Planting God's Seed and Watching it Grow
A Sabbatical Report By Alan Bing
Preface 2nd February 1997 was the fifth anniversary of Roundswell Church - something to celebrate. Underestimating the task, I had offered to write a short history of the church in time for the Thanksgiving Service. When the day arrived, I was only part way through the history, so I put it to one side! Other priorities emerged, and it was over a year before I took up where I had left off. By the time I had finished, the church history was very different to the one I had envisaged when I started. For one thing, because I had used my journal as the main source, it had become a very personal affair. It had ceased to be the kind of impersonal history such as one finds at the back of churches, explaining the history to certain gravestones or plaques and giving an architectural tour of the building. Apart from anything else, since we meet in a modern community centre, such a history would not be appropriate! At the same time, as I chronicled the ups and downs of the early life of Roundswell Church, the idea grew within me that people outside the orbit of Roundswell Church, especially people involved in planting a church, even church leaders in general, might find it useful. Every so often a book lands on the shelves of Christian bookshops with a title like, ‘Ten successful churches’. While such books may give inspirational examples of how things can be done, just as often they discourage folk who react by thinking, ‘Why can’t our church be like that?’ Maybe it is also true that such case histories smooth out the ups and downs that most church congregations seem to go through. With this in mind, I have tried above all to be honest. As a result, I have taken the risk of offending some people either what I have written or by what I have failed to write, so I have taken steps to disguise names in certain places. Nevertheless, because every history is selective, I realise that I have failed to recognise adequately or even to mention many contributions to the life of Roundswell Church, and I apologise for that. Perhaps the greatest oversight, however, is that I have said so little about my family, especially my wife, Wendy. She, above all the other unsung heroes, has shared in the roller coaster moments of planting a church at Roundswell. But I hope you will sense, as you read these pages, that the real person who was active behind the scenes - rejoicing at times, despairing at others, but at all times in unseen control - was the head of this and every church, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Contents
1. Weakness
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2. Encouragement and Testing
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3. Stirred Up
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4. Reaching Out
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5. Holy Living
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6. To build or not to build
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7. Roundswell Church - some key dates
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Weakness ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord. Ten years ago, Roundswell was a farm. Where there are now houses and shops, there were fields and hedges. Apparently, it was a good place to pick mushrooms in autumn. Between the houses, you can still see ancient hedges, but the fields are disappearing fast. About one third of the projected 1,500 houses have been built; there are industrial units; and an out-of-town shopping centre has been completed. In many ways, a suburban jungle has replaced rural farmland. Before all this happened, a gathering of local church leaders resolved that it would be good to have a Christian presence in the new housing estate at Roundswell, but a mistake to have several churches of different denominations. So it was that a Sponsoring Body of interested ministers was formed, which was the beginnings of a covenant between the Church of England, the Methodists, and the United Reformed Church. Then the search for a minister began, and it was agreed that the Church of England would appoint a Curate to Fremington, who would be responsible, after two years, for planting a church at Roundswell. At this time, I was a student at Oak Hill College, training for ordained ministry. After experiencing some difficulty in finding a curacy, the Principal of the college suggested that I look at Fremington. Not only did I get on well with the Vicar, Richard Hovil, but I warmed to the idea of church planting, even though it had formed no part of my training. After I had been appointed, I invited Bob and Mary Hopkins of Anglican Church Planting Initiatives to lead a training day at Oak Hill for those of us who would have some involvement in church planting. There was more to it than I had thought! Around that time, I went to another training event in evangelism run by Youth With A Mission at St Andrew’s, Chorleywood. Whilst we were laying on hands and praying for each other, I had what was for me then the unexpected experience of a stranger telling me that God had put the words of Psalm 127 into his mind, and that he believed that he was to give them to me. Only when I dwelt on the psalm later did I sense that God was preparing me for the work to come at Roundswell, and that it might be more difficult than I expected. ‘Unless the Lord build the house, those who labour build in vain.’
To my surprise, when I arrived in Fremington with Wendy, Alison (then 3) and Emma (then 1), I found that I was expected to begin work on the church plant at Roundswell straight away. Before I arrived, three volunteers had been found who would form, with me, a ‘Gang of Four’. Although I pointed out that I was not expecting anything to happen for at least eighteen months, it was as though the train was already pulling out of the station, and it was too late to get off. In fact, the week before I was ordained, I attended the formal opening of the Community Centre in which the services of Roundswell Church were to be held. Nobody should be blamed for the way this happened. It was simply due to the fact that no-one locally had been involved in church planting, and there was an expectation that one simply got on with it. One local
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minister compared it to getting a few people together to pray when he was a soldier in National Service. Armed with questionnaires (my time in marketing and at college had taught me something useful!) the four of us visited the forty five homes that had already been built at Roundswell. We found twelve people at home, and three were interested in the idea of a church. On this basis, I recommended to the other three and to the Sponsoring Body who were supervising us that we concentrate our efforts on forming a home group, and delay for a year the launch of services at Roundswell. Not a popular move! Two of the gang of four, who had been led to expect that something was going to happen immediately, dropped out. St Peter’s Fremington was not in a position to send out a team of church planters, and so I resorted to sending a letter to the leaders of all the local churches outlining the vision for the church at Roundswell, and asking whether any members of their congregation felt called by God to join what would be a costly venture. Inevitably, most of the ministers felt threatened by such a letter, and I received little response. Fortunately, God was working behind the scenes. When I arranged a meeting of all who were interested, two couples came who lived nearby, but attended church some distance away. At the same meeting was an Australian couple, based at the local R.A.F. station. They claimed to have another vision for Roundswell, which did not coincide very easily with the vision of the local churches. Soon afterwards, we discovered that they were booking the Community Centre on Friday nights, with a view to having Sunday services there also. Our hand was forced. Despite my initial reservations, I agreed that we must begin services at Roundswell or forfeit the gentleman’s agreement we had with the Centre Management Committee to reserve the Centre for Roundswell Church on Sunday mornings. We had our first service on Sunday 2nd February 1992, and about a dozen people came, including well-wishers. However, a core group was being drawn together. From the beginning, I had received outstanding support from my ordained colleagues. Richard Hovil, my training Vicar, battled with us in prayer, and always provided a listening and understanding ear. Sue Macbeth, who combined the roles of teacher, U.R.C. minister, wife and mother, was from the first a ‘keeper of the vision’, never deflected by the discouragements we faced. Colin Lake, the Methodist Circuit Superintendent, was constantly supportive, and made himself available to preach regularly at Roundswell despite a Sunday routine that was already hectic. Each Wednesday, we met early to pray for Roundswell, and these times of prayer became the crucible in which God moulded the shape and purpose of Roundswell Church. At the same time, others were being called to join us. First the Frys, then the Redrups, the Carrs, the Withecombes, and others; all from different churches, and with very different contributions to make.
By May, the vicarage at Roundswell was ready for us to move into. It stood out like the proverbial sore thumb at the end of fifty social houses which had just been built by the Devon and Cornwall Housing Association. We heard that all the people at the top of Social Services’ waiting list had been moved in en bloc. Predictably enough, this included a number who were being moved on from other estates where they had made a nuisance of themselves, several single mothers, some drug addicts, a high 5
percentage of households with children ‘at risk’, and very few stable families. We had not anticipated this when we accepted the job! I arranged for Wendy and myself to see the Archdeacon about the possibility of continuing my curacy elsewhere. He listened sympathetically, and suggested that we review the situation again after a trial period of three months or so. Many people at St Peter’s, Fremington joined together to pray for us. I was encouraged by the example of Joshua, who went into the promised land believing that God would defeat his enemies, but I still felt torn between my commitments as a Christian minister and as a father/husband. However, in unexpected ways, we began to see God answering our prayers. On the day we moved in, things started to happen. Firstly, a notoriously troublesome family moved out of the house opposite. At the same time, some drug pushers were said to be moving on because they felt the spotlight was on them. Thirdly, one of our new neighbours, a young man, killed himself when his car crashed into a bridge on the link road. He was said to be under the influence of drugs, and had been well known as a drug dealer and a genial rogue who had come down from Glasgow in search of a better life. However, he left behind him a distraught partner and two young girls. To my surprise, I was asked to take the funeral, which was an emotionally charged event. Several of the family threw themselves on the coffin as it was placed on the rollers in the Crematorium chapel. But, just as I feared things would get out of hand, a quiet peace fell on the gathering, and people seemed to come away reassured. This unfortunate incident helped to bring people together and to bring me into the heart of this new community, and there were signs of God’s hand upon us. Nonetheless, as a family we still felt sorely in need of support and the assurance of God’s love. Poor Wendy lost her father a week after moving here. Coming on top of the move, his unexpected death from a heart attack was a crushing blow to her. She found herself looking back, hankering after our days in Caversham - that short, but happy year before we went to Oak Hill. For myself, after some academic and sporting success at school, then going to the university of my choice and pursuing a relatively successful and remunerative path in industry, the failures and mistakes of this year came hard. It was as though, in showing up my weaknesses and, indeed, revealing that I can do very little apart from Him, God was breaking and moulding me so that I might carry out his purposes. Two friends who are medical missionaries in Uganda, Paul and Pam Howorth, stayed with us for two nights in September. Paul had just taken over as medical director of a hospital which they intended eventually to had over to African staff. This was proving to be a very frustrating process, with entrenched colonial attitudes to overcome, the difficulty of finding an honest accountant, etc. As they left, I said I hoped that they would settle back into Uganda quickly. Paul replied that their situation was no more difficult than ours, just different.
