Members of St Stephen’s Church in Redditch have been sharing hope in different locations across Redditch, offering people free tea and coffee and a chance to talk about faith and about anything which might be worrying them.
The team set up a gazebo with refreshments available and spoke to people who came past, giving out bibles, booklets about prayer and invitations to church.
Renewal Leader, Fraser Oates, said: “Our aim is to live out the great commission to be Jesus’ witnesses in the world. We can’t assume people will come into church and wanted to try to offer a non-threatening presence in the community. We’ve been trying out different locations to see where might work best and have had really good conversations even in the quieter locations as we share hope courageously!”
Ron Skelton is Chair of Redditch Youth for Christ and a Trustee of St Stephen’s Church. He said: “This is all about building our presence and profile in the town, talking to people and hearing their concerns, as well as praying for them if they’d like us to. We need to be outside the walls of the church – one conversation with someone can make a difference.”
The St Stephen’s Team also took a video camera with them to ask people what Christmas means to them, which they will use to create a montage to use in their Christmas services. Joshua Williams, the church’s Worship Director, explained: “It’s a very light touch way of starting a conversation, hearing people’s responses and capturing what’s going on in our community.”
Irene Griffiths, Linda McRoy and Gaynor Humphries are three of the church members who have been involved in the ‘Sharing Hope’ pop up stands.
Irene said: “I’ve always been able to talk about my faith with other Christians, but I wanted to have a go at talking to strangers and being more open about faith. It’s not always easy, but I generally approach people walking their dogs and use that as a way to start the conversation. People have been very open to the idea of sharing hope. We need to be outside rather than shut in our church buildings.”
Linda agreed saying: “We’re letting the people of Redditch know that we’re here, bringing light into the darkness and giving people hope. Hopefully we are also challenging people’s preconceived ideas of Church, showing that we’re ordinary, nice people! We’re not expecting everyone to start coming to church but are planning a seed as God’s messengers and who knows where it might lead.”
Gaynor said: “People have been incredibly receptive and it’s amazing how they open up with many asking for prayer. Even if people don’t want to engage, they’ve still very friendly. It is great to see people stepping out in faith and sharing their gifts through the ‘Sharing Hope’ pop up stand. Since I’ve been at St Stephen’s Church, I’ve already seen revival happening and I hope we take church into the community more often.”
Fraser said: “It is a privilege being out and about talking about God and Jesus. We’re all feeling encouraged that we can have the courage to be people who are missional and talking to strangers is not quite as terrifying as we might think! The conversations we’re having will help us to understand where people in our town are at and what we might do going forward, as well as sowing the seeds of the Gospel.”
