Methodists are successfully reaching out in their local communities with new and inventive ways of fulfilling the call of Jesus to serve others.

Members of the Lincoln North Circuit are making a real difference in their local area with the help of their ministry bus, the God Pod, according to Methodist magazine The Buzz.

The bus is becoming a regular fixture in Cherry Wilmington thanks to the weekly visits it makes to the village's shopping area where Pod staff help carry shopping and chat to shop owners. Locals are also invited onboard the bus for a hot drink and to share prayer requests.

"The 'Pod' has allowed us to establish a church presence in public and every week we stand as witnesses for Jesus, come rain or shine!" the Rev Mark Lawrence told The Buzz.

"Is it easy being there every week? No! Jesus never said it would be. But he did say, 'You will be my witnesses'."

At Great Glen Methodist Church in Leicestershire, meanwhile, congregants took time out recently to rustle up a free barbecue in front of their church building, which sits on a busy T-junction.

Members of the church invited passers-by to stop for a free burger, drink and chat, and after two hours of outreach had served up more than 100 burgers and hotdogs.

The church's David Moore told the Buzz: "It's one of our ways of reaching folk in the village who might not want to brave an entry into the church itself."