A new road map The

The Very Rev Albert Bogle highlights the importance of online safe spaces.

IF life is a motorway, congregations need to build slip roads that help people get off the highway that is going nowhere to find direction and purpose in their lives.

It means we require to have signposts that direct people to the filling stations and service areas. We need signposts that help both the seeker and the believer to discover the water of life for which they long. And the fuel for life that will restore creation and hope for the future.

For too long we’ve been stocking up the filling stations along life’s motorway with food that is past its sell by date, while ignoring a generation who are on the fast track, frantically searching for slip roads and signs for soul food that is fresh and energising. It’s time to create a new menu, one that seeks to sustain and nurture the believer and another that seeks to satisfy the seeker searching for soul food.

Let me tell you about the slip road strategy that Sanctuary First is using. We still have much to learn but perhaps there are aspects of our work that might encourage others to go further and even help us to be more effective.

The internet is a highway full of signs and slip roads that connect with lives. The surfer can get lost very easily. One click of a mouse can take them down a slip road that leads them further away from the real soul food for which they are searching.

“ One click of a mouse can take them down a slip road that leads them further away from the real soul food for which they are searching.

At Sanctuary First we’ve been trying to find ways to attract people to use our slip roads and find sanctaury and meaning in the midst of life’s traffic jams. Of all the things people crave, peace, security and home are at the top of their list. Hence our sign Sanctuary First.

We offer a selection of places on our site and app where surfers can find sanctuary. The Live Jam on a Friday is a non-threatening space where people of faith and no faith can feel comfortable. Our latest series of podcasts entitled Faith at the Fringe, connecting with the Edinburgh Festival, allowed us to connect with many people who would never think about connecting with church. Our podcasts are like palate cleansers, before an entrée course into the menu that hopefully will lead them to perhaps take another look at the life and teaching of Jesus.

One of our key aims is to help people find the right direction in their lives, offering them an opportunity to read the Bible with weekly online bible study groups. It’s like giving them a map that will help them navigate the highway. In addition we have Sunday Live at 3pm, an online worship service encouraging the community to participate in the service and to share their responses to the online worship – and the virtual cafe is open from time to time.

You might say we are a community where people can feel safe on the motorway and discover Jesus for themselves and grow in their Christian experience. We want to see people ‘living out church’ on life’s highway.