church of england Archives - Page 7 of 11

Barney and Judes

Tim Sanderson leads a café church for 18-30s at St Barnabas and St Jude's, Sandyford, Newcastle. Organisers feel they have been 'running to keep up with God' since Barney and Judes got off the ground in 2010.

One year ago, we were exploring closing our building in this community as the Sunday service had seven regular attenders and building costs were mounting.

Sandyford used to be a family-based community but in recent years has become a place known for cheap student houses, a place where 83% of the local community is aged between 18 and 30. Working with the existing church membership and in partnership with Holy Trinity Church, Jesmond, we converted the building into a cafe space to reach that 83%.

Our aim was to establish a fresh expression of church for those unchurched 18-30s in Sandyford by creating a welcoming and vibrant living space; planting and growing a worshipping community and serving that community.

Renovating the existing facilities has resulted in the cafe-style venue, comprising a warm, relaxing 'lounge' for those in multiple occupancy dwellings. The flexible area, where coffees and cakes are served, is furnished with sofas and offers free Wi-Fi. Students and other young adults are invited to drop in and use the space for chat, performance, art and so on whilst building relationships with the team.

Our café style fresh expression of church runs on Wednesday nights and we have a parallel new work amongst seniors called 'vintage' on Thursdays. The café space itself opens from 4pm to 11pm every weekday evening. We also have teams going door-to-door in the community offering to clear up front gardens and remove graffiti. These teams are drawn from Holy Trinity and Agape student ministries – and a few local residents.

We feel we are running to keep up with God and are delighted at how well the work has started. In a community dominated by multi-occupancy dwellings where no-one has a lounge any more, we are providing one! As part of a community in which seniors and students clash over noise issues and untidy gardens, we are working with both groups and pray that Barney and Judes will become a venue for communication and reconciliation. It's early days, but the first signs are promising.

The Wednesday night fresh expression is intentionally missional and is becoming a new congregation for unchurched and some dechurched. At this stage it's just a small number but they are attracted to the café space and the team who run the fresh expression. We offer many alternative worship opportunities at Holy Trinity in the next parish and have been encouraging any Christians who turn up at Barney and Judes to go there rather than stay with us.

Newcastle has a number of large student/young adult churches which do great work but we are interested in the students and young professionals who are put off by large church initiatives, or who would never think to go near them, even when invited by their friends. These are people who struggle with hierarchies and up-front driven programmes. Taking a café style approach seems to be working; it means we not only come together as a fledgling community but also keep in our small groups around tables. This distinctive and focussed missional approach means that regular use of the venue by other church-based student/young adult groups is not encouraged.

We really want to engage with what is called the 'Urban Intelligent'. That title comes from a socio-economic analysis system known as MOSAIC which classifies UK households by ward or postcode. The April 2010 MOSAIC profile of South Jesmond ward, indicates that 83% of the population are ‘Urban Intelligent’: these are students or young professionals living in multi-occupancy dwellings (42% short term student renters; 29% economically successful singles; 15% well educated singles and childless couples). They are the dominant constituent of the local population and therefore the primary focus of mission.

Some 15% of the population here are active older people. The current inherited churches between them cover an extensive local network of seniors. This is a secondary focus of mission.

The church centre is still faithfully used on a Sunday morning at 9.30am by a small group of older ladies – three of whom have just celebrated their 90th birthdays. That operates as a completely separate congregation. What is fun is overseeing a mixed economy in the same building. I'm also interested in how the two congregations might talk together in future about some of the inevitable tensions between students and seniors in this area.

We want to continue planting and growing a worshipping community within the context of a weekly meal, grouped around small group discussion, creative worship opportunities, and some input from the front. Collaborative working is at the heart of this venture. The congregation of St Barnabas and St Jude's have offered significant finances to help with buildings improvement and the part-employment of a parish assistant, but personnel for this venture has been more widely drawn from two main sources: Holy Trinity Church, and Agape Student Ministries.

I lead the small steering team representing all three partners which reports back to each meeting of the PCC of St Barnabas and St Jude. The wider diocese has offered a level of financial support and is kept informed as the initiative develops. The steering team is committed to work flexibly, holding structures lightly and engage in regular review/assessment of the work. In that way we want to model flexibility and openness – in all that we do.

St George’s, Deal

St George's, Deal, faced a major challenge in 2002. Shiela Porter – who shares oversight and leadership of the church with Chris Spencer – looks back at how they dealt with that challenge and looks forward to new opportunities through the development of missional communities.

We were looking at how to shape a church that could keep on growing – not dependent on the size of the building or how many professional leaders we had. St George's was full but we wanted to engage with those who would not step over the threshold of a church building at all.

So much has changed in recent years and now we have missional communities comprising mission-focused networks of anything from 15 to 60 people.

It is about mobilising everyone to be missionary disciples and we've got a whole variety of diverse networks that are being reached through these communities. People who previously were sitting in the pews – along the lines of a 'provider client' type of model – are now doing all kinds of things that they never dreamed they would be doing. As they've gone out and taken on these new roles with new responsibilities, they’ve discovered the need to depend upon God. As a result they've grown spiritually and in their discipleship as well. This has brought about a release of 40 new missional leaders – a real treasure trove of talent.

One of our missional communities has already multiplied and we have gained a lot of insight from doing it. It came about when they were growing to such an extent that they thought, 'we are going to lose our sense of community if we continue in this way. What do we do about it?' This was the first community that got going and had a vision for reaching young families but, as time went on, the children of those families obviously got older so the community wasn't quite fulfilling their original vision.

They took the decision to become two communities, and one of those communities comprised those who held the original vision. They decided to develop their vision in a way that would connect into families with older children using a 'sporting' emphasis for active families. They have been involved in doing fun runs and half marathons together, serving as stewards as well as running, and are now looking into starting a family exercise afternoon to reach new families. New leaders stepped up for the second community which held on to the original vision but in a more incarnational way.