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Encouragement and Testing ‘Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’ By the beginning of 1993, with the Church a year old, there was a growing sense of purpose among us. There had also been a number of recent encouragements to offset those first difficult days when the Church was struggling to get off the ground. Firstly, our average Sunday attendance had risen gradually from a dozen to eighteen, to twenty, to twenty five, to thirty. When I compared this with the rapid growth of some other new churches, I became discouraged, but then I remembered to thank God for this slow, steady growth. After all, isn’t that the way a plant is supposed to grow? Surely the question of whether we are putting down good roots, and putting out strong branches, is as important as how fast we are growing? For about the first six months, I had no assurance that Roundswell Church would still be there next Sunday. Now, I had a growing sense that it was God’s church, and he was building it in his own way. On Easter Sunday 1993, we took a step of faith and moved out of the carpeted Committee Room onto the hard floor of the main hall. Thirty five people came. Not only did we not feel lost in the larger space, we realised that we would not have fitted into the Committee Room. Secondly, part of the reason for this growth was that we had seen a few folk from the estate come to trust in Christ. The first of these was the partner of the young man whose funeral I had taken when we first moved here. Four of us from the church were in regular contact with her as we sought to help her through her grief. After a time, she seemed to want to know God more, so I invited a Christian lady from the same street to visit her with me, and, after a few weeks, she eagerly prayed a prayer in which she invited Jesus into her life. For a while she progressed well, but she went off the boil, especially during a five week stay with relatives in Scotland. After she had found a new boyfriend, we saw little of her. Then, out of the blue, I was called in to hospital in the middle of the night by a young Roundswell couple who had just lost a baby who was born prematurely. Shortly afterwards, the mother had an experience of God after praying in her front room, and began coming to church. Then she and a friend, frightened by an occult experience inflicted upon them by a neighbour, came to see me, and the friend soon made a profession of faith, and started coming to church. Meanwhile, one of the partners, who was in court for repeated non-payment of fines, prayed to God that he would be at home for Christmas. When he was let off his suspended committal against all the odds, he recognised that God was responsible and came to tell me that he would like to renew the commitment he had made to Christ at a London City Mission hostel. All these folk showed signs of a changed life and were regular at church for a while. However, because of problems with neighbours, or for other reasons, all of them eventually dropped out of Roundswell Church and left Roundswell itself. So far as I know, and to my great sadness, none of them have been able to keep to their Christian commitment. During this time, we learnt much about the difficulties of discipleship, but we also saw the love and power of God at work in the lives of people who were far from him.
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Thirdly, we saw God bringing in more people who would be like foundation stones for the building of Roundswell Church. Apart from the people I have already mentioned, these included John and Chriss Withecombe, who were commissioned by St Peter’s, Fremington in recognition of God’s call, Clive and Janet Redrup, who came with the blessing of Torrington Baptist Church, and Bernard and Peggy Carr, who had been attending St Mary’s Bideford since Bernard had retired as Rector of Georgeham. All of these were mature, loyal, zealous Christians with much to give. This was something we had been praying for since the first early morning prayer meetings for Roundswell. At the same time, as the estate grew, more Christians moved to Roundswell and began to join the church. This too was an answer to specific prayers. Among the first was Dorothy Ley, who was sent out from Grosvenor Church. Some, like Dorothy, were committed Christians, whilst others had a less clear-cut Christian understanding and experience. By this time, about one third of the congregation were Roundswell residents. Of course I was impatient for progress. Although we now had preachers and teachers, I longed for an established Sunday club, a creche and a music group, conscious that many church plants don’t start until these basic ministries are in place! However, despite all that, and despite our difficulties in discipling new converts, God was building his church. Fourthly, God had granted us a rare spirit of unity, despite our different ages, backgrounds and personalities. This was something that had to be worked at on occasion, as we shall see, but it was also God-given. Pretty soon, I had cause to give thanks for it, when a number of incidents occurred which tested this unity very much. At about this time, God was speaking to me a lot in dreams. It is not often I am conscious of dreaming significant dreams, but over a period of three months, I found myself experiencing and recording dreams which spoke to me personally, but which often had significance for the church also. This series of dreams ended with one in which I saw a sign with a poem on it, beginning with the words, “Ski-ing is a journey between the possible and the impossible.” I have never been an accomplished ski-er, and I thought back to times that I had tried to slalom down a snowy slope on the edges of my skis, always in danger of falling off as I executed the turns, always at the limit of my ability. The message of the dream seemed to be that in life, the art is to go downhill, using your abilities and skills, but not overstretching yourself to the point where you fall over. The application to leading Roundswell Church became obvious, and it was not long befoe its significance sank in!
The tests to unity centred around two factors. For one, we had attracted some people who were disaffected with their church and may have hoped that a new church such as ours would solve their problems. In time they realised we were not the answer to their prayers either, and those who were unwilling to recognise and deal with the underlying isssues which had caused them to move to us in the first place, eventually moved on again. This was always a painful experience: in a small church, you feel it keenly when even one person leaves. Hopes have been raised and dashed on both sides. God gave us a growing conviction, especially as we prayed on Wednesday mornings, that we needed to formalise the Local Ecumenical Partnership and to invite people to join a membership roll as a sign of their commitment to Roundswell
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Church. By the end of the year, 20 had joined, out of a regular congregation of 35-40. This was a welcome sign of a growth in commitment as well as in numbers. The other fault line in the unity of the church was (and is) the fact that we are ecumenical. Issues of doctrine and practice surrounding baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit are hard enough to deal with in a church belonging to one denomination. They become acute in an inter-denominational church. Perhaps the first major test of our unity came when Wendy and I decided to ask Colin Lake to baptise our third child, Julia, at Roundswell Church. One of our key musicians refused to attend, and her commitment to the church dwindled away from that point. After seeking advice from Clive (a Baptist), I read a prepared statement at the beginning of the service. After acknowledging that people hold different views on baptism, I exhorted everyone to keep the unity of the Spirit over this issue, remembering that it is only by grace, through faith, that we are saved. In the end, it was an uplifting service, in which Colin preached excellently, and it served to increase our unity, not destroy it. Another test of our faith, if not of our unity, was sickness. Around this time, three ladies showed signs of cancer and, following tests, had to undergo operations. We prayed for them a lot, and God gave various indications that he had heard and heeded our prayers. Over a period of time, they recovered from their operations and were pronounced clear of cancer. In the end, our faith, though tested, was strengthened through this demonstration of God’s healing power. Yet another trial came when an ‘alternative medicine’ group from Cornwall applied to book the Centre for Easter week-end in 1994. Since every regular hirer must be prepared to relinquish a booking at least once every six months, we had no alternative but to make our objections known to the Committee and pray. As we prayed, we felt sure that we should go ahead with our Easter service, but maybe to have it in the open air. Then we were told that the Committee had become fed up with the demands of the potential hirer, and were prepared to let us use the Centre if we made a suitable offer to offset the £200 loss of revenue. We agreed to make two separate payments of £100 as a gesture of goodwill. That Sunday, the collection came to exactly £100. Now that we had been drawn together as a church, my prayer was that we would move out in evangelism in different ways, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We had needed committed Christians to join us in order to establish a foundation, and God had sent them to us. Now we wanted to reach out and draw others in.
