Taking the call to Walk the Way quite literally, members of Knaresborough URC, in north Yorkshire, walked out of the building and into the surrounding town centre to meet neighbours and cater for their needs head on. The Revd Alan Crump tells us more.

We came to the conclusion that we should love and serve all those who work in the town centre around us after a conversation about our mission intentions. We also took the time to explore who our neighbours actually are in order that we might get to know them better.  

In our relatively small town, we were surprised to find that, there are 190 businesses in and around the centre. As a first step, we visited those that were open on Easter Saturday with a palm cross gift and a daffodil to wish them happy Easter. Twenty members faithfully delivered them and shared the joy of Easter with our neighbours. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and a real encouragement to step out.

We decided to visit the businesses again during Harvest but this time we gave out cards with a leaf attached which we had used as part of our Harvest service after praying for all the people working in town. We continued visiting during the following week to ensure we covered all the businesses. It was good to see many of the cards being displayed in the shops some weeks later.

At Christmas, we had our usual Posada – a South American-inspired re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s pilgrimage to Bethlehem – but decided to take ‘Mary and Joseph’ with us as we visited the businesses. We had also worked with a local school who decorated 400 wooden angels. We gave one to each business and used the others to decorate our new outdoor nativity scene. We had some amazing conversations and used Facebook to show Mary and Joseph visiting different places around town. One business said they had seen what we were doing on Facebook and hoped they would get a visit. The pizza delivery man was keen to have a photo with Mary, who was ‘due to deliver’! It was certainly a talking point around the town. One pub customer insisted Joseph should have a pint!

God has truly blessed us as we have explored what it really means to live the life of Jesus, Walking the Way around our town.

You can find resources and suggestions to help your church explore Walking the Way in your community throughout the year here. How could/do/will you do respond?