Month: September 2013
Incarnation has no substitute (Gannon Sims)
Gannon Sims looks at why incarnation has no substitute.
When introducing fresh expressions of church, we say that – whatever our placement within any number of US denominational contexts: Anglican, Baptist or otherwise – fresh expressions can never be sold as another church-renewal technique because the language of fresh expressions is rooted in an historic understanding of what it means to be church.
The words we use to describe fresh expressions shed light on the church as it has always been; a church that – regardless of theology, denomination or connection – is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. These are the marks of the church. While these words might scare a good many Baptists, and the limited treatment of these words will be deemed insufficient for a good many Catholics, the words ground our faith in something that transcends culture and time.
Christopher West, the apologist for Pope John Paul II's teachings on love, life and human sexuality – Theology of the Body, has said that while many religious expressions are located in the language of one culture; the Christian faith is rooted in the language of the human body—transcending any one culture. It is the image of the body through which we interpret the marks of the church.
Too often, however, the marks of an embodied faith are substituted for the marks of organisational sustainability. In order to make the church one, we might substitute finance for friendship. In a rush to clearly define a fresh expression as church, we might appear holy – only to miss the mark by pouring new wine into old wineskins.
We substitute that which is catholic, and by that we mean a connection across the world and across time, by expecting a level of engagement between the fresh expression of church and the sponsoring church or denomination before those in the fresh expression have realized church on a global scale. We might substitute that which is apostolic for a pattern of missionary engagement that fits neatly within the confines of a blog post rather than upon a prayerful reflection upon the reality of the Incarnation.
The Church is no stranger to these sorts of struggles. We need to look no further than the Apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians to discover how the church has found the balance. Paul recognized early in his ministry that for the message of the Gospel to take root among the Gentiles, he had to come to a certain level of agreement with church at Jerusalem about the core marks of the ecclesia.
The rules of cultural engagement in Jerusalem were different than the rules in Iconium – just as they are today between Westminster and Washington. Because the body of Christ transcends cultural location, Jerusalem gave Paul permission to reach people that the church at Jerusalem could never reach.
Cove Church (the Gathering)
Pastor David Swan tells how a growing community on the south side of Aberdeen is part of the Church of Scotland but is also exploring fresh expressions as part of its ministry.
I was originally a church planter with OMF International (Overseas Missionary Fellowship) in Thailand but then I felt God was calling me into the Church of Scotland. All the way through my training, I knew I wasn't going to be a traditional parish minister and – by the time I came to be interviewed for the position at Cove – I could tell them that they would be employing me as a planter rather than a church minister because my ministry was more apostolic than pastoral. I've been here for eight years now.
In Scotland, at that time, the concept of fresh expressions of church was not one we were overly familiar with though we did have the Church of Scotland's A Church without Walls report and there was increased focus on emerging ministries.
The first three years were quite challenging due to the history of how Cove Church had come into being but it has been a journey of redefining our aspirational values and asking ourselves, 'How do they work out in practice?' A key element of that was always to have 'home churches', bringing them all together on Sunday as a Gathering – which I feel is a good culturally appropriate Scottish way of talking about assembly or ecclesia.
So we now meet together in café style on Sunday mornings at Loirston Annexe in Cove and, during the week, some of us meet in smaller groups in homes in and around the town. In saying that, in Aberdeen there has been resistance to folk meeting in homes due I think to value put on privacy in this part of the world – being a Glaswegian and having worked in Asia that is something I have found hard to comprehend.
However, we now have two of these home churches and people now love and appreciate them for how they follow the model of welcome, worship, word and witness to:
- have fellowship together;
- support and encourage each other to explore what God is saying to us.
Things are changing; we are now becoming a parish grouping with our sister church – South St Nicholas – which means that we 'share' Dan Robertson as our new community minister for Cove and Kincorth. Dan began as Associate Minister for South St Nicholas Church in September 2010 and much has happened in the time that he and his wife Stef have been there.
It is interesting that, as time has gone on, the congregation has changed dramatically in terms of its make-up. Although we are part of wider Presbyterian network, they don't see their primary identity as Presbyterians – however, they would say that being part of the Church of Scotland adds a certain local credibility and gives reassurance to many that we are not a sect!