These two slightly different visions meant that they did 'lose' some people along the way but those people have been able to come back into the centre – the main church base – enabling them to become part of other missional communities when they are ready.

Another important new community to evolve has been at the Church Centre. As the centre continues to be an 'attractional model' with newcomers regularly arriving, this central community called 'Shoreline' is able to invite new people into it and give new people time to experience and understand the concept of missional communities before stepping into one that is meeting outside. Shoreline is also there to support the work of the other missional communities, being on the 'shoreline' to support them in their mission events and as they come back into the centre.

In the past, St George's has engaged in church planting with the Carpenters Arms, which became an extra-parochial place in Deal and which then transplanted into a Sandwich school. This was positively entrepreneurial for those who had the vision to plant. However, there are lessons to be learnt as we look back 15 years on. The current situation is that Carpenters Arms Deal are now an independent church and Carpenters Arms Sandwich are the size of one of our missional communities but are saddled with churchwardens, deanery reps and parish share – a burden that has taken its toll. Their future is now being reviewed.

As we engage in conversation with those involved, including Diocesan personnel, we are hoping our experience will be of value as plans are put into place for them. We note that this is a danger that what is a fresh expression, can be seen as a 'church plant' by the Diocese with the requirement for church structures that can take their eye off mission and cause them to falter. It is therefore vital to have those with experience around them who can stand in the gap and 'translate' what it means to be a fresh expression – not always an easy task.

KidsAlive325

John Marrow is a Church Army evangelist working in Guildford. He works with local schools and runs an after school midweek fresh expression of church for families in three different locations across the diocese.

We started in January 2006 at Emmanuel Church, Stoughton, because we wanted to reach those families we don't normally get to see at all. In this area of Guildford we have so many football groups involving hundreds of kids on Sunday morning: 'traditional' church times are completely unsuitable for them.

I had visited Kidz Klub in Liverpool and, for years, I had been considering whether a similar thing would be appropriate in our own context. KidsAlive325 is different in that, instead of bussing the kids in, we invite whole families to what is 'after-school church'.

Do people think of it as a church? I think it's a mix. Some people, when they first come, see it as a club while others decide to come along because they don't see traditional church as meeting the needs of their children. A further group would see it very much as 'their' church because a standard setting is very alien and strange to them.

KidsAlive325 is now operating in three different places: Emmanuel Church, Stoughton, Guildford; St Andrews, Oxshott where it runs in the side chapel of a parish church; and Heatherside Church, Camberley where it is set up in a local school. In Oxshott, non-churchgoers make up about 70% of those who come along; in Camberley they are all non-churchgoers.

A team of volunteers helps to make the whole thing happen – 60% of my puppeteers for instance are retired folk. At Emmanuel I have Year 5 and 6 kids help with the technical stuff like the PA system and they love that. We simply couldn't run KidsAlive325 without this sort of teamwork – particularly as the service runs every week during term time so that demands a lot in the way of commitment. It really is a joint effort; a couple of weeks before one series has finished we'll be thinking about the theme for the next one; we'll then write our materials on that theme and get the three groups together to paint all the backdrops we need.

One of our previous themes was Godzworkus Circus and I was Jonno the clown. When I first did that, the kids realised that I didn't actually mind being a fool for Jesus. We want the children to know that it doesn't mean that you're boring if you go to church; we can be full of life and have fun.

It's all about building relationship, both within the teams and in the community. People are generally happy to get involved and, through that, we can get to know the families who come along. I just really enjoy getting to know the children, their parents, their families and obviously the staff and the people involved in the school as well.

It has now got to the stage at Emmanuel where we're thinking along the lines of 'what's the next step?' I work closely with the staff team there and a major question at the moment centres on the Year 6 boys who think KidsAlive325 is now 'too young' for them.

There are no easy answers to this sort of question but it's important that the traditional churches involved in this fresh expression of church are very much involved in its development. I make it very clear during KidsAlive325 that there is a very strong relationship with the local church and that means a lot. The vicar of Camberley is there every week and he is very much part of that relationship building process with that community. In this way he has been available to pick up pastoral concerns and baptism enquiries from the people he meets at KidsAlive325. They are connecting with him and the wonderful thing is that he, in turn, is now thinking about possible ways in which a baptism could take place at the after school service rather than in church.

At Emmanuel we have already celebrated a baptism from one of our KidsAlive325 families. This was a major step forward because, years ago, that particular family had been 'turned away' from a church and they had real bitterness about the institution of church and all that it stood for.

KidsAlive325 is not 'my' ministry as such – or Church Army's. It's got to be the church's ministry and the church's mission. It's about working alongside the local church in a real mixed economy way.

When I first started KidsAlive325, some people said it would be just like Messy Church and that we'd soon have them right across the country. The way things have worked out so far I'd say that KidsAlive325 could almost be seen as a follow-on stage from Messy Church because we don't incorporate a service or time of time of worship into a wider programme of activity; instead we are the service. Another difference is that the children and families who come will be given refreshments as soon as they arrive and they are welcome to bring a picnic tea to eat afterwards but food isn't part and parcel of what we do.

Sessions run from 3pm to 5pm. Younger children will arrive from 3pm, the service starts at 3.45 for a half hour slot and they can then hang around until 5 if they want. That's a vital time for us to follow up on people and we have a pastoral team to help those who want to find out more about faith issues, or anything else related to what we're doing and why we're doing it!

Sacred Space

The Rhondda's café church, Sacred Space, first opened its doors in Porth three years ago. Gethin Rhys, minister of Porth URC, organises the monthly sessions with Porth Newydd vicar, Chris Coles. Gethin describes how a sabbatical led to a new way of doing church.

