St Matthew’s Church 30th March

Peter addressed the crowd in Jerusalem, speaking as a witness. The crowd came together because of what they saw and heard. They heard Peter and the disciples speaking in their own languages. It therefore didn’t mean it was a great effort for them to hear what was being said. God was taking the gospel to the people by using his followers and empowering them with the Holy Spirit.

During the last few months we have been working together as a team, drawn from different ends of the spectrum in the Church of England, with different experiences and backgrounds. Our aim has been to think about mission in the context of St Matthew’s and to take part in that mission. We have been asked to do a project, but as we met and thought together about what we understand by “mission” and our understanding of God as a missionary God, we realised that it was more about joining in and offering our time and efforts to encourage, and perhaps enable, what is already here. We agreed that God is a God who reaches out to His world and that as he does that he longs for all people to respond. Our definition of mission became this: Mission expresses the gracious, redeeming love of God for the world, by presence, by action, by word in the world so moving people towards a response to that love and choosing to become disciples.

So our question then became “How do we join in with this at St Matthews in the time we have available for this part of our training?” And we started to meet with Andrew.

When we heard about the coffee shop we were very excited and thought that would be an area in which we could help. It soon became apparent though that the congregation was already raring to go on that particular project and you did not need us to be involved in the way we had first anticipated. So then we looked at the context again, the parish of St Matthews and Andrew asked us to think about the offices around the church and how St Matthews might be able to reach out and serve the community of people who come in every day to those buildings.

So that has been our focus. We started by asking groups of people from the congregation about St Matthews; why did they first come? What is it that they valued about St Matthews? What did they understand by the word Mission? How did they feel about the offices and how did they think the offices felt about the church? We collated the results of these conversations and noticed a few common threads:

· the value of people and relationships

· the variety and the ability to be yourselves here

· the sense of community and support within the congregation

· Mission is often understood as an activity that happens “somewhere else”, perhaps abroad, perhaps as part of an organised event, perhaps through the dreaded door to door visiting, but there was also a feeling that the way in which we live day by day is mission, our involvement with our families, neighbours and colleagues is an expression of Mission

· that office workers probably saw the building, but knew little about what goes on

· that in the past it has been difficult to reach out to the office workers, partly because they come into Redhill for the day during the week and most people in St Matthews are here on Sundays.

· That workers might benefit from having a place to go at lunchtime that was quiet

· That the coffee shop might be a useful venue for workers for lunch or a break

So then we thought it would be helpful to try and talk to the businesses and see how they view St Matthews and what they felt you could offer them. We approached about 15 firms suggested by Father Andrew. Some contacts were already known and others we tried to make ourselves. This was an exercise with varied results. Some of us found it harder than others to make contact but we had useful conversations with about 8 companies.

· Many of the employees seem to be in their 20’s and 30’s and there is a 50:50, male:female ratio overall

· Many firms are expanding at the moment

· Lunchtimes vary, some people stay at their desks or in the office facilities, most seem to have sandwiches or go into town or Donyngs

· No provision was made in the offices for faith groups specifically, but no one was against them. No current local Christian unions in offices

· They almost all had some sort of social and charitable policy or local links

When they were asked about the church there were mixed responses

· There was everything from ambivalence to enthusiasm for the church taking an interest in the businesses

· They felt that stress for workers was an important area that we should be aware of, also local social issues, housing, vandalism, offering an alternative ‘place to go’ was useful for some people at lunchtimes etc.

· Generally they were not aware of what St Matthews offers during the week at the moment, some did not even realise the church was here!

· Generally the response to the news of the coffee shop was positive and many felt willing to have publicity in their buildings if there was some.

· They responded positively to the thought of networking meetings or visiting speaker events at lunchtimes and some also responded enthusiastically to the possibility of a weekday carol service

· The feeling seemed to be that if more information was offered it would not be rejected and most would be willing to advertise events, but the subsequent response would very much depend upon individuals.

So what now? How do we use this work to encourage and enable mission in St Matthews? As a group we met this week to talk about what we are leaving with you:

We have learnt that as we showed an interest in the life and employees of the businesses they relaxed and were happy to talk. Many were very wary at first that we were trying to ask them for something or to make demands. Our understanding of the gospel and mission is that as we serve and show people God’s love and interest in them they will be able respond. Our questions were more along the lines of “What can the church do for you?” than “What do you think about the gospel and how are you going to respond?” That comes much later in the relationship with individuals when they have felt and seen the difference God makes in your lives here as a community.

We have been able to make some connections for you with the local businesses and because of our “project” we were able to ask them some questions about their knowledge and attitudes towards St Matthews. We found this difficult, but we’d like to encourage you that it is possible to go out and meet your business neighbours where they are. The occupants of offices are constantly changing as businesses relocate. We hope that you will be able to develop this into more regular contact with some of those companies we’ve spoken to who are already friendly and open to your approaches and with newcomers as they arrive. We hope that you will find ways to let them know what’s going on during the week, perhaps taking posters in for special events and asking companies to display them in the kitchens.

We’ve produced some alternative liturgy for lunchtime prayers to try out. We hope it is accessible for people who have never been into a church before.

We leave you perhaps with more questions than answers… how can you share your friendship and fellowship which means so much to so many of you with people who at the moment see a building, not the people inside? When we asked what you valued about St Matthews it was the people that made the church.

To finish with Andrew’s illustration, I wonder if in some sense St Matthews building with the church, the hall and soon the coffee shop is also a bit like that vase? A gift that needs to be used and filled with something beautiful – you, reaching out a hand of friendship and support to your parish.

We want to thank you for your graciousness in letting us come and learn from you and with you and assure you of our prayers as we continue our training for ministry.