From pistons to pews . . . Shropshire garage turns into a church

Burway Garage on the Crossways Industrial Estate in Church Stretton will be the unusual venue on Saturday for anyone who wants to explore and celebrate Christian faith in an informal way.

The event, which is held roughly every six weeks, has been pushing the boundaries of "Church" for the last few years and has proved to be a winner with the local Christian community.

Garage employee Jez Stridgen said: "We need the church to be relevant, fun, engaging and actively involved in the community.

"Garage Praise is a place where we can come together and begin to understand what this means and how we go about it."

The Garage Praise idea came about after the numbers attending regular midweek home group meetings, hosted by Burway boss John Wildblood and his wife Sarah, grew beyond capacity.

The gatherings, "for lively but informal and expressive prayer, worship and Bible study in relaxed surroundings" was held at the Wildbloods' Church Stretton home.

The group was forced to divide into two due to increased numbers but members decided that they would still like to have regular get-togethers.

John jokingly suggested meeting in his garage business as it was large enough to accommodate everyone but he was taken up on his offer and Garage Praise was born.

The garage is nowadays given a complete make-over on the Friday night before the "services" with a big clean-up while drapes are hung, PA and lighting rigs set up and other homely touches are added.

Mr Wildblood said: "We enjoy worshiping in a free, relaxed, informal way, which sometimes isn't possible within the structure of a Sunday morning Church service.

"We hope to offer an environment where people can come together, explore Christianity and discover the enjoyment and freedom which comes through faith in Jesus.

"Also, many people find churches difficult and unusual places to go into so, we want to show that you can do church anywhere and that it is definitely not boring, as some people think.

"We have had speakers who have gone round the world, talk at our meetings and regularly have up to 100 people attending.

"We also have a band playing on the night, with three groups for us to choose from and a youth band as well.

"The refreshments always go down well, a particular favourite being Hot Chocolate Mountains which are chocolate drinks containing marshmallows, cream and a Flake chocolate."

The Rev Suzanne Williams, curate of St Laurence's, is a keen supporter of Garage Praise and said it offered something different to worshippers.

She said: "It is a really good way of resourcing local churches and people come from rural churches to attend.

"The garage provides them with a different venue, particular for church novices who whom it is an ideal venue.

"For the last 18 months there have been visiting speakers going along, including a couple of people from Canada and from other churches around the country."

The evening of informal celebration and worship at Burway's on Saturday will run from 7pm to about 9.30pm on Saturday.