Starting a Church Plant

Transcription

1 Introduction St Swithun s, a new church plant in Bournemouth, was launched in 2014 and has shown significant growth. This case study looks at the church s early days, its focus on breaking young people s preconceptions of church, and on offering hope to the hopeless via its homeless ministry. Background While Bournemouth s population is getting younger, that trend has not been reflected in the town s churches with the average age of congregations increasing. Similarly, while the town s total population is going up, the church population is decreasing. St Swithun s is responding to the challenge to change these trends and early signs are positive. Launched last year by a team from Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), London, the church is now regularly welcoming 500 people over two Sunday services. Alongside other local churches, it is working to fulfil the four strategic principles set by Winchester diocese; to grow authentic disciples; re-imagine the church; be agents of social transformation; and to belong together in Christ, practising sacrificial living and good stewardship of all that God has given. The Revd Tim Matthews, Pioneer Minister at St Swithun s, explains: St Swithun s came about at the invitation of the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Tim Dakin, who had approached Nicky Gumbel, Vicar at HTB, in 2013 to partner with him in a new ministry in Bournemouth to evangelise younger generations. Bournemouth s young population is similar to Brighton s where another HTB plant, St Peter s 1, is having a big impact, so the conversations explored whether a similar plant could work here. First steps Starting a Church Plant By Catherine Ellerby, freelance writer, in conversation with the Revd Tim Matthews, Pioneer Minister, St Swithun s church, Bournemouth (Winchester diocese) After these initial discussions, which also involved the Bishop of Southampton, Nicky Gumbel asked Tim (then a curate at HTB) and his wife Debi if they would consider going to Bournemouth to plant a church there. Tim says: We had embarked on 12 previous planting projects which hadn t worked out and we were pretty bruised. But when we heard about this opportunity - we jumped at the chance. We went to Bournemouth to find out more and fell in love with it g_in_brighton_and_norwich.pdf 1

2 Preparing the ground Various options for the church plant were considered including planting a completely new church or partnering with an existing church. It was decided that St Swithun s, which was a vacant church building located in the centre of the town which had been closed for worship for about a year, provided the answer. Tim says: Over the next 18 months we travelled back and forth to Bournemouth, getting to know the town and the people who live here. Whatever we were going to do had to be in partnership with other churches, so getting to know them was vital. I sincerely believe that one of the keys to church planting is to drink a lot of tea and coffee with people, explaining the vision, debunking the myths, and asking them for their wisdom. I was saying here s what we re being invited to do, we re coming from a position of weakness and we need your support. As a result of meeting so many great people here, I felt we d really made friends by the time we arrived. Seed funding Following the HTB church planting model, Tim and Debi gathered a team of 11 adults, three children and a baby, who all moved to Bournemouth. Like other HTB plants they were also given 50,000 which enabled them to sign a lease on the building and purchase essential start-up items. Renovating the site was an early priority: it was in a fair condition but empty and unused. Tim says: On the day before the launch, we were all down on our hands and knees, both to pray, but also literally as we needed to lay a temporary carpet in time for the event! Other priorities were clear. Prayer and worship are our absolute priority so one of the first things we bought was a sound system for the church, and then we employed a Worship pastor. We also employed an Operations Director early on: whilst we need to pray and worship with everything we ve got, having someone who is a strong administrator is essential - behind the scenes it all needs to work and we want to do things professionally and to a high standard. Another appointment was of a part time ordinand as Students Pastor. We were told not to bother, because students didn t turn up for anything Christian, says Tim, but we didn t believe that. We opened the doors, served some pizza, and started investing in them. Now over 40 students come regularly, and some fantastic young leaders are beginning to emerge. Numerical growth In its first eight months, St Swithun s has grown from the original 11 from HTB, to around 500 people attending each Sunday. The age range reflects the emphasis put on attracting younger people: currently there are 159 children aged 0 to 10 on the books (40 50 attending each week), and 52 young people aged from

