They made the right move

Relocating? As we saw last month, it’s a complicated business for Christians on the move. While issues like closeness to family or schools loom large and programmes like Escape to the Country push the line of finding the perfect house, Christians are faced with the challenge: how to move in a way that keeps the gospel central?

Whatever the presenting reason for moving — a need for more space, a new job, the need to care for family members, Christians only thrive when they are being fed by God’s Word and are part of a church family where they can use their gifts to serve and encourage others. This means that, for those of us who are thinking of moving house, the aim should be to put finding a church like this at the top of our list of priorities. In other words, to put those glossy house brochures to one side until it is clear which church it is right to settle in: one where the Bible is preached clearly and faithfully and where there will be opportunities to serve and encourage others. This month EN talks to four people, Jennifer, Bill, Richard and Jane (not their real names) who have sought to do that. They tell us how they went about it, what issues they faced and how they feel now about their decision to put church first.

A conscious choice

While our four house hunters had different reasons for having to relocate, it was striking that all of them reacted to the need to move in the same way. Rather than instantly reading every property section in all the Sunday papers, instead they made a conscious decision: to move with the priority of finding a good church to be a part of. In other words, this was not something they merely hoped would happen: it was something they actively decided to make the guiding influence on finding their new home.

Jennifer: ‘When we woke up to the fact that it was financially unsustainable to continue to rent our trendy, but not exactly spacious and far too expensive flat in London we thought that we would try and put into practice the priorities of church, home, work — in that order — about where we should live.’

Jane: ‘My husband started a new job which necessitated a house move…it seemed obvious to us that the first thing to do was find a church, since we wanted to live in the community of whichever church we settled in.’

Choosing the church

With the aim clear, the next step was to think through the possibilities, taking into account any practical considerations.

Richard: ‘I was working at the top of Liverpool Street — so it made sense to look for a church on a line into Liverpool Street.’

Jennifer: ‘We drew up a shortlist of about seven ministers who we knew or had heard were good — faithful preachers in situations where we could afford to live and where we could find work.’

All four commented on the need to take time over finding the right church to become a part of. They visited churches and talked openly with the leadership about the church and its work and aims.

Richard: ‘We spoke to people who knew the church scene there and had three recommendations. We spent a day in two of them — including hearing the vicars preach and chatting to them about their plans.’

As well as finding out about the preaching and aims of the church, the other question considered was where best they themselves could most usefully serve, given their background, personality, gifting and previous training.

Richard: ‘We thought we would be better able to serve in a village situation (we were both brought up in the countryside).’

Bill: ‘We spent two months going to two other churches that were local churches and where our training and gifts as a couple would be particularly useful — hearing everyone preach and speaking to as many of the church family as possible.’

Jennifer: ‘We wanted to find out where ‘the gaps’ were (i.e. where they needed people). In the church we decided upon we could see that we had experience and training and gifts in the areas where they needed people (i.e. small groups and administration) — lots of the other churches really needed people to pioneer youth or children’s work, where we had almost no experience.’

Hunting the house

Once decided on the church, the next stage was to find the house. Here, while there was an acknowledgement that this was disruptive and stressful, with two out of the four having to live in rented accommodation until they could move into their home, all were conscious of the sovereign God at work, graciously providing the right place to live.

Jane: ‘We soon had a buyer for our house and an offer accepted on one a couple of miles from the new church. It looked as if everything was falling into place beautifully. However, we lost our buyer and took months to complete on another sale, so we lost the house we first wanted. In God’s providence we bought one about two minutes walk from the church.’

There was agreement that in looking for a house, its proximity to church was a vital factor. It wasn’t enough to travel into it. While living very close to church may not be an option in a big city like London, where relationships operate on a networking level and necessitate travel, elsewhere this is not the case.

Richard: ‘We had originally looked at houses in nearby villages, but thankfully they weren’t ‘right’ (they weren’t in the villages that we needed to be in if we were to be effective in ministry with the congregation. It is important to understand the culture you are moving to — here people don’t socialise the way they do in London — they make relationships with their neighbours and expect to conduct that relationship locally.’

No regrets

Finally, the feeling that united these people was a sense of peace and thankfulness about their decision and the opportunities it had brought. While making the right move brought upheaval and took time, none of the four expressed any regrets.

Richard: ‘Since then life and ministry have been great; ministry happens where we live and both we and our children have friends we can invite to events in the village.’

Jane: ‘Even with all the upheaval we felt complete peace that we were where God wanted us to be.’

The last word goes to Jennifer: ‘God is no man’s debtor. We hear older, godly mission partners testify to that. And we would say that has been our experience too, even in our not exactly very bold move. We moved here to be of help, but have found that it’s been of great benefit to ourselves.’

Next month EN talks to those who have moved without church as first priority and what it has taught them.

Christians moving house, part 2

A conscious choice

Choosing the church

Hunting the house

No regrets

Elisa Beynon

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