To see what happens if….

Whilst training at college for Baptist ministry a model emerged as to what I and my cohort were expected to become. Actually where everyone has ended up is quite varied. We did however have some sessions on new / alternative expressions of church; our tutor, Stuart Murray Williams, encouraged us to experiment and not to be afraid to ‘fail’ as the world would see it....

It was also a time of questioning; what was happening to the church in the UK? For the pessimists, were we being recruited to shore it up or close it gracefully? Church seemed essentially to be in the hands of the comfortable middle classes; in the town where I did my placement there were huge swathes of estates untouched by the church.

With all this in mind I arrived in Andover and Kids Church to see what happens if… we encourage a faith community from the young people that had been touched by ten years of Kids Church ministry.

It all began with a Jucos group in Andover Baptist Church. Up to 60 youngsters began coming every week from the estates, old London overspill, disadvantaged and not greatly welcomed by the rest of the town. They out grew the patience of the congregation and the fabric and it was decided that there was something here that might become a unique ministry to the estates. The founders came across a model from New York, Metro ministries where thousands of children and young people are collected on busses each week and taken to an exciting fast moving event in a big warehouse. Each child is visited every week at home by the same trained visitor; this is the most essential part of them building relationships.

This was replicated in Andover hiring a school hall and then renting and converting a warehouse. Up to 200 children came every week. Children become youth and numerous youth groups were started. Three pastoral care workers were recruited to work full time in three junior schools and I too joined the team. At its peak 10 staff and approximately 30 volunteers were involved.

My role was to work with the older youth and to help the team pastorally, many of those working in the community had grown disenfranchised with what felt like the unreality of church, it was providing a masseur when what was needed was a doctor.

Six months after I started the team suffered a huge blow through personal circumstances and structural changes; this meant that I was now running the whole organisation. The following two years were a struggle for everyone. In some ways the work had outgrown the organisation’s administrative capacity, its systems were that of a small cottage industry but it was now much bigger and lots of adjustments were needed. The work I had gone to do had hardly begun but we held Kids Church together and though it went through a very severe pruning it has begun to re-grow.

Discipleship was an area I had looked at when I started and this began to develop. For me it was a case of discipleship being done whilst doing. Discipleship classes that I had seen elsewhere were unlikely to work but doing things and seeing faith tested and God changing things through our work would. Two trips to work with Roma communities in Romania, the brainchild of two of our young people were very successful in terms of us having our faith stretched. Junior leadership in youth groups and involving the youth in putting on three large festivals also gave a great sense of achievement for some.

My three year contract has now come to an end; it was difficult for the organisation to see how building a faith community was possible to carry out with the changes that have happened at this stage; maybe in years to come.

Looking back in answer to the question ‘what happens if…’ took me on a path I was not expecting, a path with all the pain and exasperation I would not have chosen to take but one that it was necessary to take, not only for Kids Church sake, but mine too. I have stood in the gap but I have also learnt a lot about people, teams, myself, disadvantaged communities and most especially young people. In September I begin a PGCE RE course whilst also looking to work more with my home church in the area of discipleship.

Is it true that experiments never fail? The conditions they are carried out in make a difference to the result; can we learn from them and benefit from having gone through the experience? Are we prepared for them to take us to places we would not have expected?

What happens if…? is a question with an open answer waiting for someone to take a step of faith, not in a positive result but faith in a God whom we serve.