Our first meeting, at Porth Plaza, was entitled Aspects of Love and it attracted people of all ages to watch film clips and listen to music about love in all its forms. We 'tasted' two Bible verses (involving horseradish and honey), wrote prayers and penned letters and postcards to prisoners of conscience adopted by Christians Against Torture. BBC Radio Wales also interviewed us on behalf of Good Morning, Wales!

At another service, we launched a 90kg rice challenge. The idea was to sell 90kg of fairly traded rice (in 1kg bags at £2.75 per kilo) to enable the Malawian farmer who grew the rice to send a child to high school for a whole year. A harvest session, entitled Bread of Heaven, saw us prepare bread for baking while worshipping together at the same time.

Our February 2011 topic was 'Money, Money, Money', when we looked at the 'art' of tax evasion and its devastating effect on people's lives in the UK and abroad. The informal format included Monopoly and Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

Sacred Space, as an ecumenical venture, is sponsored by the Porth Newydd parish of the Church in Wales and Porth URC. It all began when I used some time on sabbatical to look at café churches, I came back quite convinced that we should get involved in that. I spoke to my Anglican colleague, Chris Coles, because I felt this was something we could share – Rhondda has one of the lowest levels of church attendance in the UK. Before too long, Sacred Space had got off the ground.

We use the council-owned Porth Plaza in the centre of the town; it's a very good building for Sacred Space – especially as it's not on church territory. The council also let us have it for free for the first year which meant we could start the café church without a big financial outlay.

We meet on the third Sunday of the month at 7pm, it's not the ideal time but it reflects the fact that we are running conventional churches as well and Sacred Space is an add-on. In my other church we have a café church at 5pm on a Sunday and I think that's a good time but Chris has got Evensong so can't do it then. The 7pm start does rule out very young families because it runs too late for them to get children to bed and ready for school the next day.

We deliberately have a different format each time we meet. I plan it with Chris though there are a few lay people who sometimes come and join us but it's quite difficult to find times to be able to get together. Looking at long term viability we are going to have to find a way around it so it doesn't become dependent on us as clergy. In terms of who comes along to the sessions, at the moment we get many people who are connected with other churches but we are not often reaching the unchurched. Throughout the first year we advertised it pretty heavily and are on local radio quite a lot but it hasn't really prompted people from outside the churches to try it. We might have been better doing café church in a midweek slot but, again, it all depends on time, energy and resources.

At the moment we do attract people from various churches right across the age range – apart from the very young. We now have a number of children from seven and eight years upwards, a few teenagers and adults from 20s to 80s. We call it the Rhondda's Café Church so we get quite a mix of people from a wide area.

Craft activities do particularly well; that's really what engages people and makes it all age. Adults get involved in the craft because children ask them to help with what they're doing, adults wouldn't necessarily do that but a request from a child usually breaks down barriers and really makes a difference.

We follow the liturgical year reasonably closely whilst trying not to repeat the same themes too much because we don't want to get into a rut. We've always tried to ensure that it's never the same from one session to the next in order to avoid complacency. A recent Sacred Space was based on 1 John 4, for instance; the first time we had based café church on an extended Bible passage. We are very, very determined that when people arrive they shouldn't know exactly what to expect.

I was a stranger at every café church I visited on sabbatical and it was very interesting because I'm afraid a lot of them had become holy huddles and I did feel like a spare part when I arrived. That's why there is always something for people to do, maybe a quiz or a puzzle of some sort, when they first walk in the door at Sacred Space. The idea is that they won't feel awkward while waiting for something to begin.

At the start of my sabbatical I went along to a fresh expression of church with my teenage daughter. We went to a Sunday meeting but there were no welcomers so we did feel like spare parts – that wasn't a good start.

It got worse because there was a teenage group which met in parallel with the main meeting but no-one told us that at the start of the service. We only discovered that vital bit of information at the end and my daughter was really disappointed that she could have been with them doing something more interesting and appropriate to her own age group.

I also deliberately tried not to mention what I did for a living as I visited all these places because they would then treat me differently when they knew I was a minister.

A fresh expression needs to be genuinely fresh otherwise we are deceiving ourselves. There has been quite a churn of people since we started but there are some who have hardly missed a café church since we began, many of whom are from the Anglican congregation. It took my congregation a little longer to latch on to it all.

In our Sunday morning service at Porth URC we have started a Sunday school after a gap of many years. Some of those Sunday school children are coming to café church and that makes for an interesting crossover. There is also a core of people who come to Sacred Space immediately after Evensong. There have only been one or two sessions when there hasn't been somebody there for the first time from the outside but they are mostly from other congregations.

A number of initiatives, inspired by Sacred Space, have spun off to other churches as a result of these visits and that's great. The fact is that we didn't know what it would turn out be when we started but this is what has happened in this context whereas my 'other' church-based café church has developed differently. They each take shape in their own way in their own time.

I am still convinced this is the kind of church that could be much more accessible than something involving pew-based worship. I know that Sunday evening at 7 is not the best time in the week for reaching these people but at the moment that is a challenge that can't be met very easily. The Plaza building is hired out to other people, we are confined to the times we can book it, our own church schedules and the availability of people who have family and work commitments. A possibility for us may be to have it before Evensong, perhaps on a Sunday at 3pm.

The Spirit blows where it will and I'm not too inclined to try and control that in any way. In some fresh expressions material there can be an emphasis on knowing of the people you intend to reach, a target audience if you like, but we don't do any of that and I think we are the better for not doing it. Sacred Space has worked by not being strategised and, as a result, I see it as a real development for outreach.

It would be great to see people not connected with any other church at Sacred Space but at the moment it is clearly providing a very important service for all our churches. We have no problems with this and will not be making any major changes in the way we do things in a bid to change the outcome – at least for now.

Church people are the only people in the world who know about what Sunday of the month you're on. Realistically I think it is already on the way to being a full blown church but, for it to have a full identity, it would need to meet weekly. It would need that regular meeting for the core to build but I'm already ministering with two churches so there are all kinds of issues around that. We haven't got the critical mass of leadership people to make that work and those we do have don't want to leave traditional church.

