In the Oxford English Dictionary the first meaning of the word 'church' is a building, but the word 'church' in the Bible means 'a gathered or assembled people.' In other words, church is all about people not buildings.
At Quaystone (pronounced 'Keystone') we go for the Bible meaning and seek to put our emphasis on people. And the reason we 'gather or assemble together' is to worship and to praise God, to learn about God and to share our faith together. We are also a church of a number of nations and different backgrounds longing to celebrate our oneness in the Lord Jesus.
We build our times together on a Sunday morning around 1 Corinthians 14 v 26 - 33 which begins with the words 'When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.' This verse is probably not on everyone's mind when we get together on a Sunday but we do try to create a safe place for people to express their faith, their walk with the Lord, their strengths and weaknesses - what one of our members has described as a 'sharing culture'. We're far from being a perfect church, but in our hearts this is where we want to get to.
So Sunday by Sunday we have worship and praise times including prayer and teaching from the Bible. We have an additional arrangement for children who are with us for the early part of our meeting and then have their own time together. The last Sunday in the month sees us spending the whole time with the children, these services are packed with interest and are about an hour long.
We have a number of people aged between 25 - 40 but most ages are represented in some way or other. We have a leadership team, and believe in open communication as much as is possible within the whole church.
So that is a brief look at what this bunch of people called Quaystone are like at our main meeting on a Sunday morning, but church isn't just Sundays!