Grace Baptists think out of the box and into the car park

What did you do for your Christmas carol service, with the public seeing church buildings as a Covid danger zone? The pandemic has made us think outside our buildings, and many churches have responded creatively.

For their carol service in 2020, Highbury Baptist Church in North London went outside into Highbury Fields, Islington’s largest green space. With a makeshift PA, two violins and a guitar, a small group of people and a table of giveaway books, it wasn’t a big gathering. Phil Heaps, co-pastor at Highbury Baptist, said: ‘There were many people out and about, and a good number stopped to listen.’ They repeated this in 2021. ‘Certainly, there remains a general goodwill towards carol singing in our increasingly hostile society, and we intend to do it again next year.’

Further out in North London, Grace Baptist Church Wood Green had gone further in 2020, getting permission to block off the street outside their church building for a carol service, and they repeated that a year later. The pastor, Ryan King said: ‘We have to be creative, and keep our nerve in the days and even hours leading up to such events. I often quote “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap” (Ecc.11:4). It is very important that we cultivate strategic relationships with people of peace in the community and establish a commendable track record with our neighbours of consistent presence and compassionate engagement.’

In Colchester, Prettygate Baptist Church had held a carol service in their car park at short notice in 2020. They were surprised by the positive response, so decided to add other open-air dimensions to their Christmas outreach in 2021.

They organised a nativity trail with another gospel church in the area. There were ‘stations’ in 12 front gardens (see photo) telling the Christmas story, and nearly 50 families took part. Pastor Peter Shirtcliffe said: ‘It was wonderful to see non-Christian parents reading Bible passages to their children and helping them to find the answers to the questions from those passages. This proved really effective in the local community – some saw people going past their houses with the clipboards and actually decided to join in. Each family received a goodie bag with evangelistic literature, sweets and other items to point them to the true meaning of Christmas.’

They repeated the previous year’s ‘Carols in the Car Park’, with projected words for carols, and some solo pieces by a member who sings opera, and the church’s hub café serving hot drinks. ‘We saw well established contacts within the local community, and many came for the first time. There was tremendous goodwill towards us and many who walked by stopped and joined them. We think this could be one of our most well-attended events in the light of Covid. These non-building events seem to provide a safe environment for many people to come who wouldn’t normally come within the doors for church.’