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Stirred Up ‘Stir up, O Lord, your faithful people’ When a young single mother and her three boys arrived at Roundswell and started coming to church early in 1994, it seemed an answer to prayer. For some time, we had been praying for young families to join the church. Our girls were still, more often than not, the only children in the Sunday School. Not only would Karen’s boys boost the numbers, they would balance the sexes too! It was also around this time that God began speaking to individuals in the church. Karen, who was very open to God, was sometimes woken in the night with a particular Bible reference in her head which she would then look up. Bernard, who had been Vicar at Georgeham, and his wife Peggy were accustomed to receiving words of knowledge when praying for people, and to hearing from God in a prophetic way. Once or twice, in our Wednesday morning prayer meeting, a prophetic word came to us through one or other of them. At one of these prayer meetings, it was as though God was showing me a hearth with the sort of fire that was used to heat back boilers, and I was to open the door to let out the heat. It seemed as though he was saying that, while he appreciates the warmth of the fellowship at Roundswell, he wants more people to benefit from that warmth. Penny, who had joined the church recently, having moved to the area from Sussex, also began to receive pictures. In one of them, she was in Roundswell Centre looking out at the chairs set out for Sunday worship, as if she were leading the service. In each chair was a bud, most of them tightly closed, but some of them in full bloom. As she watched, another bud sprung open. This was prophetic in two ways. Firstly, it spoke of the way in which people in the church were becoming open to the work of the Holy Spirit, though some were still closed to it. Secondly, it was not long before Penny was helping to lead both a home group and church services.
During 1994 a number of other churches around the country were also being stirred up in a new and uncomfortable way. In the summer, I had been to a prayer evening at Holy Trinity Brompton during which some there were some strange goings on - to my eyes at least. But the more I quizzed people about it, the more I became convinced that God was in this somewhere. There may have been some froth on top, but it was mostly authentic. So I invited a team from St Andrew’s Cullompton to lead an evening at Roundswell on ‘The Toronto Blessing’. David (the Vicar) and Jonathon (the Curate) had both been to the Toronto Airport Vineyard to witness what was happening there, and had been deeply affected. About a hundred people came from as far away as Woolacombe to find out more. After an extended time of worship, Jonathon preached about the widow’s oil (2 Kings 4). Then the chairs were cleared away, and David invited us to be open to the Lord as the ministry team moved amongst us. Those involved in leading worship were invited forward. Through David, God spoke to several of us. Wendy was helped to grieve for her Dad. The Lord continued to move in a gentle but purposeful way for an hour or so, at which point I drew the evening to a close.
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Several people who came to the meeting had a deep encounter with God. One or two people experienced the sort of spiritual change which would normally happen over a period of months or years. There were also a few who had serious misgivings about what had happened, even if some of them weren’t even there! In fact, over subsequent weeks, a few people did leave Roundswell Church, and one or two people fell out with each other. I don’t think the ‘Toronto Evening’ was the cause, but it was probably the catalyst. I have since come to see that, for every significant and positive event in the life of a church, there is a negative reaction. I am sure that it is largely a spiritual attack, and it is successful precisely because it is aimed at the parts of the body of Christ where we are weakest. As a leader, I had to try to be grateful for those who were going forwards spiritually and not to lose one’s nerve. This became especially difficult over the next couple of months when we lost some people who were at the centre of the church fellowship. Firstly, Karen felt called to join the community at Gilead. It was on her heart to help young people overcoming drug addiction, but, as we feared, it proved to be too much of a challenge for her and the boys. Secondly, Bernard, who was one of the foundation stones of the church, died suddenly. In the middle of all this, Philbert Kalisa, a Rwandan pastor studying at Trinity College Bristol, came to stay with us for a week before Easter. What a ray of sunshine he proved to be! For some one in his late twenties, he had an astonishing maturity, so I was not surprised to learn that he had left behind him in Rwanda a congregation of about five hundred. I took him with me on all my pastoral visits, and his insights were invaluable. More than that, he made friends with all he met. Although he did not push himself forward, when he did speak, people listened, and even in his serious moments there was an underlying sense in which nothing should be taken too seriously. Memorable indeed was the way he taught us all a song in the Kinyarwandan language inviting the Holy Spirit to come down, ‘Mpwemuyera manuka’, completely undeterred by our linguistic limitations. It was a very rhythmic song and we soon learnt it, especially the children. Having been raised in a refugee camp in Burundi, he had learned to take whatever hardship came his way and remain positive and very human. As a boy, he had herded cattle in the hills, and milk was a staple part of his diet. He was very concerned that our children did not drink enough milk and were too thin. With only a hint of a smile, he said to Wendy, ‘If I were in Africa, I would say either you are poor or your children are sick!’ Inevitably, he and his wife Godelieve had lost relatives in the genocide. As a result, during his time in the UK, the direction of his ministry took a new course. He went back to Rwanda to work full-time for reconciliation, rather than going back to parish work. Before going back, he visited us again. By this time, our link with him was so strong that we decided to continue to support him through Reach Rwanda, the charity that he set up to fund his work.
