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| Case Study 4: Grange Park, Northampton | 3rd Apr '07 |
| Grange Park church is an Anglican Baptist church plant on a new housing area on a green field site. 1800 dwellings, built from 2001, houses are served by the church on the south west corner of Northampton, near junction 15 of the M1. |
The church congregation does not have a building. Sunday services are held in a community centre built with s106 money and run by the Parish Council.
'Originally it was good not to have a building', said the minister Rev Charlie Nobbs, 'but now it would it would be very useful, as we have grown to need more space'. 'The building should always serve the mission of the church not the other way round, but now we are limited without a building for our mission to further develop'.
You will see from the church website www.grangeparkchurch.com that there are all kinds of events for all ages as there are a lot of young families. 'We started in 2002 with a founding couple who were Baptists, they moved in to the 19th house being built'. 'They immediately started to engage with the community, running neighborhood watch, joining the precursor to the parish council, and then the founding board of the primary school as well'.
They were then joined by an Anglican minister (Charlie) and 5 families from a local Anglican church. 'We now have 70-120 (adults and children) on a Sunday. Through interaction in the community there is a wide fringe and developing midweek church. The mission statement is 'called to be good news to Grange Park and beyond'. 'We identified a need and linked up with health visitors to support new mums in the community; starting 'Talking Point' which meets in our house each Thursday morning, and has proved very popular. Most of the babies born on Grange Park come through our house because of that partnership. It has built good relationships and the credibility of the church. From this other mid week events have grown e.g. Stepping Stones, a toddler hybrid playgroup and service. This has also led on to 'Journeys' (www.greatjourneys.co.nz), an evening Alpha type course which has seen many coming to faith and grow as disciples'. This website, although from New Zealand, has obviously been very helpful as a set of DVD can be bought to provide very accessible TV format interviews of powerful life stories. In the new housing context, where people, especially young adults who are not yet Christian have found this resource engaging and challenging.
The organization of this growing congregation has been through cell principles, using material from www.cellUK.org.uk. They have grown to be 6 cell groups since they started, and find it works because they believe that 'church should be 24/7'.
Other resources which have been particularly helpful have included the CPAS Growing Leaders course (see www.cpas.org.uk/growing/content/index.php), and the New Wine network which provides vision, especially for the leadership team. The Baptist church website (www.baptist.org.uk) for material to do with constitutions and other administrative documents (PDF downloads) have also proved very useful re staffing and housing.
Charlie says that 'we have not been without our challenges and mistakes along the way. While we have seen people come to faith and the Kingdom grow, we have also had disagreements and seen people leave. Part of the challenge is to be faithful to God's calling to your particular church: you cant please all the people all the time!' 'Starting a new church in a new housing area with many young families led us to make young families a priority, which is not always the kind of church more traditional people enjoy. We tried to initially do a few things well, and then see where God leads us'. | | Web Site : click here |
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