Evangelicals Now
<< October 2007 >>

4 Corners: England

Woodford Evangelical Church, N.E. London

Woodford Evangelical Church, fondly known as WEC to those who attend, has just celebrated its 21st birthday. So are we living up to our vision statement of being a worshipping, evangelising community of God’s people?

Our reputation

21 years has enabled us to build credibility and a good reputation in the area. These two things have resulted in us gaining trust with a number of the people in the local community and, with that, opportunities to share the gospel with them.

Vital to the reputation of the church is the godliness and love of its members. As a result, people regularly share what they are doing from Monday to Saturday and pray for each other. Home groups and discipleship courses play a part in building these qualities.

The good reputation of the church has also been earned through the different activities it runs for the community. These include clubs for children and young people, a Mother and Toddler group, involvement in the local schools, visits to the local old peoples’ home and the annual Holiday Bible Club. Key to each of these is the dedication of the members involved and the consistently high standard they work to.

Also contributing to this good reputation has been the fact that for the past five years we have managed the Community Centre, in which we meet, on behalf of the local authority, to the satisfaction of the other groups who use the centre as well as to the satisfaction of the Council. We are now seeking to renew the lease and improve the facilities in the Centre, for which we would value prayer.

Opportunities for the gospel

Having acquired a good reputation with outsiders, we try to share our lives and, ultimately, the good news of Jesus Christ with them. Some join us for picnics in the park or come on an away day or weekend away, while others venture into the Sunday services. We aim to make these as welcoming and accessible as possible and provide a great Sunday school and cr¸che for those who bring children along. The message usually includes an address to those who are wanting to find out more about the Christian faith, and also aims to deal with some of the issues that we all face. We regularly run Christianity Explored courses, which have proved to be very helpful in explaining the gospel and providing an opportunity for people to ask their questions.

We have put on regular evangelistic events, such as quiz evenings, sports evenings, meals, barn dances, etc., which would usually conclude with a short thought-provoking talk or a life story. However, more recently, we have discovered that, provided the relationship has been made, people are just as willing to either come along to the Sunday services or to a Christianity Explored course.

Reflecting London

London is now one of the most diverse cities in the world and the area of Woodford is beginning to reflect some of that diversity. As a consequence, we have been making helpful adjustments to the Sunday services so as to attract and integrate Christians, and in due time non-Christians, from these different backgrounds and cultures. Those from other backgrounds are regularly asked to participate in the service by either reading the Bible, or giving a testimony or leading in prayer. Recently two Hungarians joined the church and, as a result, a number of other Hungarians are now meeting regularly with us. We are working with them to make the services as helpful as they can be for those who have English as a second language. The use of idioms is carefully watched, copies of the Bible passage are given out in Hungarian, and sometimes a simultaneous translation takes place.

Avoiding being too parochial

WEC takes a keen interest in missionary work. As a church, we have three couples who are missionaries; one couple at home and the other two overseas. We also take an active interest in a number of other missionaries, regularly inviting them to keep us abreast of the work they have been doing, and we regularly have a short slot in the service that will bring us news of either the persecuted church or of the needs of a particular country.

The encouraging thing about having a concern for the spread of the gospel throughout the world is that it helps us to put our own situation into a context. God is still working here in London and is drawing people to himself. The numbers may not be large but, as I look out on the congregation, which it has been my privilege to pastor for the past 17 years, I can see that a significant proportion of them have come to know Christ over that time, so things are certainly not as hard as they are in other parts of the world.

However, when our children’s and youth workers reported on their recent visit to Ghana to share the gospel with children and young people, it is quite evident that God is capable of doing even more than we can ask or imagine. For that we must pray.

Simon and Helen Percy