There have been some amazing moments along the way. At one session on patterns of prayer, we had a group of teenagers just wander in to ask what was happening. They said, 'Can we come in and have a cup of coffee?' I said yes and they were there for the whole time, taking a full and active part in it. One boy had been excluded from school but I wish his teachers could have seen him that evening, being involved in confession, adoration, intercession.

SMASH

Nick Ash is a primary school teacher and a curate in Faversham. He tells of seeing the Holy Spirit at work in the SMASH after-school club.

I was ordained priest in July last year and have been working at St Mary of Charity Primary School, Faversham, since 1989. I am now teaching children of the children I first taught!

The development of St Mary's After School Club (SMASH) started in September 2009 when I approached two members of the church I attend, and asked them whether they would be prepared to help me re-launch an after school club I had been running a couple of years previously which I had to close down due to the pressure of my own training for ministry.

It immediately attracted a couple of very enthusiastic mums from the Parents, Teachers and Friends Association (PTFA). Not only did they start coming to SMASH with their children, who were in top infants at the time, but they even started attending the prayer meetings I held in one of the school rooms. These happened at the start of each of the days SMASH was held on.

It was a small beginning, but as they enthused about it to their friends on the playground over the next few months more and more families started attending. By the end of the year we eventually had about six families being represented, so we started asking parents if they would like SMASH twice a month. Because of the positive response to this question we have now increased the event to twice a month from last September.

It was during the first term of 2010 that one of the original mums involved with SMASH approached me and asked if she could have 'a chat'. We met over a period of weeks talking about her spiritual journey, and how she felt that she was wanting to find a new way of living. This led to talk of baptism, and eventually on December 11 we held a special baptism service in the newly acquired school chapel, with a gathering of a combination of church family and new friends from SMASH.

Having been without a chapel in the school since it was incorporated into a Head's office twelve years ago, it is lovely to have it back. It was created by chance after two classrooms had been knocked together leaving a space between it and the next door room, thus opening up a space just big enough to be turned into something useful. The Bishop of Dover, Rt Rev Trevor Wilmott, came along to one of our SMASH meetings on 18th January, and used the time to dedicate the chapel as a place for class assembly and prayer meetings. We are planning to run a Christianity Explored course there later in the year to deepen discipleship among SMASH members.

SMASH uses a very simple formula. We meet at 3.30pm opening with a prayer and the lighting of a candle, when we remind ourselves of the words of Jesus which we say together, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life'. We then have a game followed by a song, after which we play one more game and have one more song. After that we have a short time of Bible teaching, which usually includes some kind of interaction with the children. This then leads into a time when we do some craft, based on the theme of the teaching for the afternoon. An interactive time of prayer follows this, and we end by eating tea together. This has been a key part of the afternoon, as it is where relationships are built and deepened.

Despite the fact that St Mary of Charity Primary is a CofE Voluntary Aided school, most of those who attend it are unchurched members of the community. SMASH is therefore attracting totally unchurched people where church is not part of their normal frame of reference; their only link may have been when their children were baptised as babies. I feel strongly that SMASH must be for families and not just children, which is why I insist that it is not just another after school club, and that children must be accompanied by a parent or carer if they attend.

We are very excited with what God seems to be doing in our midst. It is like having sown a mustard seed, and we are now watching it grow under our noses. Others from the main church have felt called to this ministry, and the leadership group has now grown to six members.

It is wonderful to see how things have continued to develop. A child in my class, who attends SMASH with her mother, has recently asked to be baptised and I am now in the process of setting dates to see her with her parents and talk through what it all means. Also, a couple of the families are, without prompting, coming to the main church on a Sunday morning and getting involved in the new children's ministry that has recently been launched, called FLAME. This is seen by the vicar and ministry team as working in tandem with what we are trying to do in SMASH. In fact one of the mums from school wants to get more and more involved in the church and has already joined a house group. Is this surely not mixed economy in action – a fresh expression of church led by the curate of the local church, who is also a member of staff at the school where it all happens and who has helped to initiate a fresh look at children's work within the life of the church.

Further ideas we want to develop with SMASH are a summer beach outing with young families from the local Sure Start Children's Centre, alongside the SMASH families. A couple of staff from the Children's Centre have been helping to look after children aged 0-3 during SMASH meetings as a joint working initiative. They too are very excited by this idea, as it covers both our visions of trying to reach members of our local community, and serve them in different ways.

I admit that I am in a very fortunate position here, as I am able to develop these initiatives under the title of a new role I have been allowed to take on in my ordained capacity entitled 'Community Link Person'. It is funded through the rent charged to the Sure Start Centre, because it is built on the school site. It is paid to the trustees of the school, which happen to be the vicar and church warden, who have agreed to fund this new project with this money for one day a week. This new position has given me space and time to consider how I can make links between the school and the local community and how to develop more effectively the ministry and work of the Church school that I am a part of.

One of the school's developmental aims has been to increase opportunity to explore spirituality, and provide space for developing that spirituality within individuals. SMASH helps towards meeting this goal; but more than this, its very presence within the life of the school speaks louder than any words can. It exists as an open invitation to anyone who feels they want to explore faith in a non threatening environment, where they will find Christians and members of the local school community enjoying each others company and having fun together.

I am very excited to see the way the Spirit is moving in people's lives. I feel that having the chapel back within the life of the school has put its spiritual heart back where it belongs, and in a very real sense I feel we are seeing the fruit of this action. I am encouraged through the backing of the Head for this work, and I am looking forward to developing this whole role further through conversations with the Assistant Diocesan Director of Education. With her I want to explore the possibilities of linking up with others who are involved in the same kind of ministry, so we can share good practice and good ideas for the future.