Some things have developed and then stopped, including a youth and family charitable outreach project called Blue Horizon, which we developed with 2 other partner churches. The project did much to build bridges in the community, and show care and encouragement to teenagers and the parents of teenagers. We are sad to see the project fold this year but we can see a positive legacy of relationship building that we hope we can develop towards more intentional mission. Beyond Blue Horizon we want to continue to bless, encourage and serve the families and young people in Cove and Kincorth.
On Sunday (29th September 2013) we launched a new initiative called engage to seek to bless our community in any way we can think of – we will start by welcoming people to new homes being built in the area and saying thank you to the heroes of our community. From there, we want to expand and share ideas to get out and about and be a blessing to others and worship God not just with words but by kind acts and works of service. engage will run on the last Sunday of every month and will start by meeting together at Loirston Annexe at 10.30am as usual, and then we'll take it for there.
We do have a lot going on at the moment. Our children and youth programme (Blast) meets as part of the Gathering every Sunday while our teen home church gets together every month for fun, food and an open conversation of what it means to follow Jesus as a teenager in today's world.
For the more mature in age, Seniors is a relaxed, friendly group which also meets monthly at Altens Community Centre. We start the afternoon with a catch-up over tea and coffee and have a theme for the day which is usually of a spiritual nature.
The way I describe all of this is that we are on a journey to be what we always said that we were – but we weren't. We want to be a true fresh expression of church but we're not yet.
In the Church of Scotland, we need to have a new 'language' to describe what churches like ours are doing. Some people think we are 'playing at being church' and there can be little recognition of the values involved in being a different form of church. The thinking is along the lines of, 'You are a little, experimental church but eventually you will grow up, become like us and settle down again'.
Here, the normal procedure – after a period of years – would be for us to go for what we call 'full status' but we don't want to do that as an independent church. Instead we will begin as part of a parish grouping and explore how to structure ourselves slightly differently in the way we do things. We do need to have a mechanism where a fresh expression church is recognised within the wider church – as any parish church is recognised by the wider church.
From the end of May to the beginning of July I was on a study leave programme looking at fresh expressions of church in England. During that time – and as part of a reading week in Glasgow and prayer week walking the West Highland Way – I was surprised that God was speaking to me more about discipleship and making disciples the way Jesus did. It should seem obvious that we make disciples the way the master did it – so why don't we?
At Cove, we really want to take on that challenge. What does that look like in this area in the 21st century? It's important to keep on asking those difficult questions.
Starting and sustaining a fresh expression of church (Share booklets 01-08)
In recent years, hundreds of new churches have been formed. These fresh expressions of church are aiming to create church among people who have never belonged to a church, or who once did, but belong no more.
Share booklets combine spiritual insight with practical knowledge to offer guidance in starting and sustaining a fresh expression of church.
Starting and sustaining a fresh expression of church explores the basics of growing a fresh expression of church. Explore how fresh expressions of church emerge, how and what to start, getting support and funding, finding the way, sustainability and building a team.
This booklet includes Share booklets 01-08, all of which are available separately:
- How can fresh expressions emerge? (Share booklet 01)
How can fresh expressions emerge? What sort of journeys do fresh expressions follow?
- How should we start? (Share booklet 02)
How should we start? is all about a process we call 'exploring'. It's about discovery. What is God doing? What might he be calling you to do? Who can you work with?
- What should we start? (Share booklet 03)
What should we start? is about discernment – finding out what God is calling you to do by discovering prayerfully what opportunities exist and what resources are available.
- How can we get support? (Share booklet 04)
How can we get support? is about how to check out your ideas and plans with the people whose backing the venture needs. Fresh expressions of church never begin in isolation. They always need support from outside.
- How can we find our way? (Share booklet 05)
How can we find our way? is about envisaging the journey ahead by making sense of the route already travelled.
- How can we be sustainable? (Share booklet 06)
How can we be sustainable? is about considering sustainability in the very early stages of a fresh expression of church, not when the venture is well underway.
