Evangelism Bulletin 248 – Making Inroads into the Community

It was one of those all too rare sunny days – indeed the first really hot day for some weeks. I drove into the campus of Blue Bell Hill Primary School in St. Ann’s, Nottingham where church was just bursting to life. There is no fixed start time – it’s approximate – and the transition between socialising and worshipping is gradual but nonetheless effective for the folks from the community who meet regularly on a Sunday morning. Everyone is made to feel welcome as they take their drinks and biscuits to the tables set out café-style in the school hall. Worship music is playing in the background and the prayerfulness of the occasion is clear.

It was also something of a sad occasion as Rob Cotton was leading his last service and communion before moving back into circuit ministry in Cheshire. Rob has mentored the leaders since its inception a couple of years ago.

I spoke with Vanessa whose singing led the gathering in worship. Vanessa is one of a number of people across the district who have attended the recent Mission Shaped Ministry (MSM) course. One of the big impressions the course made upon her was realising that what’s happening in St. Ann’s at Church@Community is not unique, but part of a much broader movement known as Fresh Expressions of Church. Pioneering new forms of church can be a lonely task and yet God is clearly anointing pioneers and their co-leaders in various forms of church which we would probably have thought unlikely 20 years ago.

We also spoke about the time the church started a couple of years ago. The big question which challenges pioneers is ‘when should we start?’ A new venture needs planning and for some people, planning is not their strength – they want to get moving. On the other hand, some people can over-plan and miss that ‘Kairos’ moment, a God-given moment of opportunity, when new things will take shape and the real work begins. As Leonard Ravenhill, an evangelist of the last century, said, ‘The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity’.  To their credit they got it right and although it was tough to start with, after a while, with help from Steve Lindridge of the Fresh Expressions National Team, they began to realise just how much a part of the community they had become and how much respect they had gained.

It reminded me of the Celtic pattern of ministry which was incarnational. In other words, they didn’t build a church and wait for folks to join them, they got alongside people in the community and demonstrated their faith through everyday engagement and service. It was as if they were ‘breathing God’s Spirit’ into the community they served.

In Acts 16v13 we read ‘On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.’ Paul and Silas on their missionary journey came to Philippi and sought out people who were already on a journey of faith and got alongside them. It wasn’t long before they had won their respect and a number of converts too – verse 15 says this, ‘When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.”

Another common experience of pioneers is that they recognise that they are on a journey and rarely consider that they have arrived at their destination. For some that’s a scary place to be. However, the Bible is full of stories of people who encountered the Living God on a journey. Read Acts 9vv1-19 to see how Saul’s journey was interrupted by a dramatic encounter with the Risen Christ. Read Acts 8:26-40 to see how a high-ranking Ethiopian had his life transformed on a journey back to his homeland. In the Old Testament, the stories surrounding Abraham and Moses are scattered with experiences of the Living God bursting into their lives as they journeyed.

And yet, some may ask, ‘is there still a place for the ‘settled’ community who continue to do church in the traditional way?’. As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has said, we live in a ‘both / and’ situation where traditional and new forms of church sit side-by-side and each respects the other. Despite the decline of church attendance in Britain over recent years, there are many examples of churches which cling to the traditional way of doing things and are healthy and growing. It’s knowing who is in charge that matters. As Jesus said in John 15v4, ‘Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.’

We wish Rob and his family every blessing as he leaves his work with the Bible Society to take up the latest phase in his ministry in Cheshire. He and Carol are on a journey and will be relying on the strength of God to sustain them in their work. But they will also be able to look back on their time in our midst and see how many lives have been touched as a result of their faithful service to Christ.