Author: ben-clymo
Saturday Gathering
Linda Maslen is one of the lay leaders of a growing community of new disciples of Jesus in Halifax.
The Saturday Gathering story began with a foodbank and a group of Christians acting on Jesus' words to feed the hungry. The Halifax Food and Support Drop-in has been running for five years and it is supported by over 70 local churches – as well as schools, local organisations, businesses and individuals in Calderdale.
The churches and organisations work in partnership to provide a weekly Drop-in point, allowing vulnerable people many with often chaotic lifestyles to collect a free food parcel. These include the homeless, destitute asylum seekers, those suffering from drug or alcohol misuse or individuals experiencing extreme hardship.
The Drop-in takes place on a Saturday morning from 9.30am to midday at the New Ebenezer Centre in Halifax, formerly Ebenezer Methodist Church which closed down as a church a couple of years ago. The Methodists decided to keep the building, make it an ecumenical venue and rent out its rooms to the community.
It's in Halifax town centre and the areas that we draw from are urban priority with the church itself sitting in one of the poorest parishes in the UK.
As time went on with the Drop-in, more and more of more of our guests started to ask for prayer. When they began to see those prayers were being answered, they came into a relationship with God but settling people into existing churches proved difficult for our new family members and the congregations.
I saw this at first hand when someone came along to the church I go to. It is a friendly and family-orientated place but it was still a very alien environment if you have had no previous involvement with church. It made me stop and think about everything we take for granted and how we treat someone who has come in from the 'outside' and who doesn't know what you're 'meant' to know.
We need to be aware that people with varying backgrounds and life challenges may take a step forwards in faith but might then take a couple of steps back. I find it very sad if Christians don't want to walk with these new converts when they're going through a 'downtime'. Sometimes it seems that they're interested in the stories of coming to faith but not the struggles that many people then face.
All of this made me think about church not working properly for newcomers who didn't 'fit in' and I knew we had to do something different in order to prepare the way for them.
We tried a couple of things that didn't work out but, 15 months ago, Saturday Gathering was born. It takes place in the same venue as the Drop-in from 7pm-9pm on Saturday evenings. That's when we all have a meal, share stories from the Bible or use DVDs to prompt discussion, and pray and sing. God has done so much in our time together; we've seen chaotic lives changed, addictions broken and relationships healed. We started with 12 people and now have about 60. Some people move on into more traditional fellowships and we encourage that, but others very much see Saturday Gathering as their church – though that was something we struggled with for some time.
For probably the first nine months of Saturday Gathering's existence, we said, 'We are not a church, we are a gathering' but the thing was developing at such a pace that we had to seriously consider whether we were a missional community, a fresh expression of church or something else entirely!
Our community had already decided because they were referring to Saturday Gathering as church. This was underlined on Saturday (11th January 2014) when the Bishop of Pontefract baptised and confirmed 19 of our new family members, all of whom wanted the service to be in the place that had become their spiritual home. We now describe it as a church that is both dependent – and interdependent – on other churches.
Numbers continue to grow. More families are coming to the Drop-in and to Saturday Gathering as well. We're particularly seeing a lot of single dads who are looking after their children at weekends; all they have to live on is £35 a week in benefits so by the time the children come there is nothing left. We're told that for many of them the highlight of their weekend is coming to Drop-in and Saturday Gathering for food, warmth and for the friendship and love they receive.
In September, we launched a Family Gathering to support the children that come to the Drop-in. That runs at the same time as the Drop-in on a Saturday morning and we get local council money to do that.
There are three of us involved in leadership of Saturday Gathering. We are all lay people, none of us are paid for what we do there but I also work full-time and am in the second year of (part-time) ordination training with the Yorkshire Ministry Course at Mirfield. We are very fortunate to have a lot of volunteers drawn from various congregations and one of the local vicars has provided us with great spiritual support. We work hard at building and maintaining relationships and Saturday Gathering has encouraged many of the local church leaders – with most of them are playing a bit of a part in it.
I will do everything I can to encourage indigenous leadership but that really does take time – unless God provides people out of the blue! Something that has proved to be helpful is the involvement of a few of our guys as 'watchmen' at Saturday Gathering. It's quite a male concentrated community so the 'watchmen' keep an eye out for anyone trying to bring in alcohol or drugs of any kind. They also watch over what's happening and are happy to go and pray with anyone who is on their own. Being a 'watchman' gives them bit of authority that enables them rather than constrains them.
Looking to the future and the council has been talking about giving us a lease on an old Sunday School building next door. It would be brilliant because we'd then have a base for our community 24/7. At the moment everything has to be moved in and then out again but there we would have proper catering facilities and a café.
One of our discussions is whether we should go for a BMO. However, we are in the Diocese of Wakefield and are going through the diocesan merger so I'm not too sure at the moment. We may well end up with Saturday Gathering coming under the wing of another church; that's something to be considered – as long as it retains its independence to grow organically.
I'd also like to see small groups running during the week. If we get what would be called The Gathering Place in the building next door, we could run those small groups in an evening without the additional cost of renting rooms.
