The youth fellowship of Accra Ridge Church
A room that
keeps a seat.
Every Sunday a few hundred young people fill a hall on the Ridge to sing badly, listen properly, and work out what any of it means on a Monday morning. That is the whole thing. Everything below is detail.
- Ages 13–30
- Ridge, Accra
- Sundays, 10:30
- Everyone welcome
Nobody arrives finished.
Some of us have been coming since we were twelve and know every chorus. Some turned up last Sunday because a friend would not stop asking. Both are the right way to arrive, and after a month nobody can remember which you were.
What holds it together is not that everyone agrees. It is that the same people keep showing up for each other — at exams, at funerals, at the airport at five in the morning when somebody is leaving for school abroad.
A Sunday, hour by hour.
So that nothing about a first visit is a surprise. You can arrive late and leave early, and hundreds of people do.
10:15
Doors
Someone is on the door who will not let you slip past unnoticed. This is on purpose.
10:30
Worship
Loud, and not always in tune. Stand, sit, sing, or watch — nobody is auditing you.
11:10
Teaching
Twenty-five minutes on one passage, aimed at people with school, exams, work and rent.
11:45
Notices
What is coming, who needs help, and the week ahead. Shorter than it used to be.
12:00
Nobody leaves
The part nobody plans. Half an hour of standing around talking, which is where the fellowship actually happens.
The week, as we keep it.
Three fixed points, and a great deal that happens between them. Most people start with one and find the rest later.
Sunday
The whole fellowship in one room. Worship, teaching, and a great deal of noise before and after.
- When
- Sundays, 10:30
- Where
- Church Hall
Midweek
Smaller rooms and harder questions. This is where the Sunday sermon gets argued with properly.
- When
- Wednesdays, 18:30
- Where
- Upper Room
Outreach
We go where we are needed, and we take absolutely everybody along.
- When
- Last Saturday
- Where
- Around Accra
More than a Sunday
There is a great deal going on.
Music, drama, study, sport and service. Most people find their way in through one of these rather than through the gathering itself — you come for the football and stay for everything else.
Bible study
Small groups working slowly through a book at a time. Nobody is asked to read aloud, and nobody has to know where Habakkuk is.
Wednesdays
Music
The band that carries Sunday. Guitarists, drummers, keys and anyone who can hold a rhythm and turn up to rehearsal.
Saturdays
Choir
Four parts, one anthem a month, and a standard considerably higher than anyone expects on first hearing.
Fridays
Drama
Sketches for Sunday and the bigger pieces at Christmas and Easter. Writing, acting, and the people who make the props at midnight.
Fortnightly
Sports
Football mostly, and whatever else gets organised on a WhatsApp thread at short notice. The league is taken far too seriously.
Saturdays
Outreach
Visits, service and the last Saturday of the month, when the fellowship leaves the building and goes where it is needed.
Monthly
Camp
One week away together every year. Teaching, worship, football, far too little sleep, and the friendships that carry the rest.
Once a year
Media
Sound, projection and photographs. The reason anybody can hear the sermon and the reason there is anything to look back on.
Sundays
What we are actually like.
You are welcome before you believe anything
Nobody is asked to sign up to a position at the door. Come and sit at the back for a year if you like — plenty have, and several of them run things now.
Questions are not a problem to be managed
Doubt is not the opposite of faith. A room that cannot hold a hard question is not a room worth sitting in, so ask the awkward one.
Faith is something you do together
We are a fellowship rather than an audience. That means teams, camp, service, and turning up for each other on ordinary weekdays when nothing is on.
Growing up does not mean leaving
People arrive at thirteen and leave at thirty having led something. The whole point is that you outgrow the back row.
Before you come
The questions everybody asks.
Usually in a whisper, on the way out, to whoever seems least official.
What do I wear?
I do not know anybody.
Do I have to believe all of it?
Am I too old, or too young?
Do I need to bring anything?
Do I have to become a member?
Come this Sunday. Tell us your name after.
You do not have to join anything to turn up, and nobody will chase you if you do not come back. But if you would like to be on the roll and hear what is coming, it takes about two minutes.