The Revd Peter Stevenson, Minister of Crossway United Reformed Church, reflects on how a move into a purpose-built ‘home’ has breathed new life into the church in Elephant and Castle, London.
Since we moved into our new home earlier this year, we have grown considerably and there is a vibrant use of the building. Usage is up 70% and continues to grow.
The congregation is growing too. We now have around 40 people attending as opposed to the 15-20 before the move. We’ve also had ten new families join us in just three months, six of which have stayed with us. There are many different types of families here and it’s great to see them all feel at home at Crossway.
Discipleship is very interesting because the building has helped us look at everything we do and how we do it.
The new building has also made us think about the multicultural nature of our local area, particularly the Latin American community. How to make our worship, teaching and service relevant to their needs? We have to move away from a three-point sermon sometimes because that doesn’t work for everyone.
The local council invested about £6m into developing the area and it was happy to support Crossway because it bought into a church serving more than itself. We model a principle of Christian sharing, which is written into the ‘fabric’ of the building.
A variety of organisations use our facilities. For instance, we host a one-stop shop giving advice in Spanish to the Latin American community; a day centre for the homeless and a community café where the food is sourced from Borough Market and cooked by volunteers.
The ‘Holy Habit of Biblical Teaching’ captures what we here at Crossway trying to do. The habit is key in making and growing disciples and our new setting has created opportunities for us to explore Scripture in different ways, enabling church members to know each other a lot more closely as they explore God’s word together – a truly ‘living hermeneutic’.
How is/could your church make creative use of its building to enable more people to Walk the Way where you are? Visit the URC’s Walking the Way: Living the life of Jesus today webpage to learn more.