- How can we be a great team? (Share booklet 07)
How can we be a great team? is about the vital importance of attending to the team (or missional community) throughout a fresh expression's life.
- How can we finance a fresh expression? (Share booklet 08)
How can we finance a fresh expression? is about how to put down strong financial roots to allow for both start-up costs and long-term sustainability, helping you to weather the storms of economic instability.
Left Bank Leeds
Youth worker and Baptist minister Simon Hall is involved with the Revive community and Left Bank Leeds. He explains why it's very difficult to know where one ends and the other begins.
Revive has been a bit of everything in the past. It was a youth congregation 20 years ago but, obviously, the people have got older and Revive eventually became a church plant rather than a congregation within a larger church.
We moved into Hyde Park, the 'boho', bedsit land area of Leeds because we knew the people we wanted to reach and where they lived. Revive has had its ups and downs, with many mistakes being made along the way, but in many ways we can now see Left Bank as a perfect fulfilment of Revive's original vision.
Revive saw young, single, people with alternative lifestyles and felt that these people weren't going to connect with traditional churches at all. We wanted to put church in their way and make God more accessible. Well, we haven't seen revival since then but we have seen a few people become Christians and others explore faith more deeply.
In more recent times, members of Revive helped to found a project called Left Bank Leeds, an arts and events venue based in the amazing surroundings of the former St Margaret of Antioch church in Hyde Park.
The building hadn't been in weekly use for some years, although occasional services had taken place there. From the outside, it's not the most attractive of places but inside it's huge; a mock gothic cathedral with a real 'wow' factor. We had funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other funders for major repair work which began in July 2008 and finished in February 2011.
The idea was that it would be a centre for arts and culture, for new thought and new ideas, friendly and full of life – which is why we called it Left Bank, after the artistic district of Paris known as the Rive Gauche.
Half of the people who got behind it were from Revive and the other half from another local church. Left Bank is kind of undergirded by these people, most of whom are still either staff or trustees. There is also a wider community of Christians who ensure that the explicitly Christian part of the vision is maintained – known as the Left Bank God Group, they are involved in the day-to-day God 'stuff' and bits of programming that have a clear faith emphasis. There are about 20 people in the Left Bank God Group and most of them are part of Revive.
The other side of it is that we have got a wider group of people who have been drawn into the community through volunteering, about 200 of them. That's where conversations about faith occur naturally rather than us trying to manufacture opportunities. In the old days, I guess you'd call it an attractional model but it's the building and project which are bringing people together, rather than a service. We don't have to work hard at building community, it's all around us.
A great example of Left Bank programming would be Amazing Graze, our street food and culture festival. We worked in partnership with street food traders and buskers to create a unique weekend event – the vision came in part from the bad experiences of a member of Revive who is a professional busker; we wanted to celebrate the diversity of life on the street and celebrate 'the commons'. In the autumn we'll be working together on a massive Narnia community project – as pioneered by Liverpool's In Another Place. It will involve about 300-400 people, including professional sound engineers, lighting designers and producers wanting to lend a hand. Isn't this what church is supposed to be like with so many people using their gifts – a lot of them Christians, a lot of them not?
For the next six months, we will all be getting involved in the Narnia project but it's difficult to know where the boundaries are. Revive doesn't meet in Left Bank, it's too big! I live with my family in two terraced houses which we knocked into one and I think we have had about 50 people meeting in there at times. We've also got one or two other places that we go to and we have met in church buildings in the past but that just didn't work for us.
Revive was definitely a young people's and then young adults' church. We have been really blessed in that quite a few of those people are still involved but it's quite hard keeping a church of that type going. Every now and then we'd say, 'Shall we just give it up?' and have a meeting to talk about it – but we kept on going because it's definitely like a family; I can only think of one or two people who have really left.
We are still only about 40 adults and 20 kids even when we are all together but we also have a much bigger group of people from all over the world who, in some way, feel they are part of it.
