« Back to Issue 20

The Church Outside the Walls

By Wallace Boulton.

The churchgoers were arriving for the morning service feeling frustrated. Their usual parking spaces had been taken and they had found it impossible to park anywhere near the church. They resented the event that was causing this disruption, an international half-marathon race with 3,000 competitors with spectators lining the streets. Inside the church, and others close to the route, the worshippers were isolated, and insulated, from what was going on outside.

Some weeks later a group of Christians met and decided that the following year it must be different. The churches along the route should go outside their walls and be part of the event. Christians would be encouraged to show God's love on the streets. Local ministers were drawn into the discussions. The race organiser was contacted and the planning developed with his wholehearted co-operation.

In the millennium year half-marathon the message would be clear that Jesus is the reason for the millennium. Some Christians, including a local vicar, ran in the race wearing Jesus T-shirts. At the start/finish area there was a church tent and the local Christian theatre company performed a sketch as the thousands of runners and spectators milled around. The race was preceded by a float with a worship band and silk flags proclaiming 'King of Kings', 'Lord of Lords', 'Son of God' and 'Prince of Peace.' Six churches along the route took their music, singing and celebration of Jesus outside their buildings, some supported by Christians from other parts of the town. Runners were constantly reminded that the church had come out of its shell. Spectators were offered free copies of the Jesus video. After crossing the finishing line in third place, a leading international athlete from Kenya 'warmed down' by running back several hundred yards to a church where he had heard church members singing from the steps. He asked for his copy of the Jesus video.

Changed attitude

When I was invited to contribute to this journal it was suggested that I could express some crucial issues for the Body of Christ at the start of a new millennium; perhaps speculate a little on the shape of the church in 2010 and how we could co-operate with the Holy Spirit. The particular issue that presented itself to me was that of the church outside the walls.

I have just given an example of how a negative, insular attitude changed to a positive, outgoing one. An outstanding example of the church outside the walls is the On the Move initiative resulting from the vision two years ago of Martin Graham, a former Kent businessman. Longing to be effective in evangelism but unclear how to reach people, he felt the Lord saying to him, "Feed them."

The formula is simple. A town centre is flooded with Christians, playing and singing in worship bands and inviting passers-by to a free barbecue lunch. From the first pilot projects in towns in Kent to this year's events in ten major cities, with three barbecues operating simultaneously in each, it has made a remarkable impact. As Martin Graham says, "Many passers-by have never seen the church in such a light: numerous, vibrant, relaxed and generous."1

Feeding a multitude

Our town was among the first to experience On the Move. In three days 2,500 free barbecue lunches were served in a square near the town centre. A large team of Christians from 18 congregations in the area took part. Many Christians who would shrink from personal evangelism discovered that they could talk naturally to people, first to invite them to the barbecue and then in the conversations there. Many who came found that someone took the trouble to listen to their needs. Some were ready to ask Jesus into their lives and more filled in response cards, saying they would like to know more about Christianity. On the Move is being repeated here this year.

A highlight of this local On the Move was the preparation meeting. It strengthened the bond between the Christians who came together from different congregations and increased their awareness of being the Body of Christ in the town. At this meeting there was a strong concern felt for the local church leaders. The ministers present were called to the front to be prayed for and to pray for each other. There was a warmth of feeling and applause from the meeting as this happened.

Ministers' aspirations

The results have recently been published of a pastoral-care survey commissioned by Waverley Christian Centre in association with the Evangelical Alliance2 . In the section on priorities in ministry they show what pastors most want to be. Topping the list is preacher, followed by person of prayer, teacher, fellowship builder and pastor. Heading the list of what they are expected to be is pastor, followed by preacher, person of prayer, fellowship builder and teacher. Expectations pastors do not want are headed by administrator, followed by visitor and manager. The orientation in all this is strongly towards the existing church membership, a diminished proportion of the population. Respondents were asked what aspects of ministry they wanted to give priority to, or were expected to give priority to. 'Leader in local community' drew in both cases too low a response to register in the final leading percentages.

What happens 'within the walls', whether of the church building for services, or of the Christian home for the cell group, must of course remain important: for worship, teaching, prayer and mutual encouragement and support. But it should also be a preparation for taking the church 'outside the walls', into every part of the community.

