Opportunity is everywhere
Recently a small van has appeared at the railway station where I get the train to work. On its side it says “Nuts about Coffee” and out of the back they sell fresh coffee and cakes to take away. It is a bit like a mobile Starbucks. The station itself is very local. There’s no café - just three platforms, a ticket office and a car park.
The service that this little van brings enhances the commuters experience and brightens their day. I don’t know whether it makes any money but that is not the point. With my Engaging Community hat on I found myself thinking that would be a great way for churches to engage with their community.
Conversation starter
To have a little van like that would be a great way to offer a service to people wherever they meet, at a fete or a car boot sale or a station. If it was run by volunteers, at cost, selling (fairly traded) coffee in the name of the church, it could be a potent tool to start conversations and build relationships.
It reminds me of a church who had a similar resource – a little like a hot dog stand – that they rolled out during last winters flooding. They offered free teas and coffees to the people who were working to fight the floods and rescue people from their homes. This response put them at the heart of the crisis. In the process they were seen as good news and great neighbours during a traumatic time. .
When there is a crisis the church can often come up trumps. It seems a shame that we are not so inventive when things are ‘normal’. It is amazing when we start to look at our community through the lens of engagement how almost anything becomes an opportunity.
Entrepreneurs engage
Often these opportunities are seen by business far quicker than they are by the church. Like the little van at my station, some entrepreneurial person has seen a way to make money and moved to meet it.
I am not suggesting necessarily that we should have an eye to make money. Unless of course raising finance in one project enables us to invest in other engaging initiatives, or, in response to the current state of the economy you feel moved toward job creation for members fo your congregation. But let’s say for the moment that making money is not our motivation.
Let’s say our aim is to meet and need or provide a service. Let’s say it is to build bridges and deepen relationships. Why shouldn’t we use the ideas and opportunities seen and seized by the commercial world to do so?
In the Times recently there was an article outlining the content of a report by the government and the Church of England. The aim was to encourage churches to offer community Post Offices and other local services. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham recognises that churches are often, “active in enhancing the lives of many people, offering services to meet the needs of the local community”.
Taking centre stage in the community
The government hopes that the report will offer advice to churches as to where to get funding and inspire them to offer public services. The Bishop of London, Rt Revd Richard Chartres, speaking in support of the report saw this as “an example of a growing trend to return church buildings to their original function as places of worship and also places of assembly for the local community”.
Here again is an opportunity and encouragement for us as the church to assume a position in the centre of community life, to act as a hub to social cohesion and the fostering of a sense of community.
Richard Hardy, 2009
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Last Updated 13 May 2009