Often the most exciting things happen while I am away. I often wonder whether this means that I am a control-freak and acting as a barrier to the Holy Spirit! During the 11
Sunday service while we were away for our Easter break, a message was given in tongues by a visitor. Fortunately, Colin Lake was there, and he insisted that there be silence until God gave an interpretation, which came soon after. Inevitably, people wondered whether this was genuinely from God, especially when the message came from an outsider whom no-one really knew. At an Alpha conference, during a time of prayer ministry, some-one prophesied over me. It was mainly to do with me in my position of leadership and it included the ominous phrase ‘when things hot up’. This prophecy was already showing signs of fulfilment! Before long we were receiving more messages in tongues during our morning worship. Although in most cases the message, with it’s interpretation seemed to be from God. At other times, it was not so clear. More often than not, these prophetic messages came first of all in tongues, and we had to wait for an interpretation. Almost always the interpretation came and was later confirmed by key members of the congregation as being authentic. But this was the first time that I had had to deal with manifestations of the Spirit in public worship. Each time some one spoke in tongues, I thought to myself, ‘What happens if there is no interpretation?’ On one occasion, I was surprised to find that the interpretation had been given to me. Then the internal questions were, ‘Is this really from God? Doesn’t some-one else have a better interpretation?’ On top of this, there was the constant need to talk things through with members of the congregation who objected to such goings on or visitors who had never come across it. Ironically, it was the regulars who were most disconcerted; the visitors seemed to accept it quite readily. Another manifestation of the Spirit which cause consternation occurred when we laid hands on people to pray for them, and they fell over when the Holy Spirit came upon them. If we were taken unawares, they came crashing down quite unceremoniously, and if they then started to shake or make strange noises, the effect was not something you could pretend was part of the liturgy. Again this needed some explanation, and some people became so uncomfortable that they left the church altogether, which always saddened and frustrated me. On the one hand, I was glad in my heart that God was showing his presence among us and speaking to us in various ways. On the other hand, I was trying to keep things relatively orderly and to provide a framework of biblical teaching so that our focus remained upon living the Christian life rather than seeking (or avoiding) unusual manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
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Reaching out ‘Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore’ One of the most uncomfortable aspects of living where we do in Roundswell is that we are piggy-in-the-middle between the social housing and the private housing. Whereas the people in the private housing have come and gone - not least because of the proximity of the social housing - many of our neighbours up the road have been there as long as we have. In one sense we know them quite well. In the main, however, we live very separate lives. We were upset and a little stunned when three older girls who used to play with our girls, and came into our garden quite often, suddenly stopped coming altogether. We never found out why. Quite soon after coming here, a family across the road approached me about having their son baptised. They were not married and showed no sign of Christian understanding or commitment. The mother was only going along with the idea to please her partner. I obviously expressed my misgivings a little too openly. They construed me as saying that they were not good enough, and the meeting ended on a sour note. I found out later that they had had their baby christened elsewhere - no questions asked. The reason I found out was that another single mother attacked me verbally as I was leaving the playgroup at the Centre. She said that my attitude stank. When I asked her what she meant, she went on to say that I would not baptise children unless they went to Roundswell Church, nor would I allow other vicars to baptise them. There was not much to be gained by prolonging the discussion at that point, so I arranged to see her and her partner at another time. By the time I visited, she had calmed down. It turned out that she had had a Christian background and had been married at the Pentecostal Church. Once I had explained our policy of a service of Thanksgiving for every child followed by a service of Baptism if the parents wanted to make that extra commitment, she understood. She even put words into my mouth: ‘Yes, there’s no point in making promises you don’t mean - that’s just pretending.’ So she and several of her friends from the social housing came for a Thanksgiving Service. We had a cake with the refreshments after the service, and I felt as though a bridge had been mended and strengthened. We were encouraged soon afterwards by a visit from our friend and Alison’s godmother, Solveig. When I interviewed her at church, she told us about her church in Oslo, which is ten years old. They have had a building for the last two years and it has really helped to draw the locals in. Although she warned us that we would have our ups and downs, she said it was good to have a church in a local community and that if we keep going, God will give the growth. This last exhortation was reinforced by a message in tongues later in the service which was interpreted by two people along the same lines - we need to surrender our lives to God to be used by him. Around this time, John Parsons and I began to visit the new houses in a more regular and sytematic way. Although we encountered a fair few people who were disorientated and apparently needy, none of them showed an obvious thirst for God.