Sense of community

There is today very little sense of community. People may know little enough of their immediate neighbours, let alone of other people in the road. A shared grievance can, however, bring people together. Our local council extended parking meters to many residential roads; to avoid them, drivers from metered roads began parking in the road where I live, causing a traffic hazard. Residents were up in arms and came to a public meeting with our two local councillors.

At the end the councillors suggested that we should form a residents' association. Volunteers willing to form a committee were invited to stay behind afterwards and I felt I should do so. At our first meeting I was asked to become the chairman and this was endorsed at the first AGM. In the first year we have successfully campaigned on several issues and have held several well-supported events resulting in a growing sense of community. What for me has been most important has been establishing and developing personal relationships beyond the circle of the church.

The relationship of the church to local councillors is important. We had an atheist mayor who decided not to have a mayor's chaplain and to discontinue prayers before council meetings. This stirred up controversy and it was strange to see prayers as a topic on the local paper's placards. Several Christians had, however, established a good relationship with the mayor and he made available a committee room in the town hall for Christians to meet for prayer for an hour before council meetings. Councillors could join them if they wished.

What had seemed a setback turned into a spiritual advance. The mayor didn't think it would last, but some 20 Christians have faithfully kept up these meetings. Close links have been established with councillors. There is a meeting twice a year between local church leaders and the council members. We now have a new mayor, who is a Christian. She has re-established a mayor's chaplain and council prayers, and the prayer meetings beforehand are continuing.

Impressive witness

On Good Friday 2,300 local Christians joined in three processions of witness which came together for a dramatic enactment of the Way to the Cross. Among other local ventures are a ministry among Kosovan refugees in the area and opening of His Place coffee shop, both initiated by a local Pentecostal church; a May Day marathon walk and schools projects which have raised over £20,000 towards building a church primary school in Rwanda; a counselling and advocacy service for families and a credit union. This may sound impressive but it is only a beginning.

The movement for the church to go 'outside the walls' and for the Christians from different congregations to be the Body of Christ in this town has come from the roots. Among the visionaries and leading activists are a former school teacher, now working full-time as a servant of the church, a GP who had to retire through ill health but who has recovered, the director of a locally-based Christian theatre company, and the recently retired headmaster of a large local comprehensive school. Several ministers are also at the forefront but many others find it hard to venture beyond the limits of their own church situations, where they constantly struggle to hold the line.

How can they be 'freed'? For surely they are a key element in taking the church outside the walls. The vicar is no longer the figure in the community he once was. Most people in urban areas today would be unable to name their vicar or any other local minister. In rural areas the once high-profile vicar is now seen far less because he or she may be covering four or five scattered parishes. 'Church' does not register with most of the population. They are likely to pass at least one church building, with its heavy closed doors, every weekday without giving it a thought. The church is seen as a fading institution rather than a dynamic movement. If perceptions are going to be changed, they must change first within the church and among its ministers.

Looking ahead

So what is the shape of the church likely to be in 2010? In the meantime our Lord may return, or there may come a great spiritual revival in this country. Every generation of Christians should have a spirit of expectancy and preparation. But if neither event is in God's timing in the next decade, what will the church be like? Society is likely to have become more disordered, the media less open to the church and more cynical, 'new spiritualities' more seductive. In the face of this, the church will either have retreated into a protective shell or will have ventured outside the walls with a new holy boldness.

If it is little more than inward-looking, fragmented and insular, it can be expected to wither. If, however, it is prepared to take up the challenges and seize the opportunities surrounding it, in witness, love and sacrificial service, then who knows what the Holy Spirit might achieve through it in the next ten years?

The church has to break out; to pervade every part of life, so that people will observe, as a passer-by in the shopping centre did to her companion during On the Move, "Those Christians are everywhere!"

The Revd Wallace Boulton is a journalist and editor who worked for many years with the Church Mission Society (CMS) and is a former editor of the Church of England Newspaper and Renewal. He is a non-stipendiary minister in his home church in East Sussex as well as being a guild chaplain at St Bride's, Fleet Street, 'the journalists' church'.