3 As well as Sunday services the main ministries are to the homeless, ex-offenders and recovering addicts, and to children, young people and students. The church also runs the Marriage Course and Marriage Preparation Courses. Beyond welcome breaking negative perceptions of church Hospitality is a core value at St Swithun s. Visitors get a warm welcome and, Tim says, food with everything! He stresses that this is not just about being nice to people and he has made some bold commitments to back this up: I said in a local newspaper article and on local radio that we aim to offer people something to eat and drink within 3 minutes of arriving in church, otherwise I ll personally make it up to them. It s more than just providing a drink. The unchurched younger generation can think of the church as cold and hostile. We take delight in breaking that preconception.. As a church minister, I want to tell every person in Bournemouth that Jesus loves them and died for them I don t get to do that in the first 3 minutes when they visit. But by offering them hospitality, I can at least demonstrate that there is a genuine welcome here. Attitudes then change and people become much more open to the worship and message of the service. We see it most of all at Alpha a warm welcome, good food and pleasant surroundings help friendships to grow and that s a critical part of many people s journey to faith. But authenticity is key it can t be something you fake, you ve actually got to mean it. Network generation St Swithun s is trying to change preconceptions of church in other ways including their online presence - the look and feel of their website and using social media - and making their building warm and welcoming. Tim says, We try to see things through the eyes of those unchurched young people and find ways of helping them encounter Jesus as he really is. One thing I sometimes do, and every church leader can do, is to stand outside your building and take a moment to mentally and emotionally put yourself in the shoes of an unchurched young person. Then walk in and note the first things you see and feel. It s got to feel like it s for them. If it doesn t feel that way, then those are the tangible things you can change. Tim talks about a new way of building a church, increasingly to do with building a network for the networked generation. A very wise guy at HTB advised me not to plant a new church, but to start a new network. Again, I think it highlights the importance of a sense of belonging; John Wimber said that people need to feel they belong before they can come to believe. It s tempting to try to plant a church in front of the computer but that s not the best way. Archie Coates at St Peter s, Brighton, urged me to get out and work in the community, meeting people and making connections, not hiding in an office. I probably spend at least 5 hours a week in local cafés, working on my laptop and meeting people and I m always buying people coffee. It s worth every penny. It all contributes to growing the church. 3

4 What sort of growth? Not all the growth at St Swithun s is new - some are joining from other churches, although very few are moving from other Anglican churches. Tim says that some are from nonconformist traditions, returning to the Church of England and seeking a lively expression of contemporary worship. Visitors make up a large proportion too, people who are trying the church out to see if it will suit them. Finally, some go elsewhere in the mornings but enjoy the lively evening service. Tim is aware of the potential sensitivities: Our arrival coincided with a difficult time for some churches. There s two ways of viewing it. You could say: It s such a shame that St Swithun s arrived at the same time as it has exacerbated the problem at that other church ; or you could say: Thank goodness St Swithun s is here, they ve been able to catch people who wanted to leave, rebounding some of them back and reencouraging others. I hope they are saying that as there is really only one Church in Bournemouth and we want to be united. From the beginning I ve spent a good deal of time networking with other church leaders, learning from them and encouraging them... I tell them that if there s a way that I or St Swithun s can help their ministry, then to simply ask, because they ll be pushing an open door. We know that we are shaking things up a bit and so we are trying to be constructive and healthy in the way we do things. Resourcing and supporting and partnering The medium and long term vision for St Swithun s is for it to be a resourcing church. Some of a grant given by the Archbishops Council and Church Commissioners will enable the church to host a yearly conference, produce media resources and run small experimental projects to help other churches to grow. It was also a condition of the grant that St Swithun s will contribute towards other church plants within five years. Prayer and worship Prayer and worship are the foundation of St Swithun s. Tim says: When you look at the Bible, the fortunes of the people of God rise and fall following the quality of their worship and prayer and we see massive sums invested in these areas. Younger generations place a much higher emphasis on finding truth in experiential encounter alongside propositional truth. The weekly 7am prayer meeting is pretty much the one thing in the church I haven t yet delegated. I simply say to the church, Come and pray with me. We ll seek God together. The first teaching our midweek connect groups have gone through is a prayer course. Before we arrived I came down to 4