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We had the opportunity to pray with some people, and to let them know about the church, but we came to realise that we were sowing seeds rather than reaping a harvest. Every Christmas, Easter and Harvest, we distribute invitations to every household in Roundswell, but I can think of only a handful of people who have come to church as a direct result of this. Even so, we have persisted with it, despite the cost, because it lets people know we are here and worshipping God in Roundswell Community Centre. We are conscious that we have no church building to advertise God’s presence in this place. A much more successful form of mission has been the Alpha course. Our first course was for the members of the church. Over twenty crammed into our house over the ten weeks, and it had two marked effects. Firstly, it brought the church together. Only in retrospect did I see how important this was. We had come together with different experiences and understandings of Christianity. Alpha gave us a shared experience and an agreed basis of faith. God moved gently yet powerfully at the Awayday, where the focus was on the Holy Spirit. It also produced two home groups and another Alpha course to build on what had been achieved. Secondly, a number of people were brought to a fuller and more explicit commitment to Christ, including two young men called Gary and Paul. It was wonderful to see Gary and his young son Alan baptised together by myself, with Gary going on to be confirmed with Paul by Colin Lake. Both in this service and in my licensing by the Bishop of Crediton the previous December (when Colin preached), the ecumenical nature of Roundswell Church was seen at its most positive and vibrant. We continue to have different interpretations of baptism, for example, and some people have not felt able to stick with a church which embraces such a wide diversity of views, but we are all learning from each other, and being enriched in the process. I don’t think it is exaggerating to say that, at such times, Roundswell Church has been a prophetic sign to the wider church, and that this is part of the reason why God has put us here. In the February of 1996, we had our first election for the Leadership Team - up to that point Colin, Sue and I had invited certain people to join us in leading the church. In different ways, some formal and others informal, the church is putting down roots and has grown from a tender and vulnerable seedling into a sturdy sapling which is starting to bear fruit. It occurs to me that, if the needy people who turned to Christ in the early days of the church came to us now, we would be better able to nurture them. Although subsequent Alpha courses have brought a few people into the kingdom and into the church, it has been hard work recruiting enough people for each course. It seems that members of the church are not able to bring their friends. So we are having more social events as a way of drawing family and friends into the life of the church. In any event, the daytime Alpha course was most worthwhile, and every second course has produced a new home group. Moreover, as Philbert remarked on his second visit, the spiritual life of the church has deepened and people have become more prayerful. Not all growth is measurable in numbers. Even so, it is frustrating that we have made so little impact on our community. It is true that part of God’s calling for Roundswell Church is that it be a prophetic sign of unity in diversity. Nevertheless, our primary calling is to work with God to extend his kingdom in this new housing estate. Penny had been coming to look after Julia whilst 14
Wendy is at work, and while Julia is resting she often has pictures which relate to the people of Roundswell. In one, it was as though there were a canopy of trees over Roundswell shutting out the light. The only clearings were around the homes of the Christians. People wanted to come to the light but they were afraid. Christians were walking in the dark areas with flaming torches, trying to burn away the canopy. The trees were dripping wet, but each contact with a torch dried them out a bit more. Eventually the fire of the Spirit swept through and cleared the trees away. Both the believers and the unbelievers were refined by this fire. Every so often one sees signs of the darkness. On a hot June night in 1996, there was a major fracas at the top of Mulberry Way as a result of which two children were taken into custody, but the culprits were not arrested because no one was prepared to give the police a statement. It’s not so much that the people here knowingly reject God. They simply do not understand. Their eyes are blinded to the truth and they do not know why they are hurting each other and why they are hurting inside. It is hard to know how to help because I find people are very wary of me as the Vicar, and very hard to approach. Moreover, as I discovered in the early days, so many of their problems are so intractable that I need God’s wisdom to know how to help without becoming overwhelmed. Every so often, there is a ring at the door. It may be a young boy or two wanting me to pump up their bicycle tires. There is no father at home to do this for them, so I am usually glad to oblige. At other times, it might be a request to give some one a lift to the hospital or to another part of Barnstaple. Sometimes it is a genuine emergency. Sometimes it is simply a way of avoiding paying for a taxi. If the request seems to be in the second category, I say no, but I run the constant risk of either being taken in or being too harsh. In any event, it often seems as though the Vicar/Church is only there to help in times of need. The idea of actually going to church is very foreign. What we do and even who we are as a church seems to be culturally irrelevant. Time and again, I come back to a verse from Psalm 127 which was given to me before I came to Roundswell: ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labour build in vain.’
