When the world around you changes

Most changes happen unnoticed because they happen gradually, be it the crows feet, the middle aged spread, the gradual decrease in speed and agility on the football field, or the growth of a child that we haven't spotted but the grandparents do.  It's no different in the areas in which we live.  We live in the Hayfield area of Auckley, near Doncaster, and have done for 11 years.  When we came it was less than 600 houses, mostly comprised of former RAF base housing.  The local school was not the school of choice.  And the area had lots of social needs.

Fast forward 11 years and things are markedly different.  As I walked the dog earlier there are now well over a thousand homes.  And the vast majority that have been built are expensive family homes available to buy, not rent, rather than affordable housing or social housing.

The airport has taken off (pun intended) and so have the businesses around it with a couple of new office parks having been built bringing jobs into the area and more warehousing and office space planned for the future.  A brand new sixth form college has been built, which come September will have over a thousand students.  The local Primary School is expanding and when complete will have changed from a small local school with less than 200 pupils in it to a 2 form entry school with over 450 pupils in the school and nursery.  And it has become the school of choice, with lots of parents travelling and in and fighting appeals to get a place rather than not to.  Since we've been here a private school has relocated from Bessacarr to buildings near the airport.

And these changes are only the beginning.  Yorkshire Wildlife Park are expanding and their main entrance will be less than a mile from where we meet as a church, with shops and a hotel planned as part of the development.  The long term airport expansion plan includes plans for hotels, further business and warehousing development, a railway station, and a new residential build of over 3000 new homes.

As I walked I was reminded again that the world has changed around us.  The populace has more than doubled in size, the age demographic has changed, the socio-economic demographic has shifted, but the same needs that were there are still there, they are just less obvious and there are also a whole raft of additional ones.  And the challenge for us is to be praying for God's wisdom to take the gospel to everyone.  Not to prejudice some, but to favour all.  The gospel is the only hope to unite and bridge the divides of a community that has suddenly grown and thrown very different people with different aspirations, chips on their shoulders and outlooks together.

Every so often we need to look up, challenge our assumptions and examine the place where we find ourselves.  What things did I know which are no longer true of my community?  What assumptions were true but are no longer valid?  What different dreams and aspirations, hopes and stories do people have and how has that changed?  And how do we connect with these people as a church?  Do programmes need scraping, adapting, or beginning?  How is the gospel good news for these people?