Financial support has come from some interesting places. Not long after we started Saturday Gathering, the police got in touch to say they had got some money they would like us to apply for because we were taking their worst culprits off the streets on a Saturday night! Saturday Gathering running costs are £100 a week for food and renting of the room and, up to now, the community fund the police recommended to us have given us about £2,500 – so they have basically funded all of our food.
Saturday Gathering sits under the Christians Together charity in Halifax and we gather funding separately for the different elements of what we do. If donors want to give money for Christmas dinner, for instance, we can show them that it went specifically to that. Some are happy to support the Drop-in but not the openly faith-based Saturday Gathering.
Such a lot has happened in a relatively short time, and we thank God for all He has done and is doing. It is a real privilege to be able to join in with what He is doing. But I'd want to say that what has happened here can’t just be replicated. Saturday Gathering, as it is, is unique to this area but I really pray that we may be able to share some of our learning and ways of doing things with others praying about what might be applicable to their own context.
In the spotlight of statistics (Will Cookson)
Will Cookson discusses being in the spotlight of statistics.
Did you hear Radio 4's Today programme on New Year's Eve? The Archbishop of Canterbury was interviewed about the decline in numbers, and influence, of the Church of England. The statistics are, of course, pretty dreadful (only 20% self-defined themselves as Church of England in the 2011 census and that is down from 40% in 1981).
Now, the thing about numbers is that all too often people use them badly. They are either written off as 'lies, damned lies and statistics' or they are used badly to justify our own prejudices.
But good statistics should challenge us to think more clearly and deeply about what we face and – through prayer, discussion and thinking – enable us to perceive where God is calling us to be and to do. Good statistics shine a spotlight on us and our situation. The danger is that we try and pretend that they say something else or explain them away, precisely because they challenge us.
I have been struck afresh reading the call of the first disciples in the Gospel of Mark. What hit me was that when Jesus called them they were not promised where they were going or what their life would look like. They were just called to follow Jesus and to do so immediately. As Jesus says to them, 'Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!' (Mark 1.17 NLT). Their lives would never be the same again. The cost of giving up their life as it was, with their jobs and families and familiarity of routine, was to be replaced with a new and risky one.
One of the things that Archbishop Justin seemed to be saying in his Today interview was that we need to re-capture this adventure of travelling with Jesus; that we might not know what the future will look like but it is enough for us to be following Jesus and to use what we have to reach out with the good news.
Overall, the fresh expressions movement is encouraging churches to think creatively whilst preserving what is good. The Archbishop welcomed the way that fresh expressions of church have already increased the Church of England by the equivalent of two dioceses, with the vast majority of those attending from de-churched or unchurched backgrounds.
But more is needed
We need to continue to encourage one another to be adventurous and creative. This year at Springfield Church, we are beginning to build Missional Community Groups to reach out with the good news of Jesus – as well as experiment with more creative forms of services. For instance, we scrapped our traditional Nativity and carol services in 2013 and replaced them with a Christmas Experience, using gospel music and drama to re-tell the Christmas story.
But more is needed
We need to grow our understanding of the society that we seek to serve. That is why I am looking forward to the Faith in Research Church Growth Conference in London on Thursday, January 16. I'm looking forward to be challenged with more research and statistics as to how the church can grow further and what more is needed.
Kahaila – update Jan14
Down Community Church
County Down, in Northern Ireland, is the setting for a missional community reaching out to people who feel they 'don't fit' into a traditional church context.
A group of friends, including pastors Karen Sethuraman and Gordon McDade, had a vision that was launched in a hotel in the market town of Ballynahinch in October 2010 as Down Community Church or dcc. Karen and Gordon tell of the story so far.
The vision was conceived after many years of effective community outreach by active churches. The challenge came when it consistently proved difficult to integrate our new community contacts into the life of a more traditional model of church. We used to hear the same phrase again and again, 'I don't fit in there', and so we started to ask the searching question, 'What would it be like to plant a church for people who feel they don't fit?' We've been trying to answer that question for the last three years! In the process, we have discovered that there is a vast chasm between church and community when it comes to spiritual transformation and discipleship. We have not taken in any way from the other churches in the community but are seeking to be a different kind of spiritual community with the specific focus of reaching people across the whole community who have no connection with church.
It has been a very steep learning curve for us, not least because we initially failed to appreciate how inaccessible even a contemporary expression of church with songs, prayers and a talk, could be to people with no church background. So began a season of what came to be known as 'unlearning' which proved to be both unsettling and yet creative as we explored relevance and innovation together in the pursuit of meaningful belonging and believing.
Over time, and with many mistakes, a template has evolved within our journey that enables our fledgling community to engage with God and what it means to know and follow Jesus. For us, belonging is paramount and – because we see ourselves as a family and intentionally relational – a domestic motif has emerged to help us define and develop our model of community. Our vision has been galvanised by our values of grace, acceptance, equality, creativity, generosity and risk.
