaps I should start by explaining some of my initial thoughts before

Through my work I meet many people. There's is a true mixture or mindsets. I live in an area which isn't very ethnically and culturally diverse, it is predominately white British. I experience the contrasting views on Christianity which tends to be it's either a go-er, it's boring and irrelevant to our lives or they really don't know what it is about.

I had an assembly a few months a go in a primary school, I was telling the story of Noah's Ark, a story I have known well since being a child. However this one boy who I asked to be Noah, turned around and said 'I'm not being a girl'.

At first this really shocked me, then as I thought, we live in a mixed time now, where many of the older generations have experienced the time of Christendom where they know the stories, our young people and children are experiencing post-Christendom, their knowledge of the Bible is minimal.

Now this can be seen in two ways; we can be devastated that people no longer know the stories and the history of Christianity or we can see it as a new opportunity to bring these stories to life as they haven't been heard before.

I opt for the second option. We need to be having this emerging conversation if we are going to be serious about reaching these people in a post-Christendom era, and we need to be radical in knowing how to re inspire those who know the stories and see them as irrelevant. Too many people slip through the net because churches don't know how to reach them in the context of the 'traditional' church who may think we still live in a time of Christendom.

I pray that we will seek a church which is about people and community, a place where people with little or no knowledge can seek and find a spirituality and life in God.