Time for a Reverend in the House?

Following last night's entry of Respect MP George Galloway" into the Celebrity Big Brother House hoping to reach a wider audience who find politicians and politics boring, I can't help but wonder of there is a message here for the church.

Like politicians, Christians are finding it difficult to connect with great swathes of society including the very people who watch shows like Big Brother. Some politicians like George Galloway and Tony Benn have in recent times travelled the country doing sessions of "An Evening with ......." meetings. Often these have been well attended. I can't help but feel that the Church has to meet with society in places other than it has done in the past or the Church will soon be as a museum.

Sometime back, I lightheartedly suggested to my Superintendent Minister that I would like to go into the Big Brother House. Possibly seeing gaps emerging in the Circuit Plan, hole in pastoral care and the very real possibility that I might be a timb bomb under Methodism, she wisely rejected my offer. But still, I wonder if someone with the right skills and personality who is just a little media savvy, were to go into the House, we just might reach people we have for far too long been missing out on.

Just a thought. Any volunteers? Where is Methodism's George Galloway?

Oh and by the way given that last year, one of the contenders found her difficult mother in law parachuted in how about a visit this year by Christopher Hitchens? A repeat of tthe recent Hitchen vs Galloway debate/slanging match would certainly make for entertaining if not particularly edifying viewing - a bit like putting Rebekah Wade and myself into the House (I'd have to start the fireworks as she has yet to hear of me!).