We still do the thing that churches do and meet on a Sunday but we also have a strong focus on vocation and small groups meeting around a common purpose. We have:
- book Group which is involved in organising open debates and lectures;
- 'blokes' Group. Someone in the church bought some woodland and is trying to set up a programme to take kids from the city to learn bushcraft skills (this is sort of shared with another church);
- women's Group, a prayer group exclusively for women in the church;
- group for people who are musicians or really into music;
- group for those who want to get involved in Forest Church;
- the Left Bank God Group;
- a very informal leadership group made up of anyone who wants to discuss what we should do next.
The small groups work as a sort of free market. They start and, if they gather people, they carry on. There is no central idea or strategy along the lines of, 'Oh we must have a small group based on…'
When Revive started we had some priming money. Over three years, we were given money from the Baptist Union and individuals were able to make up the rest.
I have never worked more than half time for Revive and, technically, I only work a day a week for them. We also have an organised, admin-type, person who does half a day a week. I would have thought our annual budget is in the region of about £10,000 a year. Thankfully, we have a few people involved who earn good money and they also support it financially.
Left Bank Leeds is a quintessential social enterprise. There is a charity that owns the building, with responsibility for the faith and heritage side of it. On top of that, we set up a Community Interest Company – which is the new legal vehicle for social enterprises – and that deals with the community and the arts ventures. We also have a commercial arm, renting the space out for gigs, parties, conferences and – in the summer – lots of weddings!
In terms of the future at LeftBankLeeds, there is a long list of needs to improve its facilities. Long term plans at the moment include:
- development of a café bar at the front of the building. People are certainly attracted to the space but, at the moment, it's too big for them to feel able to stop. We want to ensure that there is community there every day;
- continuing to curate a gathered space for all the creatives in the city; we want to be the catalyst to make things happen
For God Group, we are working on two things that people could pray for:
- permanent exhibits that draw people towards God. There are already plans in the pipeline to have the Chartres labyrinth as part of our new floor;
- commissioning other arts that would just give people pause – not as invasions of space but that the space would allow them to consider what life is all about.
We have reached an amazing new stage with Revive. While we have always wanted to reach out the truth is we have always been like a hospital for people with heart conditions – people who have been hurt by church, people who have asked too many questions of their churches and come unstuck – but now they are finding 'real' church again. This has always been the main way that the community has grown and sustained itself.
At the moment we feel less like a hospice and more like a hospital, where people are actually getting well! We have been quite well known in the past for writing quite melancholy songs, but at the moment we are having to write songs of faith, hope and love because as a community we are finding out feet and want to be more positive.
Left Bank has a chequered history. It is a long time since it was full, if it ever was. Changing demographics in the area – first Irish Catholics, then Pakistani Muslims – mean that there was never a large congregation. And it means that the building doesn't have a place in the heart of the community, even though it is the largest building by some way. Most people who visit Left Bank have never been in it when it was a church, which has turned out to be a great help to us as people don't immediately associate it with religion. This new phase in the life of the building is fulfilling the vision of the original church in new ways, as well as the vision of Revive.
Andrew Vertigan on a new partnership
Intuitive liturgy at The Garden Centre (Robert Harrison)
Robert Harrison reflects on intuitive liturgy at The Garden Centre.
Is it possible to have a liturgy that is so intuitive and culturally apt that it doesn't require any service sheets or projectors, introductions or explanations – or repeated attendance – to get the hang of it?
From the evidence of my annual 'pilgrimage' to Greenbelt, it seems that the answer is: no. Assembled musicians and comedians manage to actively engage their followers without any of these artificial 'aids', but Christian worship liturgies – it appeared – cannot.
My mind turned to the faithful, little fresh expression in my own parish – simply known as The Garden Centre.
Every other Sunday, about eight people gather in the café at our local garden centre. They buy a cup of tea and gather round a table for an hour or so of gently guided conversation – usually based on the theme which St John's is exploring that month but always starting with the needs and concerns of those present. If there is a birthday or other cause for celebration, someone brings a cake, and the café staff provide plates and cutlery. Then, when the tea is drunk, the cake eaten, the concerns shared and the theme explored, a poem or prayer offered, people say their goodbyes and the gathering dissipates.
