Small church struggles in reaching a needy community

Every church has it's pressures, no church is ideal, no church is perfect.  But I wonder if small churches who are active in reaching their communities feel particular pressures.  That is certainly the way it feels at the moment.

Praise God Grace Church has grown, if everyone was there on Sunday mornings we'd be 70ish, but 30 of those are under 13.  Some mornings Sunday school is bigger than the remaining congregation.  And the encouragement is that it's not just church kids, or even children of families who come to church, but some children come on their own.  But the pressure is in staffing a Sunday school of 30, especially as one group now numbers 13-15.  We'd love to split it into two but we simply don't have the people.  7 years of praying for more workers because the harvest field is ripe has seen some come join us but we desperately need more!

One of the biggest frustrations is the open doors we just don't have the man power or money to make the most of.  We were asked again yesterday to run a CU or after school Christian club in a local school where we are involved.  But we simply don't have the man power to do it, people in church are caring for one another, working hard at community involvement, and pastoral care of existing members and we simply can't meet this great gospel opportunity now.  Oh for more gospel workers.

And the community, thanks to God's grace, now seem to regard Grace Church as one of the go to places for help when in crisis, which is brilliant but we are having to place strict limits on what we can and can't do, again simply because of manpower.

And now a new issue is increasingly presenting itself.  We are visible on a Sunday but not during the week.  We've been asked if we would set up a food back but have no space in which to do so.  We'd love to run parenting courses and CAP courses but entering homes is a threshold too far for many in the community.  Whereas a neutral space, or non-home space would open up all sorts of possibilities. The dream would be to buy a house on the estate and have offices upstairs for organisations to use and a larger space downstairs for groups to meet in, other services to use and a space where we could store and give out food as a food bank.  But again the resources aren't there, with a budget deficit we can't afford even to look into property.

In the midst of so many encouragements and opportunities the frustrations are coming thick and fast, which is why God has graciously led us to study Acts.  To remind me it is God's mission, he loves this community more than I do, he wants to show them and speak to them of the healing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ more than I do.  And he is sovereign, so every frustration I need to turn into prayer.  Prayer for more workers, prayer for more money to use to reach the community, prayer for the lost to be found, prayer for God to be glorified in us.

Building community - the answer!

We awoke yesterday morning to serious snow! In fact so serious that it is over the top of your wellies, no-one was going anywhere. the local roads haven't been cleared or gritted. But what a great opportunity, the boys and I went out with spades and started clearing our drive and the working our way down our road.

It wasn't long until our next door neighbour came out to help, and we had quite a good chat about what I did , the church and how his family was. All in all we spent about 3 hours out clearing the road together.

We've awoken this morning to more snow, so much that I guess we may be clearing the road again later. But what a great opportunity to check in on neighbours and see if we can help them with anything, or if they need anything we can give them, or simply to spend time with them.

It occurs to me that the snow has provided an answer to a prayer I've been praying for a while a chance to spend some time with some of our neighbours, just chatting and getting to know each other better, building community. In our busy lives we are always rushing to work, or the shops, or the gym or to this or that, 50 cms of snow forces people to slow down and stay local.

Now to make the most of that in building relationships, showing people the love of Jesus and taking opportunities to speak of him.