Coulby Newham
Sam Tyndall
sam@stcuthbertmarton.org.uk
I began at St Cuthbert’s in September 2019, and when I began the role, I couldn’t imagine how we would get from a blank sheet of paper to a worshipping community. But I’m pleased to say we now meet every Sunday afternoon for our ‘Church in a Building’ service, and are seeing God grow and develop a new community which is very exciting!
One of the great things about the New Worshipping Community is that the majority of people who come aren’t yet Christians, and/or haven’t been going to church recently. For us, lots of these are families who brought their babies to be baptised, and have wanted to make a further connection with the church, and have found our “Church in a building” works for them.
4 keys to growing" Church in a Building"
Listening
The initial 6 month “listening” period helpfully focused me on speaking to people who weren’t yet part of the church, to reflect on how the church could connect with them. I was encouraged by people’s openness to the church, and their interest in engaging with something new. Had coffee with people through existing networks, friends of friends, had play dates with baptism families and followed up on any opportunities.
I’m starting a new church, if you were starting a church what would you like it to be like? Could I come for a cup of tea and ask you about it?
Team
Who and how?
I’ve been so fortunate to be able to work with a small team of very gifted and dedicated people who have worked really hard over the last couple of years.
We did get to the point where we realised we needed to pray that God would send us some Christians to join the work – and we were encouraged to see God answer this prayer – with two Christian families moving into Coulby and joining our church, and they shared our heart to be a church for the unreached.
Trust
We had planned a launch event at Easter but then the pandemic hit and as a result of that we moved to ‘Church in a Bag.’ Each bag provided everything needed for a family to enjoy gathering for church at home with a video of a bible story, crafts, games and reflection questions, thankyou and please prayers. We delivered these to the people we met during the listening stage and families from the existing church toddler group. This allowed us to get to know lots of families across Coulby and beyond and built relationship and trust.
Community
One of our fundamental commitments as a team was that we never wanted to put on an event for people to attend, but instead to create a community of people gathering around Jesus. We finish our time together on Sundays with a simple shared meal, which gives us chance to build community in a much more significant way and helps to avoid grumpy kids at 5pm! We find that most families don’t rush off at the end, but stay to eat and chat and play, which is so good.
We’ve also been focusing this year on expanding beyond the Sunday afternoon service, to create other ways into the church community, and other opportunities to belong.
We started our mini meet-up toddler group as a support group in lockdown, and have continued it weekly. It’s a small group, meaning we have time to chat with the parents and carers of the children.
We also have a small discipleship group for people who want to go deeper in their faith, and monthly 5-a-side football game. This has proved to be a really easy thing to invite people to, and connected with new dads. We’ve had some great chats in the pub afterwards too.
I ran a Start Course (exploring Christianity) in the Spring, however in the end no one from the Church in a Building congregation actually came, which was disappointing at the time, but not a disaster!
Final Thoughts
We’ve been really encouraged by the way people have connected with us, and been drawn into church community, often after bringing their children for baptism, or through personal friendships. I really believe that there are lots of people in Middlesbrough who are open to faith in Jesus, interested in the church, ready to be reached in new ways. God is at work building his church, in simple ways, for the good of those who don’t yet know Jesus, and for his glory.
Please do pray for us as we continue in this work, for energy and perseverance, and for God to do great things in the lives of the families in our church community.
During the pandemic Sam was interviewed by Mike Hill on BBC Radio Tees about ‘Church in a Bag’ - their interactive church at home pack for families which they’ve started since lockdown began. Have a listen to find out more about how the idea came about and what’s included in the bag.
Find out more about Sam’s work in Coulby Newham by following on: