Wild Church – Sep 2026 – Draw Near: Making Space

Our latest Wild Church gathering continued our theme of Draw Near, and this month we were thinking about what it means to make space in our busy lives to notice God.

We began with a welcome and prayer from Laura, followed by a short introduction to the idea of making space. What do we fill our lives with? And what happens when we leave very little room to stop, listen and notice?

Ali then put us through the Great Five Senses Challenge! Working in teams, we had to use our senses to identify different sounds, tastes, smells, objects and things we could see. It was a fun way of reminding us just how much there is around us when we actually stop and pay attention.

Lyndon led us into a time of worship through stillness. We sat quietly and listened to the sounds around us, noticing things we might otherwise have missed. We then shared what we had heard before Lyndon closed the time with a prayer, leading us into the creative prayer activity.

We each took a stone and thought about something we wanted to let go of. We carried it away, prayed and left it behind. We then took a seed as a reminder of something we would like to see grow in our lives — something we could take home or drop to grow.

Simon then shared a short reflection around “The space where something happens”, using his sourdough starter as an illustration. Sourdough needs feeding and attention, but it also needs time and space to grow. In the same way, we thought about how easily our lives can become filled with good things, leaving little space to stop, listen and notice what God might already be doing.

We finished with a simple response: “What space will I make?” We took a few quiet moments to write down what we might let go of, what we might make space for, and where we could create a little more room to notice God.

Ali brought us to a close with a blessing, and then we stayed around, chatting and enjoying sourdough pancakes together.

It was our biggest Wild Church gathering so far, the weather was beautiful, and we had a really lovely time together. Perhaps, fittingly, we ended by doing very little at all — just making space to be together.