Chads News - 20th May 2026

Dear Church Family,

Next Sunday 31^st the 11am service is heading outdoors to have a picnic together in the park with games and lots of fun. This might seem weird and not very churchy. You might be thinking of not attending because you don’t have young children. You might think it just sounds like a longer Sunday Challenge and you only just tolerate that.

We often say at St. Chad’s that we have a ‘high theology of fun’ but do we stop to think what we mean by that? I did a bit of research on this recently. Don’t worry, keep reading, it’s not quite as boring as it sounds. I looked through twenty youth ministry books and searched for the word ‘fun’. I then separated those mentions into ‘positive’, ‘neutral’ or ‘negative’. Can you guess which won? Over 80% of the mentions of fun in a youth ministry context were negative! Book after book said we should be having less fun to give more time for God stuff.

Here’s the thing. I think fun is God stuff. We don’t have fun to lure people into encountering God in the serious holy bit. We have fun because God created fun and wants us to enjoy Him, one another and His creation. Jesus had fun – lots of it. His opponents are continually criticising him for attending too many dinner parties! I’m convinced that fun is an in-the-moment experience of joy, named as a fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22. We, the people of God empowered by the life of the Holy Spirit, should create opportunities for fun together. Fun opens the door to relationship, honesty, trust and seeing the grace of God acting amongst us. It strengthens us as a community and makes us more comfortable in prayer and worship with one another. It shows the world what true enjoyment looks like and invites others into the life of the Holy Spirit with us which in turn brings them true joy. Fun is fun-damental.

This Sunday is Pentecost, when the disciples, that group of Jesus closest friends, received the Holy Spirit in the upper room. And what’s the first thing they do? Stay inside the building to do more serious God stuff? No, they spill out onto the street to share what they’ve received. The people think they’re drunk because – presumably – they’re just too joyful! So what better way for us to celebrate Pentecost than spilling out of the building into the park and having FUN? Let’s celebrate the life of the Holy Spirit together.

When we say we have a high theology of fun we really mean it. So bring food, bring a friend and come ready to be church together!

Blessings,
Dave

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