Immanuel Church

Graylingwell Chapel, in the centre of an 85-acre former hospital site in Sussex, had been derelict for years when Steve and Sarah Flashman first saw it. Now – as home to Immanuel Church – it's on course to be the spiritual heart of a landmark eco-friendly housing development. Ministers Steve and Sarah discuss the turnaround in fortune.

Immanuel Church was actually born fifteen years ago, long before we were on the scene, when a group of people in Chichester started meeting in someone's home. The church soon grew and people felt that God was calling them to work in partnership with St Paul's Church in the Winterbourne Road area of the city. Meeting at St Michael's Hall, the church outgrew the facilities there and after a long period of consultation and negotiation moved into Graylingwell Chapel. The idea was to create a vibrant new community base open to all.

Immanuel Church at Graylingwell Chapel is not a Parish Church. We are in the parish of St Paul's, Chichester but we are becoming a Bishop's Mission Order and have been given a special brief as a 'network church' and 'missional community' to live out our Christian faith in ways that connect with people in this area. This means we can develop new forms of church whilst respecting Anglican traditions.

Seven hundred homes will be built on this site over the next seven years. Graylingwell Chapel had been disused for eleven years by the time we first saw it; previously this late Victorian building had only been used by staff and patients of the NHS hospital here.

We came to Immanuel Church as ministers four years ago to live on the Winterbourne estate which is a mix of social housing and student lets. We chose to live on the estate because we felt it was really important for us to be incarnational and live with the people we serve, our home is right by what is currently a fence surrounding the Graylingwell site. It is possible to see the Chapel from where we live – though it was a bit difficult to do that initially.

When we first drove up to Graylingwell, the whole area was a mess and you couldn't really access the chapel building at all but we managed to make our way through the foliage to get to it and we could see the vision even then.

As a result we started to establish a relationship with the developers, Linden Homes, and also got in touch with the architects and the site's owner English Partnerships (which became part of the Homes and Communities Agency in December 2008). A public consultation was held before moving forward with the development and some 200 people came to the site's old theatre building.

Plans were outlined for what will be the UK's largest carbon neutral development. All the homes are planned as energy efficient with heating supplied by a central heating and power plant as part of an on-site energy centre. The idea is that it would be a benchmark for future sustainable developments across the country.

The architects put up big sheets of paper and they asked us all to write our own dreams and visions for this site. We wrote that our dream was that Graylingwell Chapel would become the community's spiritual heart.

Later, during the consultation, the development team stood up in front of this packed crowd and said that when first researching their design ideas, they came to Chichester and could see the centre of the city was in the shape of a cross with roads from north, south, east and west meeting at the Market Cross near the cathedral. They had then drawn a line through the centre of a map showing the Graylingwell site and discovered – from aerial photos – that the Chapel building was at the centre of it all. They then said they hoped it would become the spiritual heart of Graylingwell and they drew a heart around the Chapel on their PowerPoint map.

We were astounded that they used the same phrase as we had written down a little while earlier! The image of the heart has since become the church's logo.

The developers and architects also emphasised that they wanted to connect Graylingwell with Winterbourne, saying the communities needed to be interwoven. To illustrate this they drew a line to show where the cycle paths were scheduled to run – one was a direct route through what had been an old orchard from our front door directly to the chapel door. We took it as such an encouragement that this was definitely where God had called us and wanted us to be.

It helped us in developing relationship with all of these key people that we could point to the community work we were already involved in. Our Winterbourne Wonderland event on the streets of the estate involves games for the children, refreshments, food, a live band and a specially built grotto for Father Christmas.

And in the middle of the summer, we bring the seaside to Winterbourne Road with our Summersdale Seaside Special. We bring in sand, a huge Hawaiian backdrop and 'beachside' cocktails. Apart from the street parties, we also run a fellowship group in an elderly care home; have a social outreach clear-up group, and lots of other things.

There is no focus to the community around here. We only have one shop on the estate and it's the place where people meet – and kids loiter outside. At the time of building relationship we knew we couldn't develop a geographic focus but we could create a focus for something good. It was, and still is, important that the community feel they can 'own' what we do. Thankfully there has certainly been proof of that along the way.

When we moved in to the chapel building in Easter 2010, all the church turned up to clean the place and we came across a lady we didn't know doing the hoovering! It turned out that the church had helped her to clear and tidy up her garden and she wanted to give something in return.

We also have a New Community Rock Choir. Fifty eight people signed up for it and only a handful has any link at all with church but this is most definitely 'their' chapel.

The fact is that since moving in here we've had one miracle after another. Linden Homes put in a temporary electricity supply but didn't have permanent lighting. Then a member of our church was driving along when he saw lights being put into a skip. It turned out a school was being refurbished. He asked if he could have them for the church and he drove off again with all the lighting we needed.

A couple of weeks before we were due to move in, it was suggested that we might have to pay £10,000 a year to use the place! Some of our people were not at all sure about continuing with the whole thing but we said, 'This is the vision that God has given us and we will still move in on Easter weekend. If He wants us here, he will provide what we need.' The Monday before moving day one of the directors of the development company contacted us to say, 'We have decided we are not going to charge that figure. For the next two years you can use it for £1 a year.'

We are developing relationship as well as developing trust both with the community and those involved in delivering this scheme. We were able to put together quite detailed business plans for what was then English Partnerships and this really helped them to recognise that we were serious about the whole thing.

The idea of denominations or different streams of church is completely incomprehensible to many. If you mention to a lot of people in this area that we are from the Church of England, many wouldn't really know – or care – what that means. If people do have a view of what Christians were like, it would tend to be a stereotypical one of 'wet fish handshakes' and blue anoraks. There is no expectation of anything different.

It was at the Bishop of Chichester's invitation that we started on the route of becoming a Bishop's Mission Order. There had been difficult times before Immanuel Church was formed, its beginning was born out of pain, but Immanuel wasn't formed as an alternative to another congregation. Its growth was very organic and developed naturally. It had also always remained within the CofE's Canon law so the BMO offered an opportunity to embark on a new stage of Immanuel's journey.

