Strippers Club - a new worshipping community?
Apparently , the practice of new worshipping communities electing to avoid the word ‘church’ isn’t new.
The practice goes back, at least to 1976. Or so we learnt at the Winter gathering of the Milton Keynes Greenhouse which met last Saturday, 15th February 2025.
Leaders of in
Participants were huddled in break-out groups to explore the question, “Is my new worshipping community church yet?” when the story emerged of the Strippers Club.
Yes, it met in church. Yes, it had all the marks of a new worshipping community.
But was it church?
The Missionary Journey
Prior to this we had explored the stages of the Missionary Journey, with the different groups represented trying to identify where their community - whether the Tuesday Bible Study, the Chatter Box, the Family Breakfast Club, the Come for Coffee, Stay to Pray, the Soup for the Soul, or the Tea and Toast - where they were on the journey.
Ah - the Stripper Club. Turns out the heat wave of 1976 resulted in parishioners in a parish church being stuck in their pews, due to the melting lacquer. So a group of men, got together and decided to strip the pews of polish - hence the name! Once, the pews were stripped, they then had to be redecorated, which meant that for a short period this group met regularly. The question though was - did it ever become church or was it always social?
Indeed - what makes a gathering church? To answer that we watched a video of Mike Moynagh being interviewed by Nudrat Hopper on the Godsent resource.
Followed by a time of reflecting together as a group.
The session closed with a time of prayer, fellowship and lunch.
(Find out more about previous gatherings of the MK Greenhouse.)