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Holy Living ‘Be holy, because I am holy’ Every so often, we have a day of prayer and fasting in which we seek God’s will. It may be prompted by a specific need. This was the case in September 1996. During the summer, there had been signs and rumours that different families in the congregation were having problems. We had also been reminded during an impromptu time of testimony during a Sunday service that some Satanists fast and pray for a day a week against Christian marriages. Nevertheless, it came as a big shock when we returned from our summer holiday in the Yorkshire Dales to discover that three marriages were breaking up in our small congregation. It was in response to this that I called the church to a day of prayer and fasting. Throughout this period, and on this day in particular, God spoke to us of the need for holy living. Through pictures people received and through specific scriptures such as Jeremiah 31:31-34, he made it clear that he was bringing hidden things to light, but that we should not be afraid because he was doing this in order that he could lead us forward in joy. Some one had a vision of a mound of dirt. As the wind blew over it, layers of dirt were removed until a bright light was revealed which shone in all directions. Some one else saw a picture of an old chest in an attic with piles of dusty books on top. Even when these were cleared away, and the lid opened, there were more dusty books inside, but when these were removed, there was a shining pile of jewels underneath. It seems as though God’s Spirit is removing the dirt and bringing hidden things to light so that the light of Christ may shine. As part of this process, I also found myself ministering to people who had been caught up in the occult. Although their involvement had happened in the past, they had come to the point where they realised the hold it still had on their lives and that they needed to be set free. Fortunately, God put alongside me one or two people who had experience in deliverance ministry. I had had no formal training in this. In fact, a half day of teaching was the limit of my knowledge, and I lacked any hands-on experience. Nonetheless we did see God setting these folk free, even if we made mistakes. As time goes on, I can see an increasing need for deliverance ministry as more people get caught up in sinful lifestyles and occultism of various kinds. The following year, we saw two young ladies released from Satan’s grip who had been systematically abused as children. I went with one of them to a Healing Retreat at Weycroft Hall near Axminster, where a ministry of healing and deliverance was carried out in a very loving, safe atmosphere. By God’s grace, remarkably, we also saw two of the three marriages come together again. We were all chastened, humbled and purified in the process. I came across a poignant comment in Leadership magazine which helped me: “When things go well we say, ‘God is blessing the church’; when things are going badly, we say, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ We can’t win that way!” I have come to see that, when things go well, it is right to take some of the credit. After all, God has given us the gifts and personalities, and he wants us to use them to good purpose. Conversely, when things go awry, it is not right to take all the blame. After all, God may have intended it that
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way, despite our best efforts, so that we can be purified and our faith strengthened. In fact, I don’t chastise myself for my handling of the pastoral problems that arose during this period. We all learnt salutory lessons, especially in the crucial area of forgiveness. The purifying process also took the form of another succession of people leaving us for other churches. I only hope that they will be able to continue their spiritual pilgrimage elsewhere, without avoiding whatever issues remain in their lives which are clouding their relationship with God. At the same time, several people began to drop out of home groups, and we have had to retrench in this area. In the midst of all this, the Thanksgiving Service for the fifth anniversary of Roundswell Church rather took us by surprise. Nearly a hundred people showed up, which was rather a contrast to the original service in the Committee Room with fewer than a dozen of us. It was also encouraging to be led in worship by a music group. For the first year or so, Joy Fry had gamely led us on her portable keyboard. Richard Hovil, my training Vicar who had been involved at the planning stage, preached to us. In their testimonies, Paul Kinsman and Peggy Carr thanked God for what he had done over the five years. Henri Nouwen’s writings have helped me to see how a consciousness of God’s love enables us to withstand the ups and downs of life without going up and down emotionally and spiritually at the same time. It is this consciousness of God’s absolute love that allows us to live fulfilled in the present, thanking God for the past, and trusting him for the future, so that we can ‘smile back at the One who smiles at us’. Nouwen has also helped me to see that our identity is not rooted in our success, power or popularity, but in God’s infinite love, which releases us from the need to judge ourselves and others. It seems to me that a key to living out this truth is to discover one’s own spiritual gifts and use them, rather than dancing to some one else’s tune, or merely doing a task that no one else has volunteered for. Partly from this conviction, and partly to counter the all too common trend of 20% of church members doing 80% of the work, we are encouraging everyone to do a spiritual gifts inventory and then to sign up for whatever tasks they are gifted to do. At the same time, each member of the Leadership Team has taken responsibility for a Task Group covering an aspect of the church’s life, which means that I am less like a bottle neck with everything being slowed down by being channelled through me. The campaign on spiritual gifts has had a limited success. Like giving, it needs to be stressed again and again over time, or we slip back into the 80/20 syndrome. Undeterred, I have been emphasising the importance of the church meeting in smaller groups midweek as well as on Sundays. To a large extent, my thinking has been helped by the cell church theorists. As society fragments more and more, with Sundays becoming as busy as any other day, the idea of building a Christian community through an hour or so together on a Sunday becomes less and less realistic. In fact, I doubt it ever worked. The early Christians met in each other’s homes as well as the Temple courts, and the growth of Methodism as much as monasticism owed much to a highly developed sense of mutual care and accountability. The recent success of Alpha and of cell churches is just more of the same in contemporary guise. How to be real with each other is very much something we have been learning during these difficult times for the church. 17
Towards the end of 1997, Linda had a frightening dream. She was alone in a room with members of Roundswell Church when a hooded terrorist came in and started to chop people’s hands off. Then the terrorist became aware that there were more people hiding in a kind of loft and went to seek them out. However, it seemed that he did not touch them, but came back into the room, and this time his face was unmasked, smiling and bright. Evidently he was a changed man. For some days, I asked God for an interpretation of this dream. What came to me was this: the evil one has come into the church and has been crippling people and rendering them useless - these are the hands being chopped off - but the time of persecution is now over, and all will be well.
