Clubber Church

The inspiring story of Hereford Baptist Church demonstrates how an unpromising situation can be turned to good - and to effective engagement.

Set in the middle of a provincial market town, the church found itself with an aging congregation in a community that was changing. It had slowly become the night club area of the town. On Sunday mornings, the congregation would find the front area of the church full of rubbish, and smelling of vomit and urine.

The membership decided to do something about the situation. A proposal to build a wall around the front of the church to keep the clubbers out was about to be agreed, when one of the older members of the congregation made a different suggestion.

Recognising that she needed less sleep now that she was getting on in years, she proposed opening up the entrance hall of the church on Friday and Saturday nights and inviting the clubbing fraternity to use the toilets, and to offer them a chat and a coffee. A group agreed to join her - and that was the beginning of Nightshift.

From these small beginnings some 200 people each weekend come in for free cups of tea, to use the toilets and have a chat between 11pm and 3am every weekend.

How interesting that it was the older people who had the time and the skills to make the engagement, being non-threatening grandparent-figures and able to bridge the generation gap. Peer engagement is not necessarily the most effective.

The story also illustrates the hunger for a sense of family. Many of the 18 to 20-somethings would struggle to hold such conversations with their own parents, or might miss this relationship with their own grandparents because of geographical distance.

The church has now employed a pastor to work specifically with Nightshift, and over the past couple of Christmases has held a Clubbers’ Carol Service. This has proved popular, and slowly a new congregation has begun to form. The church has turned a corner and begun to grow.

Since the start of Nightshift several other projects have been started. For example, the church now engages with the 16,000 migrant Polish workers that work on the farms around the town - and employs a Polish pastor to minister to them.

Last Updated 03 December 2010