It seems that in North Yorkshire they are being forced to resort to an inflatable touring church to try and encourage a congregation.
Apparently the inflatable ministry is ideal for travelling around schools allowing the pupils to “experience prayer.” It certainly is more
cost effective than transporting one of the more traditional brick churches around the Yorkshire Dales. That said, even in its deflated form a twenty foot church still has to be more cumbersome than the more traditional soap box.
Amazingly enough this is the first time New Life Baptist Church in Northallerton has used the inflatable to tour. However, in Germany the Catholic Church has done something very similar. Now it has been used other religions are bound to follow suit.
The inflatable will be running half hour prayer workshops for pupils from six different schools and according to the BBC the response is said to be “excellent”, though it does not specify who responded.
Our Yorkshire correspondent and favourite singer of the moment Catherine Sykes had this to say:
“If it doubles as a bouncy castle I’m there! I’ll even shout Halleluiah! if they like.” It certainly does seem to be a way of encouraging a new following to the church. Did we mention she has an album out at the moment? Someone ought to.
You can read the full BBC report here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-13759740
Here is the link to a story on the German inflatable church: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1901156.ece
And here is a plug for Catherine, we don’t do it often: www.catherinesykes.com