The annual MBS festival in starting tomorrow and Sanctus1 has a stand there for the third year running. I'm going to blog about it each day, my experiences and any flashes of inspiration that I have whilst there.
Today was just the set up and once again I'm amazed as to how commercial the place is - It's simply a trade fair that is selling spirituality. Our stand is called Re-generate (£700 for the weekend) and we're next to Everyday Angels and an iridology stand. Opposite us is the British Academy of Sound Therapy and Juliusz W. It's a real melting pot of spirituality, I'm looking forward to having a bit more time to explore tomorrow.
It's interesting to look at who it is attending the MBS fairs, over the weekend there will be about 10,000 people from all over the North West attending the event. On the whole research has shown that more women will attend than men and they are spread over a wide age range, although there tends to be more younger women than older women.
Most people want to know what we're offering and why we're there. We have a sign up that says 'Free Healing' and when people ask about it we say that we're there to offer prayer for healing that is rooted in Christian Spirituality. People either say Ok I'll give that a try and we chat with them and then pray, or they say no thanks and then more on to explore the other installation in the stand.
My experience has been that people are really pleased to see us there and are pleased that the church is in that environment. I doubt that the people that we encounter will ever come to Sanctus1, but they may come to one of our film nights or to one of our club nights. We aim to give people a positive experience of Christian spirituality and Christian community - I believe that this is the first step in mission.
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