Immanuel Church, in all but its direct governance, is sympathetic to the CofE and the BMO acknowledges that some churches are seeking a form of official recognition that falls into the Order's bracket. It’s all about restoration, reconciliation and healing.

We are very missional with Graylingwell and since we have moved here, the culture of the church has significantly changed. About 120 adults are now part of the church with attendances of roughly 100 on Sunday, plus children. We're now praying for new growth from people coming in as converts and there are good signs for future relationship building. Linden Homes has set up a Community Development Trust and a community development worker is using the Chapel for parties for new residents. Our youth and children's work currently takes place in a double decker bus parked alongside the Chapel. We bought it on eBay and later this year we do hope to go on the road with it.

The building itself will be restored by Linden Homes at an estimated cost of £300,000. They will start to do that when 150 houses have been built – 70 have gone up so far. We will remain in the Chapel while works continue, all of which will be in line with the carbon neutral development around it.

In thinking about the fresh expressions way of being incarnational in a setting rather than being attractional and bringing people back into a church building, it's all about knowing your context. For us here we recognise that one of the things that draws people in is the Chapel itself because they are curious to see what it's like. You can't always work to a formula of getting out and staying out. Many are coming to the church because of its community arts emphasis. You have got to know your own community and recognise where people are at as well as having a real Spirit-inspired vision.

Graylingwell Chapel is the new community venue in Chichester but we can see a time, as the site develops, when additional communities could well become those little churches that are very typical of fresh expressions. This might be seen as 'Chapel Central' to a network of churches.

We still find it amazing that it was the secular community of architects and developers that set Graylingwell Chapel's agenda as the spiritual heart. They want to create something that is very contemporary, very alive. In turn, people have picked up on the welcome, the friendship, the atmosphere of the place. It is easy to become concerned that they will be put off by liturgy, the way we worship, what we say in a sermon or whatever but we shouldn't assume that these things are barriers. Instead, friends and friendship are often the keys to them coming in the first place and then coming back for more. We have got to live community and give people a glimpse as to what that means – that's the heart of the Trinity after all isn't it?

Warham Trust

It's many years since every country estate had its own church. Now, Malshanger House, just West of Basingstoke, has opened the doors of its clubhouse for the Warham Trust, an Anglican fresh expression of church in rural England.

The idea has been that we should be a fully-fledged church in our own right, at the same time as many of our people belonging to their local churches,

explains Peter Irwin-Clark, the vicar of the Warham Trust.

For the vast majority of our 100 or so core members we are their first church, and about one third of those don't belong to another church at all.

Beyond that inner circle we have contact with another 200 or so who are infrequent attenders at our worship-services but may come to one of our small groups or a midweek teaching meeting.

Earlier in the autumn some of the members were confirmed by the Bishop of Basingstoke, reinforcing the clear connection with the established church.

On Sundays, Warham holds Liquid Church — everyone worships together for much of the service, but, in the middle, disperse across the estate to different sessions offering a variety of topics and styles (including a non-verbal Creative Workshop).

On Wednesday evenings, a daughter congregation meets in Padworth, where 40 to 50 people come together for worship and small groups. The more-than one-centre element is part of what makes Warham different.

This approach to Sunday worship seems to be attractive to all ages. The clubhouse is set out in café-style and provides easy access for people in wheelchairs. This (with the excellent bacon-butties!) encourages a relaxed atmosphere, and it is less disruptive if, for example, a young child wants to walk around.

It is natural for people to stay around after the service because the church is set out so informally – and in such a beautiful setting no one is in a hurry to leave anyway!

This story was originally published in expressions: the newspaper – issue 3 (spring 2007) and features on expressions: the dvd – 2: changing church in every place.

All Saints Wingerworth

Are people coming to faith through Messy Church? Do they really become members of the wider Church as a result? Revd Dr Jo White, Rector of All Saints’ Church, Wingerworth, tells how they responded to those questions through Messy Confirmations.

At the end of January we held a Messy Church with a difference. Five children took Communion for the first time, two people affirmed their faith, two were baptised and then joined eight more to be confirmed while a further person was received into the CofE!

We had been talking with people about this service and encouraging adults to take responsibility for their faith in a variety of ways for a while but how did it all start?

Someone said they'd like to be baptized, and that set us thinking. We know that for adults the Church of England likes baptism to be linked with confirmation, but how would that work in this context? We'd held a Messy Baptism for a new baby to one of our existing families last year – so how about a Messy Confirmation?

The idea took off big time – as did the questions, 'Will I have to come to church on Sundays in future 'cos I work that day as my husband's at home to look after the children and so I can't do it.' 'Me too – I feel a fraud as I only come here and not to 'proper' church – it's just it reminds me of when I was a child and that was a terrible time for me.'

The comments just kept on coming… 'I want to get confirmed here, even though I live two hours away – I was brought up here and my family still live here, but above all these are the people who make me feel I belong.' 'I heard my brother's getting confirmed, so I'd love to do it with him.' 'This is the time for me and God. I do really want to come, I really feel 2011 needs to be a year when I reconnect with the church and my faith, too much has come between us of late.' 'I was confirmed as a kid, but I don't remember it, I wish I could do it with you.' 'Well I'm Catholic, but this is really my church now.'

So we spoke about Communion. What should we do about the bread and wine? We've never 'done' Communion before. When would you like to take it, at the confirmation service itself or shall we get together a few days later? Let's go for it! What about the kids? (In this church you have to be baptised and over seven years old) Hence we started preparing them too!

Needless to say, everyone who came to this service did know it would be different and longer! The key pressures came from balancing the need of the Bishop to follow the 'law' of the Church of England and our wish to make the service accessible and understandable for the majority of the Messy Church congregation who are either children or have none or little experience of 'formal' church. How do you make such a huge formal service needing loads of preparation and 'serious' thinking accessible to all of us at our different stages in our faith journeys?

