I’ve mentioned before that this term I am not attending lectures and instead I am on placement at Harvest in Margate. I’e just returned from my latest evening visit to Harvest where I had a meal with Maggie, Harold and Lizzie (which was very kind of them) before visiting the cell conveniently held in the house next door.

Harvest calls itself a new Anglican church and is 10 years old this year. Harvest is an Anglican cell church plant. There is central meeting on a Sunday held in one of the university buildings but the main body of the church meets in cells throughout the week.

This is an interesting placement. Harvest seems to mean many things to many different people. I am trying to discover what evangelism looks like in this setting as well as what the ‘theology of the holy spirit’ is for people of Harvest. There does not seem to be one uniform answer to either of these questions.

I am not sure what I think of Harvest yet. It is difficult to get a feel for something that is diverse both theologically and geographically. Visiting Harvest means going to Margate all day on Sunday to meet people or visit cells – so this is going to be quite a slow process. I am aware that it is not my style of church as I do not feel entirely comfortable here and have become aware that I am struggling with the lack of symbolism in the life of Harvest (this struggle has come as a a bit of a surprise to me). What Harvest do is excellent for the people who are part of Harvest, but it is not me.

There are exciting things to see here though. Tonight people were engaging with the bible in a real way, not allowing themselves to be content with pat easy answers that I have experienced in my past dabbling into cells or home groups.. Most impressive for me, though, is the ability to belong to Harvest without the need to all believe the same. There is a very inclusive outlook here which brings questions of how this is sustained and held in tension as inevitably people will be disagreeing with each other on some key issues.

I’m looking forard to hearing more and questioning more over these next few weeks.