Crossways at the crossroads

The adventure all began with a PS in an email! In reality, it all began 12 months before then.

Linda, my wife, and I began to feel that a change was due in our lives; in fact we felt this was going to be a big change.

We had both worked as music teachers for 30 years, Linda in a girls’ school and me as the Principal of the music service in Bromley, SE London, the Bromley Youth Music Trust. In fact I had been involved in the music profession for longer than that as a trombone player in one of the London orchestras. Music and teaching were therefore a great part of our lives.

Deeply involved

I loved my job and there was not a day which passed that I didn’t feel the privilege of working in this profession. We were also deeply involved in our local church with Linda leading the music and me serving as an elder. During a period of two years without a pastor I led the church of 160 members with one other elder and loved the experience and privilege of serving the congregation.

Although retirement from work was only on the distant horizon, there was a growing feeling that we wanted to use the next period in our lives as profitably as possible in the Lord’s service. The challenge of reading John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life was quite important at this time. Although older than most people when they enter the pastoral ministry I felt the Lord’s call to make myself available, and quickly realised that the job I loved was, sooner than I had anticipated, about to become less important! I received great encouragement from the FIEC who were graciously prepared to accept me into their Pastors’ Association and for the next few months I found myself visiting and being in correspondence with a number of churches up and down the country.

Mixed experience

As an aside, the experience of dealing with churches on this side of the fence was a mixed one. I had been involved in church leadership when we had called pastors but I had never experienced it as a prospective pastor. Some churches were brilliant; courteous, professional and helpfully communicative. Some churches were lacking even common courtesy; not contacting when they promised to, taking weeks to pass on information and sometimes deciding I was too old for them without even meeting me!

All of this was a shock and sometimes very hurtful. I had been warned this would be my experience but I never realised just how true this was to be! It seemed to me that a level of behaviour which would be severely censured in the secular business world passes for normal in some churches! Surely, as God’s people we can do better than this?

South of Bristol

We began the autumn in contact with four churches and then came the email with the PS. Andrew Paterson is the Senior Pastor at Kensington Baptist Church in Bristol and a former President of the FIEC; he is also a close friend. Andy told us about a church in the south of Bristol which had approached him with a view to injecting some help. During last year the 20 elderly members of Crossways Tabernacle were facing the retirement of their pastor, Don Chitty, and their inability to deal with their large premises or make an impact on the residential area in which they were situated.

New church

After much discussion and prayer, and real support from both churches a new church was formed on January 14th 2007. 70 members of Kensington had been invited to consider forming the team and 40 adults, with 12 of their children, agreed to make the move. This was an astonishing result and showed clearly God’s work in their hearts. The people moving are drawn from all age groups and include strategic members of Kensington; some of them have been members of Kensington for decades!

On January 7, a Commissioning Service was held at Kensington Baptist for all those moving to the new work. This was in many ways a sad time for both those who were moving, and for the congregation who were to be left at Kensington. There was a clear concern and outflow of love for each other, which was a delight and very moving to see. On January 14, the new church was formed with the new name, Headley Park Church. I have been called to be co-pastor together with Neil Todman, who is a recognised church planter and evangelist and a member of Kensington. So, at the end of January Linda and I moved from Bromley and set up home in Bristol. This is going to be quite an adventure! Neither of us, two years ago, foresaw the enormous change we were to experience at the age of 59, both in our career and in our personal circumstances.

Reputation?

The new church has a big task. The old church was largely ignored in the area and did not, through no fault of the present members, have a reputation for friendliness. It is going to be critical, therefore, to make an impact on the area from the start and make it clear that this is now a new church, not just the old church with a few people added! Every opportunity will need to be seized to engage with the local community which so desperately needs to hear the gospel. There will also be a pastoral task to make the new members feel at home and allocate areas of responsibility. The present elderly members will also need to be loved and valued; for them the changes are going to be difficult; after all, how many of us really enjoy periods of change let alone changes which are as big as this?

Enormous possibilities

The church site has the tremendous advantage of substantial parking available and large buildings. Because of judicious use of funds over the years there is substantial money available to re-furbish the buildings or even re-build them, turning them into premises which will meet the needs of the church members and the local community in the future. The possibilities for improvement of the facilities and the consequent reaching out to the local community are enormous.

Encouragement

Personally, Linda and I can both testify to the Lord’s gracious dealings with us over the last few months. He has encouraged us through the Scriptures when our faith has been weak and given us good friends who have constantly prayed for us and given us wise advice. We have certainly learned many lessons through the rollercoaster experiences of the last few months.

There is much more I could say about our experience but I would like to close by firstly saying how exciting it is to be a child of God; we just never know what he is going to call us to do next! Secondly, to encourage readers to consider using their later years, when health and vigour remain good, to offer themselves to the Lord for his service in our needy world.

Peter Mawson is hoping to revitalise a church