At the rehearsal we realised that only one person knew what 'the peace' was. Things that church regulars take for granted, prayers that they know by heart, are unknown territory for most Messy Churchers and could easily divide the congregation in a service – which is exactly what we do NOT want in Messy Church.

We pared the service requirements to the bone, chose the shortest Communion Prayer and then added opening and closing prayers that were in everyday but in very meaningful language; trying hard to keep the theology of the occasion without dumbing down or making it so simple it was meaningless. We wanted this to be a memorable time for all those involved – in a good sense!

The service sheet, more of a book really, included absolutely every word and instruction. But it did mean that everyone could take a full part on an even footing. We made sure that there was a regular churchgoer you could follow if you got lost at the front of church and said so in the 'Welcome'.

We moved everything we could out of the 'service' section – like the prayers – and into the 'activity' section that comes first; trying to shorten the service without losing any of its meaning or worship elements. The children brought forward, as they often do, a collage of all our prayers written on paper cut-outs of our hands and glued as feathers on a dove. Come, Holy Spirit!

We chose songs that we often have at Messy Church and included some simple new ones either with a tune already known or that we’d introduced at other services in recent weeks.

A few weeks before Messy Church, Rt Revd Humphrey Southern – the Bishop of Repton – asked everyone being confirmed or otherwise involved to write a few lines about themselves and he wrote a few for them. On the day he arrived in good time to join in with all of Messy Church, including the activities in the first element of our Messy service, and chatted with everyone including the candidates all together. This set good practical examples of relationships which passed on to the service itself.

We began the service in the same way as usual, casually, with no 'procession' – and me, as minister, in my 'home' clothes. To save time, the Bishop was robed from the start, and I popped mine on during the first song. There were two Welcomes, first one from myself and then one after the first song, from the Bishop. I gave the practical details whilst the Bishop reinforced the views that all are welcome, there's not one way to 'do' church, and we all worship a living God in our own ways at our own levels. In other words – we may have a bishop, we may be dressed differently, the service may be longer BUT it's still the Messy Church we all know and love.

Bishop Humphrey's address talked about faith being in different layers and each one has value in itself – you don't have to wait 'til you get to the middle to get the gift. He'd brought 'Posh Pass the Parcels' which had a gift under each layer, just like our faith, so wherever we are faith has value and each layer brings surprise.

The taking of Communion was done kneeling or standing at the altar rail. We decided not to use sidespeople to indicate when to come up but to leave it open. In the event I (as the Rector) acted as maître d' in the sanctuary while the Bishop gave bread to everyone and two lay assistants gave the wine. In this way I was able to 'introduce' the Bishop to young children by name and tell him a little about those who were not taking Communion but had come up for a blessing, and just about everyone did come to the rail. His prayers of blessing were then made by name and were very specific for that person. The sight of him walking on his knees to give blessings at that rail to the many children squeezed alongside each other will stay with me for a long while.

So 75 minutes later (it's usually a 20-minute church service element) we went to eat our buffet tea together that our wonderful cooks had prepared. Something for everyone and a large celebratory cake with coloured icing that the Bishop cut – a final sharing. We're still smiling at the experience and wondering when we can do it all over again.

A key component in bringing all of this about was that 18 months ago, with the help of a diocesan mission grant, we created a new post here – Connecting with Families Co-ordinator (CFC): and that person has since been accredited by the Diocese as a Lay Minister in Fresh Expressions after completing the mission shaped ministry course.

Early discipling, encouragement and support takes dedication, time and vision!

Now we need to create something for those now recently confirmed or otherwise involved who are thirsty for more but still don't want or can't make Sunday services or more 'formal' church. At the moment we're thinking of late evening weeknight services, including Communion sometimes. Suggestions for inclusion welcome.

Reside

Reside is a Christian project evolving in response to growing housing developments to the south of Loughborough. It is led by Methodist Deacon Ellie Griffin, Reside's full-time paid worker.

The original vision for a worker on the development came from the Loughborough Churches Partnership and is mainly funded by the Anglican and Methodist Church. The rest of Reside's team is made up of volunteers from a range of denominations, most of whom live in the housing developments we serve.

I have been here for just over three-and-a-half years and am based on the Fairmeadows estate but also work on the new Grange Park housing development. Generally I attempt to co-ordinate the various activities of Reside and enthuse people to get involved.

Our vision is to be an evolving Christian network that provides safe and welcoming places, explores the Christian faith, cares for the community and collectively expresses each element of Church.

This is an affluent estate but we are in the parish of the Good Shepherd CofE Church which is based in a far more socially deprived area. In saying that, they still provide part of the funding for Reside and the vicar, Eric Whitley, is on our steering group. In some ways it's quite difficult to be taking support from a church with such limited resources themselves but, as often happens, it's those with less who tend to give more. They saw the vision of what we were trying to do and have gone for it – and we're very grateful for that.

It was only 25 years ago that the whole of the Fairmeadows estate was nothing more than a farmer's field. Eventually the community will consist of about 1600 homes. When the original plans for this development (known as Grange Park) were first set in place, the churches in Loughborough saw the need for the potential community to be developed and so looked to appointing a full time worker to live on the estate. I moved here with my family in September 2007.

It wasn't long before Reside was 'born'. We aim to contribute to community by enabling residents to be actively engaged in developing the area in which they live – whether that's through the residents’ association, involvement with schools, Neighbourhood Watch, litter picks or working with children and young people. The opportunities really are endless and the range of skills needed is diverse.

We want to get people excited about getting to know their neighbours and to provide opportunities for building relationships. There aren't many meeting places on the estate and so we are trying to be imaginative in how we address this so that all groups within the community can interact more with each other. Recently we made a trip to see a project near Malton which uses a council-funded facility called the 'Ryepod'. It is a converted mobile home hired out to various organisations for a range of purposes. This is the very beginning of our explorations but we are excited by the possibilities.

