Steve Ridgeway reports on his experience of picking up a church and running with it!
In August of this year my wife and I celebrated the second anniversary of our move to South Croydon.
We made this move so that I could take on the pastorate of Mitchley Hill Evangelical Church, Sanderstead. What drew us to the church was the warmth and love of the Fellowship and its desire to see the church grow. For various reasons the church itself had plateaued in recent years. To take on this work would be a challenge, but one which its members were keen for us to embrace and to support us in.
Over time, we had felt growing affection for the people and an increasing burden for the work’s progress. So, in obedience to what we sensed was the Lord’s leading, we bit the bullet and chose to go.
Change of name
So, what has happened since arriving? The name of the church has now changed to Sanderstead Evangelical Church (SEC) to reflect the specific part of South Croydon we are situated in. With the help of some young people from a neighbouring church (Southside Baptist Church, Thornton Heath) we were able to leaflet the area with a flyer about the work of SEC. Also Selhurst Evangelical Church sent, with their blessing, a family to join the work here. They have now moved into Sanderstead. Most recently, Thornton Heath Evangelical Church commended an experienced former pastor and his wife to come to us as helpers. All of these churches are a part of the larger Croydon Gospel Partnership, a network of evangelical churches which operates in and around Croydon.
Over this time God has been extremely kind to SEC in giving us a measure of steady growth, particularly over the last year. In addition to upholding the many faithful members who have made up the church in recent decades, he has brought in a mixture of younger couples and families, single folk and older believers. We are grateful for them all. We also recently had our first baptism, of a young man who started to attend the church over a year ago. For a long while, church members have been faithfully involved in a variety of ministries such as schools work, women’s ministry, door-to-door and other gospel events. With the addition of some of our new folk we hope to be able to strengthen such works as well as try new evangelistic ventures (Matthew 28.18-20).
So what lessons have we learned so far over this two year period?
Hear, trust, love
On the flyer that we distributed in the neighbourhood we adopted the strap-line of ‘Hearing God, Trusting Christ, Loving People’. I guess you could say that we have learned the absolute necessity of keeping these three disciplines together. We meet regularly to hear God through the preaching of his Word. But this means little unless the hearing of the Word leads us, through the Spirit’s power, to repent and believe in Christ. However, the reality of this conversion is not seen in mere doctrinal orthodoxy alone but in the way we go on to love people, both the saints and the sinners of this world – just like Jesus did. Of course we would never claim to have mastered these disciplines. We have a long way still to go. But we also recognise that striving to do so, in God’s strength, should always be our goal.
Patience
And we’ve also learned (and are learning!) that the work of ministry requires patience, lots of patience! In an instant culture it’s easy to feel nothing is happening in the work of God unless some immediate gratification can be secured. And yet so much of ministry requires walking by faith (Hebrews 11.6). Often God is at work in invisible ways long before visible fruit appears (Mark 4.26-34). And it is commonly the fruit that takes the longest to grow that is more likely to remain. What I’m saying is hardly original but it is something that I’ve needed to remind myself of when progress seems sluggish and ministry a slog.
The benefits of small beginnings
I have also noticed that one of the pleasant aspects of life in a smaller growing congregation can be the way in which people are valued as individuals. Many of the older, more established members here have been a real example in the way they have welcomed newcomers and invested time in getting to know them, often meeting with them in the week for coffee and social time. This is not just done as a technique to suck people into the church. My observation is that it is done out of a sincere love of people and appreciation of their value in God’s sight.
Perhaps then there is a concentrated awareness of the preciousness of every individual in a place where numerical mass is less. When someone is not around it gets noticed; when a new person joins us, their presence and gifts lift the work up in a tangible way. Showing and demonstrating care is often more personal in a community where everyone knows your name.
Of course, as a smaller growing fellowship there is a natural cap to what we can do due to restricted manpower. Even with the help and support of other churches in the Croydon Gospel Partnership it may still take a while to see the work thoroughly built up. But in many ways this ‘stripped down’ feel to church life and ministry has its benefits: It forces us to ask what we are essentially here for, what needs to be done when we can’t do everything we might like. So we have realised that even with our limited resources we can prayerfully preach and teach the Bible and love people without hindrance. And that’s what we’ve sought to focus on through regular ministry and evangelism.
Increasing joy
To his praise, the Lord has slowly started to add new folk to our number. But, perhaps most significantly, he has increased our joy and enlarged our love in Christ too – which surely is a significant part of true growth. I notice the way that people are smiling more and more when we meet together. I sense the upbeat mood that permeates the atmosphere after the morning and evening services have ended. I observe our deepening prayer life. I love being a part of this church and am encouraged at what the Lord is doing!
