Christ Church Central: Sheffield

The background and rationale

Sheffield is an industrial and financial city of over half a million people. Historically famous for knives, for 700 years, it has an international reputation for high grade steels but is now much more diverse, with two universities and teaching hospitals.

But its history makes it strongly socially divided West and East. The prevailing Gulf stream wind systems are from the south west. So the Mill owners and Industrialists built their big stone houses on the South West side and the more populous workers had to make do living on the East amidst the pollution. It is said that west Sheffield people go to the doctor ten times less than those on the East. Though Sheffield Diocese is made up of 173 parishes and 222 churches, 5 churches in South West Sheffield make up 20% of the entire church going population. The two largest are St Thomas Crookes and Christ Church Fulwood both with well over 1000 people.

Our story is how the church in Fulwood burst out of the Jerusalem Trap. For many years Fulwood had teaching ministry and drew people from all over the city. Plenty of Judeans were making their way into Jerusalem and having quite a good time. Yet all the time, though they increased the number of Sunday congregations they struggled with two features; one the building being full which then hampers further growth and with the spiritual dynamic that too many members were content to be passengers on a well run ship. Building better but looking inwards was limiting.

Things began to change with Hugh Palmer as vicar and the awareness that creating more and different churches, that shared their theological values, might be a better way forward. Could planting churches be a better way? His associate colleague, Tim Davies comes from a missionary family and he sensed a call to this some 5 years ago. This co-incided with the realisation that the city centre was repopulating. Graduate retention has always been high, but the trend for city centre living was Sheffield catching up with London and Manchester. We now think another 10000 people live in the centre. Who was to reach them and how? Would it be possible to start a church for people who don’t go to church – in other wards they started to spot some Samaritans who wouldn’t come to Jerusalem and to wonder where the ends of the earth applied to Sheffield. When a need and a resource begin to match – that’s always worth noticing.

Tim took time to research the area and the discipline of church planting. Preparation is seldom wasted. He was thorough and rigorous about forming a team. If they were going to work through friendships, rather than programs and building based work, there would need to be enough people who had enough contacts. Moreover there would need to be enough people to share out the tasks that come with public worship and provision for the families of those who came. That meant he was looking for a team of 50 who were called, committed and capable. It was then fascinating that a church of 1000+ could be worried about the loss of 50 people. How easy it is for us to lack missionary imagination and be scared of giving away some of our best. Whey do we find it difficult to believe the words of Jesus – it is more blessed to give than to receive? Yet a year later, the team which had learnt to grow together, were commissioned at an evening service and literally walked out of church – to applause.

What do they do and what have they learnt?

I believe one way to analyse what has happened is that they have kept their founding values but been flexible about nearly everything else.

Here are the values in their words :

“We think that church is not a building but people, people who aim to live their lives with Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour. Christ Church Central is people, people who aim to make the message of Jesus, and the teaching of the Bible, accessible, understandable, relevant and available to everyone. We hope to start more churches in Sheffield that are for people who don't go to church.”

They really listened to the diverse city centre culture and community and discovered that Sunday afternoon, not morning, would be the best time to meet. They listened to the café culture around them and so the afternoon starts at 4.30 with coffee and cake. How different from the odd church culture, divorced from society, where you get a second class drink afterwards.

They have experimented with where to meet and chosen not to meet in the Free Church hall they were given at a cheap price. They meet in a city centre bar, that needs cleaning up every Sunday after Saturday night use. Its neutral and accessible. They listened to culture and the meeting is much more interactive, participative and many different people get to lead and contribute.

They know people need ways in - and that Sunday however friendly – is not the usual starting place. So they have a monthly walkers club because Sheffield is on the edge of fabulous walking country. It’s a major leisure activity. The first Sunday of every month they go out into the Peak District for a guided walk. They meet at 10 am – easy if church attendance isn’t blocking the way. There is a football group which meets every Friday evening at a local school. There is also a mothers and toddlers group. Nothing beyond the imagination but doing what is locally obvious. For those who want to explore more there is a Christianity Explored group, also a website that people can interrogate with some in depth articles on current issues.

They run small groups – not as filling stations to top up Christians midweek but much more wholistic. In their words, the aim of these are: Gospel sharing: pro-actively telling others the message of Jesus Christ. Bible study that teaches, rebukes, encourages and trains in godliness

Prayer for one another and the church. Christian friendship that loves, supports, rejoices and weeps together. Gamma groups are part of the outreach strategy and the pastoral care.

Some surprises and challenges.

They began with a focus on the new city centre dwellers. Some CCC members even bought some of these apartments to live among those they sought to befriend. They found you meet them in the bars, cafes and gyms, not in their electronically gated little boxes. You always have to work out how a culture gathers and go there to meet them, not ask them to come to you.

They started by trying to diversify how church was done and have found more diversity than they expected. I guess the ends of the earth is always beyond what we can imagine. They now work with a variety of groups.

One is what they call their International friends group – mainly Asian students who have come to live or study in Sheffield and one retired member of the team Bill has been a missionary in Japan, which is a great background.

Another is Uni students who become part of our wider church family. Two things to notice are they try not to let this work dominate and secondly they work hard to ensure the students are involved in all aspects of the church's ministries. They don’t come as consumers.

Yet another group, through Church on a Bus, is aimed at the city centre homeless. Led by Mike they aim to be an outward looking, welcoming, Christian community where the men and women that come along can feel safe, valued and belong. As he says, we meet on Wednesday evening from 7.30pm at our hall to prepare the coffee and cake, and to pray. We aim to be parked up and ready to serve by 8pm. The focus of the evening is food, friendship and low key one to one conversational evangelism with whoever turns up. We try to finish the evening looking at the Bible with time to pray with and for those who have joined us over the course of the evening. We aim to finish by 9.30pm, then its back to Egerton Hall for a review, prayer and a bit of washing up!

They have grown from 50 adults towards 200 which all the time presses them to stay flexible about where and when to meet. They have multiplied ministries and sent the their young leaders off the college with a view to come back and start yet further outward looking, strongly communal, bible focussed churches. All the time it is stretching. It just shows how often church is designed to remain much the same.

The last thing to note is that the parent church has been so delighted with what has happened, seen what happens when you keep faithful to values but are flexible about practice, that they plan to send our another group every two years. With the right leaders, good processes and identifiable mission fields, that sounds very promising. It could never have happened all in Fulwood. They had to leave to learn and to discover what God could do outside their comfort zones.