It is a liturgy. From the first hello to the last goodbye there is a familiar pattern of action and interaction that holds the event together and ensures a helpful balance. But this liturgy is so natural that it doesn't require any artificial aids to maintain, and is free enough to respond swiftly to the needs of those present. It is a liturgy that is natural, intuitive and culturally apt.
Casting my mind across the gospels, it seems that Jesus habitually employed such natural liturgies. The temple of the Sadducees and the synagogues of the Pharisees had complex liturgies which required scrolls or memorisation to keep them going, and were subject to all manner of rules and traditions. Jesus, however, engaged with people around the common patterns of ordinary life.
He was not attempting to re-imagine temple or synagogue for a new generation; he was showing people that the realm of God was right where they were and all around them in the reality of their own lives. This is no less true of the way he engaged his disciples at the Last Supper, when he subtly tweaked the established pattern on Jewish table fellowship to such dramatic effect that we are still reeling from its impact.
Imagine a day, a century or two for now, when devout religious folk at some future incarnation of Greenbelt might try to revive the worship of the Hillingdon Garden Centre group. They will have to source the tea and the furniture though specialist ecclesiastical suppliers; the cake will be baked to a 'traditional' recipe and be quite unpalatable to the tastes of the day; and the opening responses:
- Minister: Hello, how are you?
- All: Good thanks. And you?
- Minister: OK
will need to be written out and explained because half the words may no longer exist in the language of the day.
All too often, we over-complicate our gatherings. We want them feel special (holy), so we add unusual stuff. We want them to echo the traditions of the past, so we add old stuff. We want them to express an incomprehensible God, so we add incomprehensible stuff. But the special, traditional and divine stuff doesn't naturally resonate, so it requires scripts, explanations or patient experience in order to fully take part.
This is what Jesus did not do on the hillsides and lakesides of Galilee.
Hillingdon's Garden Centre group grew, like many fresh expressions, from a desire to reach out to practical needs within the local community. It started life in a council-owned shop front providing tea and friendship to isolated pensioners, and relocated to the garden centre when the council closed the shop. It didn't really intend to become a 'church'; that only happened because the folk enjoyed talking about God and life so much that they asked for more.
Whether or not it counts as a 'church' now can remain a matter of opinion. It doesn't matter to the people who go. They break cake instead of bread. They sing, 'happy birthday' instead of the Sanctus. They listen to each other's concerns instead of explicitly praying. They drink tea instead of red wine. And I, the vicar, make a conscious decision not to go – in case I spoil it.
When I walked around Greenbelt, pondering to myself that a natural liturgy would require no service sheet, no PowerPoint, no explanation, no instructions, and no hard-won familiarity, I had already promised to write this piece about our wonderful little Garden Centre gathering. It was an unexpected turn of events to discover that this – perhaps – is a natural liturgy, and is more akin to the ministry of Jesus than I had expected.
feed.
feed. is a fresh expression of church run by skiers and snowboarders – for skiers and snowboarders – in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. Mike Keith describes the café church with a difference.
Mt Hutt ski area is known to have one of the best mixes of mountain terrain in New Zealand; it's just over an hour's drive from Christchurch and about 35 minutes from the town of Methven.
Feed. is an initiative of All Saints Anglican Church, Methven and it has traditionally taken place on Sunday evenings for nearly 20 weeks from June to October – our winter season. The original vision came from the previous minister, Dave Clancey, and it has now been running for five years; I've only been the minister at All Saints for about nine months so I 'inherited' it as a going concern.
It started because people come to Methven from all around the world to work in the ski/snowboard industry. Some might be Mt Hutt staff, like instructors, or they may work in the hospitality and catering industry. They need to hear about Jesus! The church very much saw a need in its surrounding area and began a fresh expression to engage with that need.
We are now planning to extend feed. over our summer months. Whilst the focus in Methven shifts away from people directly involved in winter snow sports, there remain international workers – as well as locals – who come to see feed. as their spiritual home so this is very encouraging.
In our planning for this season, we broadened our aim to reach not only those associated with the ski industry but also locals and farmers in the surrounding areas. Methven has a core population of about 1,400, which increases significantly in the winter, but we are in a fast-growing area with rich farmland. Many of the farms nearby are converting from sheep to dairy and this is bringing more employment. We have found that some of these people, many of whom are from overseas – particularly the Philippines – are starting to attend feed. One of the reasons they come is simply because it takes place the evening; the morning isn't suitable at all for dairy workers!
