'We want to come home'

Over 850 people, mostly church leaders, from across the UK, met together in Minehead at the end of February for the Building a Prodigal-friendly Church conference.

Spring Harvest's Marion White co-hosted the conference with Care for the Family's Richard Hardy. On the final evening, Marion introduced her daughter Jo, who had herself been a prodigal. Hearing the 'prodigal's eye view' was the highlight of the conference for many, and brought new understanding about where many prodigals are 'at' in their journey. "We can't make the step back to God on our own," explained Jo. "We need people we can be honest with, who will be patient with us and love us, because we desperately want to come back."

One church leader, Robin Jones from East Sussex, told Family: "To have Jo telling her experiences brought it home. This is not theory, but real people who we're trying to reach with God's love." Like many other leaders, he has now returned hoping to inspire his church to become prodigal friendly.

Elder brothers
Dary Northrop, from Timberline Church, Colorado, introduced his church’s mission statement: 'Let Love Live' - and the idea of making love central to church life became one of the main themes of the conference.

But 'letting love live' isn't only about reaching out to those who aren't in the church. It's also about loving the 'elder brothers' still in the church. Jeff Lucas emphasised that the biggest challenge for many churches wanting to become prodigal friendly is to ensure that they don't exclude the elder brother. He said: "Let's not go home and shoot the elder brother, or we'll create a new group of prodigals."

Following the success of the conference, Richard Hardy described its effect. "The conference is over but, for many churches, the hard work is just beginning. We are confident that the spirit of the conference will inspire churches to reach out to the many prodigals of this nation in loving ways."

'Building a Prodigal-friendly Church' was a joint initiative between Care for the Family and Spring Harvest, in association with Reaching the Unchurched Network.

What you said

• "I think it's really important that we free each other up from meetings and 'church things' so that we have time to relate to people." Joy, Stockport
• "We’ve talked about prodigals who might have 'baggage'. Now I think we’re realising that churches have 'baggage' too." Robin, Worcester

Taken from 'Family' - the Care for the Family magazine, Summer 2006