The evangelistic power of poetry... and pudding

Poetry and pudding - two of my favourite things. Creativity with a side of sweetness – what’s not to love? That was our premise when we created the "Poetry & Puds" women’s event for our church and local community.

We gathered in our church café space on a Thursday evening, having invited women from church and encouraged them to invite their friends.

It was National Poetry Day.

I started by setting out two guidelines for the evening:

1. In creative play there is no such thing as failure.
2. Allow yourself to feel. I encouraged the women that if the words or music made them feel an emotion, they should allow themselves to go there. I reassured them: “This is a safe place, it’s okay to feel deeply here.”

The evening was split into three parts. Firstly, as a spoken word poet myself, I shared some of my pieces, a handful of them accompanied by a string quartet of women from our church. The combination of music and words gave a beautiful atmosphere to the evening. There was pin drop silence in the room.

I then encouraged everyone to have a go at writing their own poem, based on the poetry prompts sheet I’d left on each table. We allowed half an hour for enjoying more pudding (crucial for creative inspiration), chatting, and writing.

Now for the final part of the evening – the Open Mic. I invited any who wanted to - and felt brave enough to - to come up to the mic and share with the room what they’d just written. Then I stepped aside and waited, wondering if anyone at all would share. What happened next amazed and thrilled me.

An invited guest, who had never stepped foot in our church building before jumped up and said: “I’ll go first.” She walked confidently to the mic. She shared her piece, the room erupted into applause, and we were off. Woman after woman stood up and shared their words with us.

As I reflect on the evening, I want to highlight the experiences of three women in particular:

1. A woman who was invited to the evening has started coming regularly to church on a Sunday morning. We need to create spaces for people who would be new to church to feel involved, have a good time, see that they get along with others there, and simply be in the church space. Having spent the evening in this environment, this woman decided she was ready to take the next step. Beautiful.
2. The first woman who shared her words in the Open Mic was not from church. An invited guest felt safe and welcomed enough that she led the way for everyone else. Let’s work at creating a level playing field – events that focus on a creative task that has nothing to do with where you’re at on your faith journey means that no one feels like an outsider.
3. A woman who has not been to our church for many years came along, and was very willing to open up as we chatted. We sometimes use the simple framework "In, Up, Out" – "In" being our relationships within church, "Up" being anything that encourages our relationship with God; and "Out" meaning to reach out to those who don’t share our faith. This event could so easily have been run as an "In" just for the women at church. But look at what we would’ve missed out on! Let’s always be asking: "Could this be an ‘Out’ opportunity?"

We simply took some creative gifts of women in a local church and offered them to be used for an evening. We started with poetry and puddings. We ended with one woman who braved the microphone reading these words:
"Have fun with friends and delicious food
Glorious music and art to lift your mood
As we hear the words, ‘All are safe.'"

It says it all.

This article is written by Naomi Hutchison, part of the Passion for Evangelism network. PfE exists to empower, encourage, and equip women to share the good news of Jesus with God-given confidence and creativity.