The format each week is:
- open with a welcome at 6pm;
- give thanks and eat;
- ask question to fit in with the theme or talk;
- play an audio visual (see our facebook group page for some of the audio visuals – and additional comments about what happens from week to week);
- interview someone – might be a newer person to get to know them or a Christian to give their testimony about what Jesus has done for them;
- the interviewee plays a snowboard race game as a bit of fun
- Bible reading;
- 15-20min Bible talk;
- prayer;
- additional audio visual;
- table discussion;
- coffee and dessert.
We uncompromisingly teach the truth about Jesus from the Bible, his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and the joy of eternal life. We do so in love – in an appropriate and respectful way – giving the opportunity for people to discuss and debate, agree or disagree. Bible reading and teaching is an essential and non-negotiable part of our time together; the format must include this.
There was a break of nearly a year between ministers and, during that time, feed. was lay-run – with visiting speakers each week. The church 'really 'took ownership' of feed. and there is still a lot of lay involvement, particularly in getting everything ready, technical stuff (audio visual), cooking, washing up and packing everything away. It's pretty labour intensive, particularly the cooking, as we average about 30-40 people each week but we have had over 60 people at times.
I am very grateful for the team of helpers we have and for the generosity of our parishioners who donate food, money, and many other things. Without such dedicated lay people, it simply wouldn't happen. It is very much a ministry of our church that gives the opportunity for everyone to be involved.
Each week, there are at least one or two newcomers and, for many, it is their first church experience. Every new person gets a welcome pack containing a gospel and some carefully chosen tracts – as well as a chocolate bar or two! Over time, we welcome in people of all ages, from the early teens right through to the more 'mature aged'.
Another very positive outcome is that the format has proved attractive to a core group of younger people. We currently do not have any ministries at church to cater for them but, as a result of feed's success we have just decided to launch a weekly 'Junior Youth Club' where they can come together in a weekly, afterschool, fellowship group.
I am also a chaplain for Mt Hutt and this is a ministry which very much complements 'feed.' in that I am part of the employment support for employees and guests. This means I actively build relationships with the staff, some of whom also come along to 'feed'. Many of them are also 'locals' so the chaplaincy is a community role which allows me to build connections with people in the immediate area.
I don't really know what people mean when they talk about going 'to the edge' in ministry. For me, it is simply a matter of doing what the church should always be doing, namely 'teaching the truth in love'. If anything is 'on the edge', it is that we look to remove any 'unhelpful', church barriers so that unchurched people – who might feel uncomfortable with the traditions and liturgy of a more 'traditional' church service setting – can feel comfortable when they come.
There are no set prayers or liturgy, no singing and I don't wear my collar – I wear a t-shirt, hoodie and jeans – because it's much more casual and relaxed. We sit around tables, eat, talk, laugh, have fun and are also serious together.
We still have collection but we don't have collection plates – we have a ski boot mounted on a mini ski. If people see feed as their 'spiritual home', they have the chance to financially partner with what we are doing. When I think about it, I suppose many traditional churchgoers would probably see what we do as going 'to the edge.' Some may even think we've fallen off the edge! I'd like to assure them that where the gospel message about Jesus is preached faithfully, God is at work in people's lives. That's what our task as a church is all about isn't it?
We want to reach those not normally reached by traditional churches because 'traditional church' is unattractive to this segment of the community – hence the subtitle under 'feed' is 'Church done differently'.
There certainly is potential for 'feed.' to be 'duplicated' in other places around the world. We'd be very happy to see a multiplication of gospel-centred ministries that follow the same format as feed. In fact, I understand that when the feed logo was developed as feed. (with a full stop), it was done so deliberately so that feed. in other places around the world could be easily identified. We describe ourselves as 'feed.methven' but potentially you could have 'feed.aspen' etc, etc.
