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10 Different Ways to Share The Peace In Church

10 Ways To Share The Peace.

Have you ever felt a bit overwhelmed by people? Particularly talking to a lot of different people at the same time? How about the extrovert festival that is “The Peace” in many churches?

Have you ever wondered if there was a different way to share “The Peace” in your church? Well we’ve put together 10 ways for you to share the peace next Sunday:

  1. Hand out cold beers, encourage people to open them mid service.
  2. Bear hug your neighbour.
  3. Time your pizza order really well.
  4. European style kiss on the cheek.
  5. Put in black contact lenses… Pretend you’re in Being Human…
  6. Dance around the hall, like no ones watching. Except everyone might be…
  7. Run around shaking hands with as many people as you can in 60 seconds (post the results below if you wish!)
  8. Introduce yourself to someone new, while pretending to be from a different country.
  9. Say hello to the person leading the service. Ask if they get lonely standing up there by themselves.
  10. Stick comedy post it notes on the back of people…

Any other ideas?

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10 Ways to Share The Peace

Well, last time we discussed “The Peace” we said:

“…This is the part of the service where the vicar would say something like “The peace of Christ be with you”, the congregation would respond with “and also with you”, before being invited to share the peace with each other.

Depending on the church depends on how crazy the following few minutes are, as the congregation starts shaking hands, hugging, or Christian kissing people around them. If you’re new and a little shy this will be the point you’ll find out how keen your new church is to seek you out and give you lots and lots of attention!”

So how can we as people doing this Peace thing react during this time? Well we’ve put together 10 ways for you to share the peace next Sunday:

  1. Shake hands with people.
  2. Hug your neighbour.
  3. Kiss on the cheek.
  4. European style kiss on the cheek.
  5. Big smacker kiss on the lips.
  6. Dance around the hall.
  7. Run around shaking hands with as many people as you can in 60 seconds (post the results below if you wish!)
  8. Introduce yourself to someone new, while pretending to be from a different country.
  9. Say hello to the person leading the service. Ask if they get lonely standing up there by themselves.
  10. Encourage everyone on your side of the hall to swap places with everyone on the other side of the hall.

Any other ideas?

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ChurchSofa Guide To Church: Different Types of “Peace Giver”

Finishing our series looking at the peace, heres a couple types of “Peace Giver”… (with thanks to Dave Walker)

Different Types of The Peace Givers At Church

This CartoonChurch.com cartoon originally appeared in the Church Times and is taken from ‘The Dave Walker Guide to the Church’, published by Canterbury Press.

Any more types out there?

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The Church Sofa Guide To Church: Ways to survive the peace

Ok.

So you’re at church, and everyone is starting to share the peace. You’re not the sort of person that gets on with this sort of thing, and upon realizing that its to late to escape… you’re starting to freak out.

If this is you, well don’t freak out, check out our list of ten ways to survive “The Peace”:

  1. Try jumping from pew to pew… Its a chance to get fit…
  2. Have a competition with someone to see how many people you can say the peace to.
  3. No one want to join? Have a a competition against youself from week to week.
  4. Lets face it. Its an excuse to hug that hot girl / guy.
  5. Fancy hanging out in the corner? Have a tissue with you so you can pretend to have the plague or something…
  6. From week to week, come to church dressed in different disguises as different members of the church. Pretend to be those people… see if anyone gets fooled…
  7. Like taking photos? Take random photos of people as they come to shake your hand. Try posting them on twitter… tell people this is part of an art / creative project you’re currently taking part in.
  8. Take the chance to plot with your mate while the good lady wife is distracted.
  9. Need a chance to grab a drink, this is your chance to nip to the kitchen…
  10. Shake peoples hand. Tell them you’re fine. Ask them how they’re doing. And hope they’re more honest then you.

Any more?

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The Church Sofa Guide To Church: The Peace

Some churches do this more then others.

But a lot of churches do this in the lead up to Communion.

I’m referring to “The Peace”, or “Exchanging The Peace”. This is the part of the service where the vicar would say something like “The peace of Christ be with you”, the congregation would respond with “and also with you”, before being invited to share the peace with each other.

Depending on the church depends on how crazy the following few minutes are, as the congregation starts shaking hands, hugging, or Christian kissing people around them. If you’re new and a little shy this will be the point you’ll find out how keen your new church is to seek you out and give you lots and lots of attention!

If this sounds like some sort of Christian Nightmare to you… I’d suggest that as soon as you hear the words “Peace of Christ be with you”, that you dive head first towards the door. Or you could take the risk and maybe find out that the people around you arn’t really that bad really…

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So… We did the “The Peace” at Church…

We did the “The Peace” at Church… and I couldn’t help thinking about this cartoon from Dave Walker;

In fact I actually used this cartoon to break the ice with a bunch of people that we didn’t know… well it seemed that we were surrounded by people that we didn’t know – so the above cartoon got well advertised…

As part of this panic-fuelled ice breaking, I was asked where I would I sit on the above cartoon.

Personally I would draw some dude wearing a hoodie, shaking peoples hands, eyeing the exit less and less as time goes on. With that in mind, why is “The Peace” ended just as I get comfortable with this madness?

What would a drawing of you during “The Peace” look like?