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The story of fresh expression Come & Go is featured in a case study on Share. Now, if you want to know more, Come & Go is looked at in-depth in the latest, hot-off-the-press edition of the Encounters on the Edge series of booklets. George Lings, director of Church Army's Research Unit, writes about this unique church service where it's normal, and even expected, that people will turn up late.

In January 2006, a church in north London created a Sunday morning schedule which allows people to stay for as long or as short a time as they like. Services start at eight o'clock in the morning and conclude at one o'clock, in half-hour blocks. While some people stay for five minutes, others stay for the whole five hours, experiencing the differing approaches to worship throughout the morning. These half-hour blocks have also been designed with discipleship in mind, as well as building a sense of community.

Sunday begins with a more formal style of worship and moves to a more contemporary style, with time in between for conversation and prayer. Eating together is central to each section, following the practice of the early church where eating together was commonplace.

A sceptic might ask: 'Surely three services on a Sunday morning provides enough challenge and diversity; why change it to ten half-hour sessions?'

Vicar, Rob Harrison, answers: 'The Come & Go programme is designed so that you will get a fairly well-balanced spiritual diet if you stay for about one and a half hours. On one level it gives the previously separate congregations more of a sense of belonging to one another. The overlapping of worshippers among the different sections adds to this sense of continuity.'

Explaining why he chose to focus on Come & Go for the latest Encounters on the Edge, George Lings comments that 'it is a good example of spotting changes in background culture and shaping church around the needs of those who find its patterns don't fit. Deeper than that, what happens when existing churches are serious about discipleship, creating community and enabling lay ministry to the point that clergy cannot provide all that is needed?

'Come & Go is far more than a search for relevance and is turning this church inside out. We wanted to find out how it worked.'

Encounters on the Edge 35, Changing Sunday ('Come and go': beyond attractional church), is now available and is priced £4.00. To order copies, contact the Sheffield Centre on 0114 272 7451, or email ask@sheffieldcentre.org.uk