Ilford is in the London Borough of Redbridge, in north-east Greater London and, like most of London, it is booming.
The effects of the 2012 Olympic Games can be still felt, with improved transport links; trains get you from Ilford to Liverpool Street station in 18 minutes. In the next five years Crossrail will arrive, promising even more regeneration. Ilford town centre has a shopping centre which acts as a hub for the wider area and the schools are strong academically. For many people, it is a popular place to live. Being east London, property prices are cheaper than other parts of London.
Spiritual poverty
While Ilford has lots going for it economically, it is spiritually very poor. In the mid-20th century it was a white suburb at the end of the train line, with large church buildings that were near to full. But since then, the ethnic make-up of the area has changed dramatically and churches have struggled to adjust.
Today, more than half of the population comes from the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka), and there are significant communities of West Africans and Eastern Europeans; there are very few white British families still living in the area. Over 90% of the children in a local primary school have English as an additional language. The majority of the south Asians are Muslim, with many Hindus and Sikhs too. They know little about the gospel.
Priority area
A number of church plants are taking place across London, but this stretch of north-east London is still particularly lacking in healthy, evangelical churches. For example, London City Mission (LCM) have identified it as a priority area. Roy Hutchinson, Church Development Director at LCM says: ‘As the city grows there are significant numbers of communities that are unreached with the gospel and the north east areas of London would be high in this category’; he calls it a ‘parched desert’ of Christian witness. Simon Smallwood, vicar of St George’s, Dagenham, says: ‘There are one or two gospel-centred churches in Ilford, but they are a speck in a vast, mostly Muslim, population’.
Whatever our thoughts about immigration, the fact is that in the 18th- and 19th-centuries missionaries like William Carey and Henry Martyn got on ships and waved goodbye to their families in order to reach people from these nations, and today God has brought them in large numbers to our capital city, where we can reach them much more easily; it is vital for the church to be reaching areas like this with the gospel.
The church plant
The church plant in Ilford is starting from scratch, but it’s not taking place out of the blue. For 11 years, a team of Christian workers from the USA have partnered with London City Mission to serve the local area. They have had use of a building on Ley Street, which LCM took over from a shrinking Brethren church in 2002. It’s well equipped, situated on a main road and under 15 minutes walk from Ilford station. From this Centre the team have run English language classes, a Punjabi poetry evening, dinners with a Christian speaker, and Christian/Muslim dialogues. As a result, they have got to know people in the area. Martin Hull, pastor at Grove Hill Evangelical Church, FIEC, says: ‘Although London has some large, well-known churches, there are heavily residential parts of the suburbs with little true gospel ministry. The Ley Street Centre is in one such area. The existing team at the Centre have set a high standard of effective witness within this mainly Muslim community’. The plan is to gather a church together off the back of this valuable evangelism, and make the most of the building.
Great Commission church
The church will be part of the International Presbyterian Church (IPC), a small but growing denomination started by Francis Schaeffer in the 1950s. It is being led by Simon Arscott, who was previously Assistant Minister at Trinity Church York, itself an IPC church plant six years ago. Simon is from south London, and trained at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. He, his wife and their four children moved down to Ilford at Christmas.
At its heart the church will be committed to Christ’s great commission to ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’. Simon Smallwood, chair of the East London Gospel Partnership, says: ‘We're thrilled that IPC is planting a church in Ilford… The only way the gospel will make any progress in Ilford is by bold initiatives like this, and we hope, as the East London Gospel Partnership, to give our full support to Simon and Ilford IPC’.