The Sunday morning gathering is known as the Living Room. Set up in café-style, there is endless coffee and extensive use of visual media in seeking to be culturally relevant with a recognition of the power of story and a conversational teaching component which is dialogical and interactive. There are about 50 people connected to dcc currently and attendance can be anywhere from 5 to 30, understandable in a world where commitment in general can be erratic and changeable. We have been constantly challenged by the need to reflect on our use of language and on our understanding and explanation of the gospel.
At the heart of the community are strong friendships based on accepting one another as we are – no matter what. Down Community Church is an open community where you can be yourself and – whether on a journey with God or not – be loved and supported. That support has meant trips to hospitals, courts, pubs, drying-out wards, prisons and homes of all kinds. The good news of Jesus has transcended divisions of class, politics, gender, sexuality, age, culture and ethnicity. Failure is never final in our community.
On alternate Wednesday evenings, we hold the Kitchen; a smaller group in a home with a culture of fun and family and faith. The model is conversational as we discuss and apply bite-size chunks of Bible to increasingly hungry appetites. This is where we are seeing significant spiritual growth in the community.
We are intentionally programme-light in dcc to enable us to engage in community events and so make new connections where we are. We enjoyed learning Irish recently and made some new friends there; it was wonderful to have an Irish carol at our Christmas gathering last year. And we have held our own events, which we call 'gates' – ways – into dcc. These can be curry nights, pub quizzes, sports events; all are organised simply to meet people. We have partnered with other community groups to run a food bank, do a litter lift and reach out to families bereaved by suicide. There is no them and us in dcc, in our community everyone is us.
We have set ourselves up as a limited company with charitable status and have a small board of directors who lead the community. We anticipate that future leadership in dcc will be nurtured from within the community itself. All of us within the current leadership team have other jobs, working in A&E, in coaching and consultancy, even selling beds, to sustain ourselves.
We have experienced some hostility from local churches but enjoy considerable favour from the community, who have strongly encouraged us to stay and value our friendship. We are a different kind of church. We have hundreds of followers on social media and a number of sponsors who give generously to our mission. We have had opportunity to share our story of unlearning and innovation with many organisations and conferences and received such interest and support.
We are excited to link up with the fresh expressions movement and are keen to learn from the journeys of others.
Church: what time is it? (Rich Tweedy)
Rich Tweedy asks what time it is.
Pioneer ministers are restless people.
There's a driving sense of urgency that we need radical ways of doing and being church – and that if we miss the immediacy of this challenge, the church will die. At the same time there's a frustration that other people just aren't getting it. I've learned that one of the first tasks of pioneers, therefore, is to enable others to see the urgency in such a way as to recognise how to respond to it.
I'm working as a curate in a group of churches in rural west Worcestershire, which is led by the effervescent David Sherwin. It is growing a remarkable blend of both traditional and radical forms of church. We face similar issues to many rural churches: traditional Sunday services attracting 10 people, mostly aged over 60, where three decades ago there would have been 40 people of all ages.
It's not hard for a traditional church stalwart to see that there's a problem here. The issue is to understand why it has occurred – and only then can new forms of church be considered. For this, it is important to explain what time it is. I have had to go on a 'journey' myself in order to be able to recognise and answer that question.
I originally trained as an astronomer. Thus, when some years later I joined a large and inspirational New Wine church in Cheltenham, I was perplexed by one recurring theme: that we live in a post-modern culture and need to engage with it. My science training makes me realise there are certain incontrovertible facts: the earth goes round the Sun, the speed of light is constant, entropy always increases; I'm therefore not very receptive to post-modern denials of objective reality. However, there came a point when I realised that it doesn't matter what I think of the philosophy itself, the fact is that the culture has changed from the one I was trained in, and 'post-modern' is a meaningful and accurate description of this new culture.
I then realised that if the gospel is to be communicated in the 21st century, it has to be done in ways that are meaningful to people living in a post-modern world – not in ways that I personally feel more comfortable with.
This journey helps me to couch the urgency of the present in terms that regular churchgoers seem to find helpful. I find myself saying, 'You and I were born and brought up in the modern era, within Christendom. However, we now live in a very different world, which is post-modern and post-Christendom. Therefore, what worked 30 years ago doesn't work now. This isn't your fault: it's a symptom of the culture around us changing so rapidly.'
Pioneer ministers will know that the post-modern world opens new opportunities; we recognise that people are keen for authenticity; more open to spirituality, and desire genuine relationships. Thus our job is to enable established churchgoers to recognise and embrace these opportunities. Explaining the obvious problem of declining congregations in terms of the cultural changes points the way to how a fresh expression of church might be an effective response – and this means more people buy into the vision.
In west Worcestershire we've therefore had some success with a Sunday morning café church in two of the villages because it's high on relationship and low on religious structure. It's vital that it's welcoming to those who would rarely step inside a church and that it's family-friendly – but it's also an opportunity for elderly stalwarts to get out of the house, meet people and have a chat. It's still early days and we're constantly learning and growing but it is an exciting journey to be on.
- Some readers may recognise 'what time is it?' as one of the worldview questions advocated by NT Wright in books like The New Testament and the People of God. The other questions are 'Who are we?', 'Where are we?', 'What's the problem?' and 'What's the solution?' Each of these might usefully be asked in most church contexts.