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To build or not to build ‘Unless the Lord build the house, those who labour build in vain’ During 1997, Wendy was at a home group meeting in which some one spoke of a picture they had received in prayer. The picture is of a man on a rocky pinnacle - it is precipitous and dangerous - he is gathering stones which he places together eventually a flat foundation is formed - it is no longer unsafe - the picture fades as if the task is finished. Wendy felt her heart pounding as she heard this. She had the immediate sense that this concerned my role in laying the foundation of the church at Roundswell - a task which is now finished. Until now, I have seen the building of the church in the spiritual sense. The apostle Peter speaks of Christians being built together as living stones into a spiritual house with Christ as the cornerstone. The original meaning of church refers to the congregation rather than the place where they meet. We may have been frustrated by the limitations of the Centre as a place of worship, but our primary focus has been on building up the body of Christ. However, on a walk to the top of Codden Hill, I had a clear sense that God was opening up a new chapter in the life of Roundswell Church, which involved the search for a suitable building which we could call our own. I shared this vision with the church AGM in February 1998, and outlined five possible options. A significant catalyst in all of this is the sense that we would be better placed to serve the needy people around us and to have an impact on our community if we had a permanent base from which to operate. Alan Dudden and I went to a day seminar on church buildings in Plymouth, which both opened our eyes to the possibilities and made us aware of the costs involved in a building project. He and I then explored the different options and found that most doors were closed to us. Canada Life were not interested in selling us the remaining plot on retail land. The district council planners said that they would not grant planning permission for a church on either industrial or retail land. We discovered, as we suspected, that the cost of either renting an existing retail unit or building from scratch would be beyond our means (and very hard to justify even if we had the money). Before long, we had a clear indication at this stage that the best and most likely option for a building for Roundswell Church is to share premises with Roundswell School. Meanwhile, we did a doorstep survey of a representative sample of Roundswell homes to obtain a more accurate idea of what local residents thought were the most pressing needs of the community and how the church could best help. We already knew from an earlier and wider survey by the University of the West of England that the population of Roundswell has a disproportionately high number of young families and the recently retired. Interestingly enough, they saw the greatest needs of the community to be a school and a doctor’s surgery. They thought that the best ways in which Roundswell Church could be involved in the community were through a youth club and a toddlers group. We already support the toddlers group and the playgroup which use the Community Centre. We were aware of the need for a youth club, and are puzzling over how to meet it with the resources we have. It may mean working
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alongside other churches and secular agencies. The growing demand for a school tends to confirm the direction in which we believe that God is leading us. Although we have contacted the Local Education Authority, and know that they favour the idea of a church/school joint venture in principle, we do not know what is in store as we go ahead. However, at least we have the example of a similar venture at Bradleystoke in Bristol to help bring our vision into sharper focus. In any case, the new school at Whiddon Valley is not due to be finished until September 1999. Although Roundswell School is next on the list, I know how dates can slip. However, this does give us time both to raise money towards the project and to give it shape before the major decisions on its design and ethos have been taken. Meanwhile, life goes on. We had a challenging mission led by a team with Jonathon Conrathe. This proved to be an uneasy experience, as we were working with other churches with different styles and priorities to our own. Nevertheless, we saw God do some remarkable healings, and several lives were affected quite dramatically. I was challenged by the heightened expectancy of the team that God would act in power in response to their prayers. I had not realised it, but I had become used to operating at a safe level, with a fairly low level of expectancy, even though I knew that God can do the impossible. It is easy for this to happen if you prayer for people to be healed over a period of time and don’t see many healed, or else their healing is only partial and could be attributed by a sceptical eye to ‘natural causes’. It is safer to pray conditional prayers, because then you look less of a fool if God does not heal the person you are praying for! I was both encouraged to see God heal people and challenged to take a more definite lead in our church when it comes to prayer for healing. At our most recent day of prayer, during which we sensed the rightness of pursuing our plans for a building, Dorothy read from Zechariah 4, with its famous words “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord”. As our church has grown and developed bit by bit, I have often come back to that verse. But she went on to read about the seven-branched, golden lamp with the olive trees on either side supplying it with oil. I remembered the evening at Holy Trinity, Barnstaple when a visitor came up to me after I had preached and said that Roundswell Church is like this kind of lamp in the way that God has brought together in unity people from different traditions and experiences to be a light to others as God’s Spirit provides the oil. Together, we reflected that, although Roundswell Church is warm and friendly, most people in the community are unaware of this and some are still a bit sceptical of us, especially as we don’t meet in a ‘proper church’. If we are to be a light to those around us, we need to be visible. Undoubtedly having a base from which to better serve the people around us will be part of that. I was sure that God was saying again that he wants us at the heart of this community.
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Roundswell Church - some key dates Aug. 91 - the first 60 homes visited with a questionnaire to determine level of interest in a new church for Roundswell Sept. 91 - draft constitution for Roundswell Church is agreed Feb. 92 - we have our first public act of worship in the Community Centre committee room May 92 - the Bings move into Church House, 16 Mulberry Way Apr. 93 - we have our first service in the main hall on Easter Sunday Oct. 93 - start of membership roll Apr. 94 - first baptism at Roundswell Church (Julia Bing by Rev. Colin Lake) Dec. 94 - licensing of Alan Bing as Minister of Roundswell Apr. 95 - first visit of Rev Philbert Kalisa from Rwanda Sept.- Dec. 95 - our first Alpha course Feb. 96 - first confirmations at Roundswell Church (Paul Kinsman and Gary Woodcock) within an ecumenical service March 96 - first Leadership Team (church council) election May 96 - Philbert Kalisa visits us again Dec. 96 - first baptism by immersion at Roundswell Church Feb. 97 - fifth anniversary service with Rev. Richard Hovil Jan. 98 - licensing of Alan Bing as Team Vicar May 98 - Roundswell Church joins mission to Barnstaple by Jonathon Conrathe and team Aug. 98 - the number of houses in Roundswell exceeds 1,000
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