Manchester, England – For years, the Brooklands Church of the Nazarene held a youth club with between 4 and 15 children. One day, some parents in the community asked the church if a neighborhood youth program could start up using its building.
“We said, ‘We do have one going you’re welcome to join,’” said Pastor Karl Stanfield. “But that didn’t work.”
Local families weren’t interested in joining the church youth club, so they started their own. Yet, there was no facility in the community suited to the group’s needs. So Brooklands offered its church building to the youth club, which now numbers 65 members.
Other groups began reserving the building for meetings, including the local police department, housing associations, the city council, and even clubs hosting cooking courses.
Stanfield said his congregation is realizing that their building is a bridge into the community.
“We’re really getting to know them very well. I think a lot of the suspicion barrier is gone.”
Becoming a community center
The church was organized in 1964 on the edge of Wythenshawe, in the Brooklands housing area. In 1982, the congregation moved from its prefabricated building to a new sanctuary. In the past two years as the community began using the building, it became obvious the structure required expansion and updates. However, there were not enough funds for everything that needed to be done – especially to accommodate the youth club.
A teen in the church applied to the city council for—and received—a grant to expand the building for youth work, and so renovations began.
The sanctuary, which had become too small for the nearly 100 regular worshipers, was enlarged with 40 new seats added. (This was much to the surprise of the builders, who could not understand that a 21st century church would need to be enlarged to accommodate a growing congregation.)
In addition, the size of the rear hall was increased and two new youth rooms built, as well as a large storage room. One phase led to another: the front entrance to the church was extended into a welcoming new foyer, new toilets were completed, and the kitchen was enlarged and refurbished with new fittings and equipment (this was also partly funded by tapping into another city council grant).
At the community’s request, last September the church hosted a special celebration opening of the refurbished building. Members and friends of the church, local young people, community workers and police attended. City councillors formally opened the new facilities. Afterward, everyone enjoyed a barbecue.
'A whole package'
As community groups meet on the church property, they become acquainted with church members and feel a growing comfort and familiarity with the congregation.
One neighbor who volunteered in the community youth club began attending the church regularly last fall.
“There’s been a tentative link with her down through the years,” Stanfield said. “Her older children used to come to Sunday school and Caravans many years ago. We’ve never seen her at church until she started to come. That’s through the link with the community.”
The church hosted a banquet at Christmas and invited the volunteers and members of the various groups who meet at the church. The woman’s husband joined her at the banquet.
“He doesn’t do church at all but he came to the meeting and really enjoyed it.”
Stanfield said his congregation is learning that “the church is not just for the church but for the community.”
While some might wonder how cooking courses, after school youth programs, housing association and police department meetings would have any spiritual value, Stanfield says sometimes a community is unable to receive the love of the church until the church is willing to meet basic needs of the surrounding neighborhood.
“It’s a whole package, not just the spiritual.”
Brooklands Nazarene would like to see the present Parent & Toddler Group develop to accommodate the communities' need. In August, the church will take part in the community’s summer fair by providing a barbecue and refreshments.
“In all of the above it is important for us to befriend and get along-side these people,” Stanfield said. "Our goal is to become the ‘hub’ of our community—a place where local groups can feel at ease coming into our premises, and where the church of Christ can build bridges into people’s lives by offering Christian love, support, and friendship.
“We still see this as a learning curve and I think if there was some sort of expert advice along this line we’d be very happy to receive some good ideas, and certainly for people to pray for it.”
-- With thanks to the British Isles North and British Isles South districts newsletter, and assistant editor Irvine Boal for allowing excerpts to be contributed to this article. To view news from the districts' newsletter, Together, visit www.nazarene.org.uk