In some ways, Loughborough has got quite a lot of pioneering stuff going on from Pioneer Network, New Frontiers International, student work and a huge variety of other churches. In saying that there is still an idea or expectation as to what 'real' church looks like; trying to convince those part of inherited models of church that Reside really is church can be quite difficult. Even if people can cope with Reside not having a building as a base they will still ask, 'why aren't you gathering for worship every week?' It can be so difficult for them to grasp that Reside may never have a big gathering for worship but it's very much church in a different way.

Reside cares about every aspect of community life and the individual lives of the residents who make up this community. This comes from our belief that God cares about every aspect of lives too and that the Christian faith has something to offer in each situation.

So far Reside has been involved in the Haddon Way Residents Association working with them to listen to the community's needs or concerns and hosting Community Fun Days, a Big Tidy Up event and an outdoor Christmas Carol service. We have also hosted Easter Fun Days on the Grange Park housing development two years running giving the families opportunity to meet their neighbours and have fun together.

Through support from SOaR (Schools Outreach and Resources) we have been part of a prayer group for Outwoods Edge Primary School, led assemblies and delivered Easter lessons. Leading on from this we have been invited to lead the school community in celebrating harvest and Christmas and are currently exploring further ways of engaging with the school.

Offering the opportunity to ask questions about God and faith, we ran a six- week exploration course. In small discussion groups we used film clips, news articles and other medium to stir debate offering insight from biblical teaching and Christian thought. Reside has also hosted craft sessions, parties, a police drop-in, quiet space and Open House, all providing a variety of opportunities for residents in the area. All of our activities are provided free of charge as a gift to the community to express God's abundant, no-strings-attached love.

The Residents' Association was one of the first links we made into the community. At first they thought it a bit odd that someone from the church turned up and they wondered what we wanted from them. It was also a little confusing because I didn't 'fit' their idea as to what a church leader looked like! Once they became accustomed to the fact that I was attending as a resident and not just as a church representative, everything was fine.

It was interesting that after a community event run jointly by the Association and Reside, the chairman said to me,

I still don’t know what you're after. The church has bought the house you're living in and they're paying your wages for five years, what are they getting out of it?

It had taken him three years to ask that question directly and it was only because we'd built up such a good working relationship that he felt able to ask it at all. In turn I could tell him there was no catch; that it was all a gift to this community because God loves this area and the people who live here.

Over the next 12 months we hope to:

Develop the work we do with the local schools;

Explore the possibilities for a mobile meeting place;

Provide opportunities for residents to get to know one another;

Network those already actively serving this community;

Provide opportunities to explore the Christian faith;

Grow a number of 'Cell' groups;

Plan for long term sustainability of Reside.

We are very much developing cells at the moment and we're just starting a pilot cell of people who will be leaders in different cell groups. We have got lots of good contacts now on the edges of the community but how can we take it a bit further? I think the cell church model, tweaked to this context, would be a very good model for us. I pray that it will take off and that the trust between groups will become stronger.

The work with the primary school has been awesome because initially it was closed to what we were offering to do. The vicar would go in for standard assemblies at key times of the year though they were a bit worried about taking anything further than that. Slowly they have begun to open up and this Easter we are working with them to host an exhibition of Hope where members of both the school and wider community can creatively offer their Hope for the future.

Again this has all taken time. Thanks to the gradual building up of relationship they invited me to be on their governing body and now they approach us to do things rather than the other way round. It's amazing to think that when I started here there was no link between anyone on the estate or anywhere to go so I used to sit at home praying, then walk around the streets and pray a bit more.

I was pregnant when I took up the post so that did mean I could meet other mums as a way of getting to know people. It also meant that any immediate expectations were lifted as to what I was to 'achieve' in the role; otherwise the aim was that I'd be involved in building a community centre by now because that was one of the points in my job description! The developers of the estate are providing space for a community centre of some description and I'm hoping that Reside and the residents will be able to work together on creating a special space where all sorts of activities can take place.

A five-year funding plan was put in place for us so we are now at the stage of looking at how things can be sustained in future. We are already starting to get some income from the local community but it's nowhere near enough for us to be financially sustainable – and that's in an affluent area! How can people hope to achieve that sustainability in poorer areas?

Also, the context has changed so much here in just a few years. Lots more people have moved in, mainly young families, but many head out for work early in the morning in their cars and the estate's almost dead in the daytime. The nearest shop is nearly a mile away and all of this can combine to incredible isolation for those left behind. There are actually quite a few older people here as well and the community – on the surface predominantly white and middle class – is actually quite a diverse one.

In serving them, Reside will never look like a 'normal' church. I think it will always be messy, an evolving network continually listening and continually responding to the needs of the community. I think that's why many traditional churches have come to a halt – because they stopped listening.

Crossnet

Church of England minister Nick Crawley knew that he wanted his next post to be about mission not maintenance. So he wrote to the Bishop of Bristol to suggest launching a network church. After a series of meetings he began work on his new 'parish' of Bristol-based young adults in 2004.

We have no church building, no parish, no PCC, no inherited congregation,

Nick says.

I had no weddings or funerals to do so I was free to start from scratch.

An original team of three families drawn to the network church idea began meeting in Nick's family home in central Bristol. As the new church grew, it began to rent space in Starbucks. It now meets in a larger coffee house on Tuesday evenings attended by an average of 30 people who eat, worship, discuss and pray together. Roughly half of these were not previously attending or committed to a church.

One-to-ones and training teams continue the work of discipleship.

Nick attributes the growth of this network church, Crossnet, among students and young professionals to 'word of mouth'. The church has seen four conversions and others growing in their faith.

The two emphases are mission and discipleship,

says Nick.

There is no doubt that the commitment people have to loving one another is growing.

Crossnet aims to be self-funding by the end of 2009.