The 3Ts is a New Worshipping Community that meets on the first Sunday of the month at St John’s Church in Brockmoor near Brierley Hill in the Greater Dudley deanery. It started just over a year ago and has around 14 core members attending regularly.
The 3Ts (Tea, Toast and Talk), offers attendees light breakfast options including toast, jam, butter, croissants and hot drinks, and has a soft starting time of 10.30, though breakfast is available from 10.15. There is a very welcoming and friendly atmosphere.
St John’s Church looks like a traditional church from the outside, but inside it has a large open plan space, set up with tables and chairs for the 3Ts. LLM Tracey explains the pews had to be removed in the 90s as the entire floor had gone rotten. This makes the space flexible and able to accommodate the various different groups and services that run there including Messy Church and Baby and Toddler groups.
3Ts is led by Keith and Tracey with input from other helpers.
Tracey said:
“We tried ‘café church’ which was a 5pm service but it didn’t work here. People prefer breakfast! We sit around the table and after breakfast, we sing worship songs, we pray and there’s time for discussion, during which we ask questions, and see where the conversation takes us. Sometimes we read bible passages as well to fuel the conversation, but we only have a very rough format and timings.”
Keith puts together a PowerPoint presentation with the lyrics for the worship songs displayed on a screen. Inspirational images and Bible passages are also included and displayed during orchestral parts of the songs. Keith says although he puts the presentation together, he often feels the Holy Spirit is guiding him on what content to include, steering him towards certain songs or readings.
Keith said:
“The idea for the 3Ts came about during an after-service chat discussing how to attract those who don’t already come to church. The one thing we felt strongly was that it should be very informal – it wasn’t intended to be, and isn’t, a Bible Study with refreshments. We wanted to keep things as ‘lose’ as possible and, truthfully, we had to rely on the Spirit leading us, and that He is has become more and more apparent as the months have gone by.”
“3Ts has indeed attracted those who hadn’t been ‘to church’ before. Recently two people who began at 3Ts became regular members of the congregation and were confirmed.”
Discussion at May’s 3Ts focussed on why Jesus died on the cross for us. Points shared by those present included how parents will do anything for their children out of love, including wanting to take their pain so that their children don’t suffer.
Following a reading, one of the leaders asked, “Is God there all the time?”. This led onto a discussion around how you can feel like he isn’t in troublesome times, “but that’s when he’s carrying you” and how people sometimes blame God when bad things happen but actually a lot of those situations are man-made. This then continued on to a discussion about the environment and the importance of looking after our world which God entrusted to us.
Commenting on the morning, Margaret said:
“It’s lovely. We just sit round and talk. It’s company, you can make friends like this. I’d tried a few different churches before I found here. People always think church is just having to sit through a really long sermon, which can put people off, but this is different.”
Another attendee, Steve said:
“I come because I like the informal setting. It’s an open format to ask questions and learn from people. I go to another church, but I like to come to this service too. This is a nice contrast to the more traditional C Of E services. You really get to know the people around you and it’s as much about fellowship as it is about finding Jesus. I think you find Jesus through others.”
The worship was also enjoyed by Maggie who felt able to bring her dog Ben!