The idea was that feed. fresh expressions of church could be planted all around the world. At the moment, as I'm just coming to the end of my first winter season here, I'm just trying to keep things going locally before taking any action in promoting the idea globally – except through the people who come.
Feed. really is a church in its own right. We also run a more traditional morning church in Methven, but it doesn't mean that the people who come in the evening are any different from those who come in the morning; they both get the same spiritual food (my sermons are the same, although adapted to suit the audience). We don't expect people to 'graduate' to traditional church, they are already are 'in church'.
However I must admit that, in many ways, feed. is a 'church growing in maturity' and perhaps – as we mature – we may see it introduce some things you may also expect in a more traditional church setting, like singing for example. Nonetheless, seeing feed. – which attracts the unchurched – also challenges us to think about how we do 'traditional' church so that our morning services are more open and welcoming to newcomers!
It helps us to think through why we do the things we do in relation to the task of reaching the unreached. It seems that the 'traditional' style of church unhelpfully hinders the unchurched, so we need to think differently – without compromising what we are all about, namely the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.
Crossing boundaries
Katie Miller is a Reader with St Michael's CoFE Church, Hellesdon, near Norwich, and heads up a lay leadership team serving the Marlpit council estate. As she prepares to train in pioneer ministry at Ridley Hall, Katie tells how Christians can fall into the trap of stereotyping council estate residents.
The first half of the Marlpit was built in the 1930s with the rest going up in the 1960s and it is squeezed between a main road and the River Wensum. We are with the parish across the river so there is a very real sense of the Marlpit being out on its own.
It is known as a deprived area and St Michael's had been involved in the Marlpit for 40 years before its first 'home' on the estate closed down in 2007. It turned out that not having a permanent church base was a blessing because there is such a sense here that the church is part of the establishment so it was very helpful to be able to say, 'We are church but we have got nowhere to meet.' Relationships grew from that and it was useful to learn that you can very much build from a position of powerlessness.
Our fresh expression of church, which meets in a school, has grown entirely from local people and it includes young and old, different nationalities, those with church backgrounds and others with no previous experience of church at all. At one stage, there were two people (including me) with doctorates in a congregation of 15. It's important never to assume who is going to turn up at any given time!
We tend to describe ourselves as having six ministries in the Marlpit, one of which happens to be a Sunday morning time of worship. The rest involve all sorts of things, including a community choir and a mid-day mini service which takes place after our toddlers' group. Bex Toft, who lives on the estate, now oversees all the children's work and it's wonderful to have such a good local leader.
The major advantage of being in such a great place as this is its diversity. I find incredible honesty here, people tend to be very open and are not frightened of saying, 'I'm having a terrible time; this is what's happening.' That sort of openness creates close relationships very quickly and makes for a quality of fellowship that I have rarely come across elsewhere.
I'm shocked at the ways in which some people imagine life on a council estate. The fact is that Marlpit residents are the same as anyone else; they want to have stable relationships, they want their kids to do well at school and so on. I don't feel what I'm doing is more 'worthy' or 'radical' simply because of where I'm based.
Stereotypes abound and terrible assumptions can be made that everyone on a council estate is unemployed and living on benefits. The truth is that there is a huge mix of people in varying situations, there are working people, people looking for work, people who have retired from work, people who are not well enough to work and many, many others.
Sometimes Christians can be nervous of coming on to the Marlpit. I have known people be rather unsure – to say the least – about bringing their cars onto the estate for a joint church meeting. It's a sad fact that I have also come across churches more willing to go to Africa with a mission team than serve a local council estate.
To me, much comes down to a ministry of reconciliation because one of the major obsessions in our society is class distinction. Church should be capable of breaking moulds and not be put off by the 'externals' of people not wearing the same kinds of things as us or acting in the same sort of way. We, as Christians, should be the last people to judge others on how they look and where they live.
I think people are worried that they will be overwhelmed by need. What I have learned is that if we are spiritually trying to fix people all the time we'll burn ourselves out – whether we serve on a council estate or anywhere else. Our first calling is not to fix people but to love people.
And whatever we do, just remember to listen to God and to the people he places in your path. Listening is one of the greatest gifts that we have to offer in contemporary society, wherever we live.