5 Bournemouth for prayer days, marching around the place, building up a network of praying people I trusted, who I gave regular updates to, asking them to pray. One of my greatest fears is that we ll forget the priority of prayer and, in our pride, rely on planning instead. Ministry to the homeless and recovering addicts Bournemouth is a town of contrasts which has very wealthy areas alongside some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the south west. Another aspect of the vision is to bring hope to the hopeless. Tim says: The vacant site had become a magnet for people struggling with life. In the week before the launch service, I had to stop an impromptu pornographic shoot which was in progress in the churchyard, and also discovered two teenagers injecting heroin behind the lych gate. It s the aspect of church which attracts people who are struggling that I want to encourage I ve made it very clear that I want us to be a magnet in this way. But for different reasons. We had to find a way of resolving these sorts of situations quite urgently, so within three months we had opened a night shelter in partnership with two other organisations in town. They provided professional workers to support our volunteer team. Within its first six months, St Swithun s also launched a ministry for those recovering from addiction which now involves 100 people (40 team members and 60 guests). Bournemouth has many rehabilitation centres and dry houses and Tim says that it s when people leave these that they can relapse and need more support - which is when he believes churches can help. He says: I can t think of another institution which offers not just a course, but a community and on-going support and friendship. For those who are open to exploring spiritual things, we also offer on going prayer. Some have started on a journey of faith and we also offer an Alpha course each term. Church structure and leadership Tim is a Pioneer Minister and St Swithun s is a Fresh Expression of Church. Tim is currently licensed to the local parish but with the intention that in due course it will be possible to licence him under the Extra Parochial Ministry Measure. As an entirely new church, St Swithun s doesn t have a PCC but instead a small executive, a decision-making team who are a mix of people appointed by Tim and elected by a much larger lay leadership team which Tim also oversees. Tim says: Our leadership team includes about 60 people all of whom are leading some aspect of the church, such as small group leaders on Alpha, worship leaders or children s work leaders we meet together regularly. Nearly everything we do is lay led, and building teams is a priority. We believe this allows the mobilising of the Holy Spirit and the use of the gifts that people have; we re not looking to grow the staff team but to support and release lay leaders. I take this group of leaders very seriously and invest in them it s only then our ministries will flourish. I get asked, how come you have so many young leaders? I think it s the Holy Spirit sending them, rather than anything we do. However, we are intentional about it. I talk about it a lot and we pray for it. We also headhunt rather than ask for volunteers. For example, I would never ask for volunteers for a hospitality team. It s up to the leaders to go and recruit the people who they d 5

6 love to welcome their own best unchurched friend, were they to visit us. I often say from the front that We re a battleship not a cruise ship we don t take passengers so if you re here, find your role and pitch in. We haven t got any kind of membership list and we re not a parish so we don t have an electoral roll so my answer to people who ask me How do I join? is keep showing up! I ve preached on the marks of membership - everyone praying, everyone serving, everyone giving. If I had to add one more it would be everyone inviting to try to emphasise evangelism. Maybe I should add everyone leading because everyone has influence, it s simply a question of what we do with it. Lessons learned so far Tim is honest about the challenges and lessons learned so far. He says: We ve made so many mistakes! I usually feel like the Holy Spirit is racing forward and I m grappling to keep hold of his coat tails, flailing around in a fog. Growing so quickly is a blessing but it also creates profound problems even if they are good problems. I am the only ordained member of staff and as our wider leadership team is very young, there is quite a high level of pastoral need. Church is messy and I have invested a lot of energy and time mentoring young leaders through relatively basic discipleship issues. That s a lot of fun, but it also meant that I became the greatest barrier to growth, because I was too often a bottle-neck. So I ve started to shift my attention to appointing a tier of mid-level leaders who are mature Christians, able to pastor others and disciple younger Christians. St Swithun s has recently set up a pastorate structure with connect groups and in hindsight, Tim admits it would have been better to set these up earlier. Finances can be another problem: Income usually lags behind growth and it takes time before people are ready to give so we have to fund the gap. The Bishop has given me housing and a stipend so that we are not a burden to anyone and the Archbishops Council and Church Commissioners have generously given us a grant to help us develop our ministry here but with lots of people arriving so quickly, it s still challenging. Tim warns against doing too much too fast: With the Holy Spirit running the show, you jump to it when you re given the opportunity. But I confess that had I known what was going to happen, I would have made sure that more systems were in place before we started. I am an ambitious and enthusiastic person and wanted to get everything going as soon as possible but if you launch before you are ready you get battered and that s a very high cost on a team. Finally, Tim has really appreciated the wise counsel of mature Christians around him in this respect: The Lord has provided people to help me. While I was pushing to get the addiction recovery ministry started, for example, wiser people told me to hold off and wait until we had a strong team I m so thankful for those critical and wise people on my team who said: no to me. People like me are leaders and it s our job to be visionary and ambitious and to drive forward. We have to keep ourselves and everyone else buoyant I often feel like the cheerleader in chief so I think it s critical to have people around you (even if they re not local but on the end of a phone) who support and encourage you and keep you grounded. 6

7 Further information For further information, please contact the Revd Tim Matthews at 7