St Thomas's in Stourbridge is one of our renewal projects. It has received funding from the national church as part of our priority to ensure that each major area of population has at least one larger healthy and sustainable church by 2030 - one with at least 150 people attending in an average week.
Why St Thomas’s Stourbridge and why now?
St Thomas’ Stourbridge was chosen for funding from the national church due to the opportunities it has, owing to its central location in Stourbridge, and possibilities to expand on its current activities and introduce new ones to engage diverse groups of people visiting the town centre.
Stourbridge has lots of day visitors such as students, commuters and shoppers, some whom already visit the church building to look round or sit in quiet contemplation.
Stourbridge also has a large leisure centre and a thriving evening economy, with people visiting restaurants, bars and music venues. The church has long identified the opportunities to tap into, through evening worship and offering the church as a space for music concerts and other activities.
Vision
Led by vicar Andrew Sillis with help from curate Paul Latham and their new staff, the team plan to create a church and foster an environment that is truly welcoming to everyone and to all sections of society. They plan to have a menu of different services, activities and events, resulting in lots of different worshipping communities to cater for all the different groups of people that visit the town centre on a daily basis.
Plans
- New services and new worshipping communities are planned including the reintroduction and expansion of Café church, ‘Oh my Dog!’ and the Tuesday lunchtime service ‘Chewsday Church’
- Reintroduction and expansion of the church toddler group Toddler Praise
- Introduction of enquirers courses such as Alpha
- Introduction of a programme of Arts and music
- New activities inc. activities for Christmas or Easter looking to engage children and families
- Grand reopening after reordering works are completed
Team
Using the money from the national church, new staff are being recruited to help aid their plans.
These roles are:
- A town Missioner
- A Children Families and Young People worker or minister
- An Operations Manger
- A Buildings Project Manager
- An Administrator
N.B: Some of these roles will be part time
Building works
Some building and reordering works are needed to bring alive the vision of making St Thomas’ a flexible space with all the facilities needed for it to become a great venue for activities and events, truly serving the needs of the town.
To make the space inside the church more flexible, most of the church box pews will be removed and the Baptism font relocated to create a hospitality area. New under-floor heating and flooring is also planned. External works will improve signage and visibility outside the church as well.
The re-ordering is a 6-9 month project during which time the church will be closed and other nearby venues and spaces will be utilised instead to continue a reduced amount of activities and services during this time.