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Our ministry in the Rhondda

By David Brownnutt.

Our aim

To help to build the Kingdom of God at the top of the Rhondda Valley.

Our approach to mission

For us, mission starts with being involved in the life of the community and seeking to build open-ended relationships with everyone we can, hoping that some will become our friends and some can be helped to build or rebuild their own relationship with Jesus.

Where are we now?

I am technically retired from ministry, but in reality Christian service never ends; it simply evolves.

Jane and I are members of Gilgal Baptist Church, Porthcawl, but live and see our main area of spiritual work at the top of the Rhondda Fawr. We are building links with our neighbours, present a regular spot on the community radio station and regularly attend our local PACT (Partnerships And Communities Together) meetings. As a result of past involvement in the Valleys Regional Equality Council, I am a member of the South Wales Police Strategic Independent Advisory Group.

I am on our GP surgery Patient Participation Group, attend the Local Health Fora and continue to develop links with senior figures in the Health Authority.

Though retired from teaching, Jane still does some work for the Education Authority including teacher evaluations. I am on the Governing Body of a local primary school which has led me to take two funerals and two memorial services linked to the school, and lead their annual remembrance service. Jane also leads music sessions for residents in an old people’s home, and we both get invited to do services there at Christmas and Easter. We take a regular fortnightly service in another local old people’s home.

Most Sundays, I preach in small chapels (attendance between 5 and 20 people) of various denominations in the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach or Cynon Valleys. Increasingly, we provide a listening ear or advice to individuals or chapels who have no-one else to turn to. I take the occasional wedding or funeral.

Jane is Regional Representative for Care for the Family and I am on our local Fairtrade committee.

The most exciting work we are doing is with the group which meets in our home to learn about God. Originally intended for those who have given up on chapel, but not on God, it also includes those who know nothing about God. It’s become as much about pastoral issues as about study, and learning is done as much socially as in formal groups. We have 12 fairly regular attendees from teenagers to pensioners, from those who never completed secondary school to those with a degree.

How did we get here and what have we learned?

Call to Wales

In 2000, I saw an advert in the Baptist Times for a “Missioner to the Rhondda Baptist Network”. Jane and I were certain that this was where God wanted us, but by the time they actually called me, I was excited by the radical job description though uncertain whether their heart was really in it.

I felt God say very clearly that the Network was His way of getting me into the Rhondda, but that my real ministry would start after I left the Network and would go on to the end of my ministry, and possibly be for life. God told me to buy a house in the Rhondda in the spirit of Jeremiah. Jane felt God saying that this was going to be totally different to anything we’d done before, but the most significant.

Within six months, it was clear that the job description reflected what the Network leaders thought was required by the Baptist Home Mission department, not what they themselves wanted or were happy to do. The Regional Minister was willing to continue the grant as long as I did the work of a missioner.

Misconceptions about the Rhondda

The Rhondda is not grim – it’s beautiful. Chapels are small and closing, but it’s not the graveyard of mission. Many people are turning their backs on chapels as they see them, but not on God. They are hungry for Him, but don’t want to sign up to a creed and join an organisation. They want first to be loved and valued as they are, and then introduced to a God who is real to them.

Some key moments in the Network that shaped my views for the future

A lady said to Jane, “You’ll find in the Valleys we’ve given up on chapel, but we haven’t given up on God.” A lady at a street party said to me, “I believe in prayer. I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for the power of prayer.” I asked which chapel she went to. Indignantly she replied, “I don’t go to chapel!”

Lesson - The image of what the buildings and the people stand for can be a stumbling block.

When I arrived, people were surprised I’d left London for the Rhondda. They kept on asking if I liked the area and if I liked them. For years they kept asking, adding, “Are you staying?” Within days of us buying our house, a local said, “Now we know you love us.”

An old people’s home had a new entertainments manager who was not happy to have ‘inherited’ us. She saw ministers as bringing doom and gloom. After the first service she said, “Look! They’re all smiling – it doesn’t matter what I think, you are good for them.”

Lesson – words are not enough. People need to see reality in ordinary situations.

Before my induction, I visited the Rhondda. I was put up in the only accommodation available - the local pub. The landlord’s brother later described it as, in his view, the roughest in the Rhondda.

As I entered, a woman at the bar greeted me with: “Who are you?”

“The new Baptist minister”, I replied.

“Any more lies and I’ll thump you” she said. “If you were a minister, you wouldn’t come in here and you certainly wouldn’t talk to me.”

By the time I’d left, the men insisted that I make it my local when I came. On the day of my induction, Jane had the largest bouquet of flowers she’d ever had – from the landlady.

Lesson – ­The Rhondda is hostile to their image of Christians, not to Christians themselves.

For over five years we spent most Friday evenings in the pub. We never started a Christian discussion, but most nights the regulars did. One evening, just before closing time, a regular introduced me to his friend who replied, “Trouble with Christianity is that it has nothing to say to someone who is dying.” I responded and almost an hour later, though the pub was locked, the regulars were behind us listening to our discussion.

Lesson - The Rhondda is interested in the gospel, but they want it outside a chapel and in everyday language.

Jane and I went into a cafe and, while waiting for a meal, held hands. Curious that two people of our age appeared to still be in love, the owner and his wife concluded we knew something they didn’t and started regular conversations. Two years later, his wife was eager to receive a Bible. Last week he asked if he could come to our home to have an uninterrupted chat.

Lesson – Building the Kingdom takes time and often involves unexpected openings

A man said to us “I’ve been watching you for three years. You don’t smoke, you don’t drink, you don’t swear. We do all three, but you’ve never once criticised us, you just come in here and love us.” He then shared where he was spiritually. It had taken three years to break down the barriers.

Lesson – Building the Kingdom takes time and a willingness to love without criticism.

Question – Are we planting a church?

Answer – God knows, but He hasn’t told us yet. Maybe we will, maybe we will feed people into other local churches.

Finally a comment from Jane:

As we left the Network and launched out into the unknown Jane said, “Whatever God is going to do in this area it’s going to be messy.” Events have demonstrated that she was right and, though it has been challenging at times, it’s been exciting.