How Church Army evangelists at work with churches in our diocese today are still taking their mission on to our streets to ‘Share Faith through Words and Action’
Church Army: How it all began
In 1882 a dynamic and unconventional Church of England curate in London had a vision to encourage and enable ordinary Christian people to live the good news of Jesus Christ in such a way that others would be attracted to follow him.
He wanted to share the Christian message through words and actions by encouraging people to witness to their faith in their daily lives and at organised gatherings.
He was Prebendary Wilson Carlile and his vision became Church Army.
Such was the impact made by the society that Carlile sought official approval from the Church of England Congress in 1883 to allow carefully selected and specially trained laymen to assist in consecrated buildings.
Thought by some to be ‘dragging the church into the gutter’, the Upper Convocation of Canterbury nevertheless unanimously passed a resolution of approval two years later.
Today, as Church Army celebrates its 125th anniversary, the society still stands for mission-shaped and fresh expressions of church agenda, working with others to encourage new ways of reaching out to those with little or no connection to the life of the church.
Its trained evangelists are called from a variety of social, economic and Christian backgrounds, with many different gifts, but all with the common desire and drive to fulfil the Church Army motto of ‘Sharing faith through words and action’ in projects around the country.
You can find out more about Church Army projects on its website: www.churcharmy.org.uk
Gritty job for Hugh is helping Didcot hear God’s word
I was 33 when I eventually gave in to the fact that God might be calling me! I was asked to explore the ordained ministry but it never felt right. In Church Army I found a ministry that fitted well.
What the society offers are evangelists who can think differently and take risks in order to meet people where they are and help them discover relevant ways of expressing their faith and/or search for God.
I was once told by a bishop that Church Army is the grit in the machinery of the Church of England, so I suppose I see part of my role as being the person who asks the uncomfortable questions and leads Christians out of their comfort zone to reach the not-yet-Christians.
I started as a parish evangelist in Birkenhead, then became ‘Director of the People and Work Programme’ in the Peterborough Diocese, encouraging and resourcing Christians to live out their faith in the workplace. And before coming to Didcot in 2005 I was Church Army’s Candidates Secretary, responsible for encouraging people to explore a vocation to the Society.
When I saw the advert for the post in Didcot the first website I looked at to find out more about the place told me it was a ‘cr**p town’, and I thought ‘That’s the sort of place Jesus would go’! I’m glad to say Jesus has gone before me by his Spirit and that the website doesn’t know what it’s talking about!
I’m now the Associate minister of the Ladygrove Church, an Anglican/Baptist LEP on the town’s large, modern Ladygrove estate, and I love it. I basically do everything a lay person can do plus having special permission to baptise people from the estate.
Being a Church Army evangelist frees me to be the person God has created me to be and that allows me to work at my most effective. Through the year we have a number of outreach projects.
As I write Pentecost is coming up. In past years different churches have organised a service but when it came to our turn this year we were asked to organise an afternoon fun event, the idea being that we will all go to our separate worship in the morning.
Thinking of the first Pentecost, what we’re missing is the going out into the streets bit. So hopefully people from all the churches will meet in the amphitheatre outside Sainsbury’s at 2pm to serve our town to celebrate our birthday – face-painting, balloon modelling, giving out free birthday cake, litter collecting, help pack bags, clearing a river of rubbish, etc.
I feel some people find the name Church Army a barrier at first and I would love to see it changed, but what to? The reserve soon disappears and it’s great to see the effects on people when we take God’s word out to them.
I remember a sixth former approaching me after a lesson I’d done on crime and punishment, to tell me: ‘your Bible makes much more sense than what we’re doing at the moment.’ Here in Didcot it’s been great to see people learn for themselves that God does answer prayer. And there are those wonderful times when the penny drops and a person gives their lives to Christ.
But, ultimately, what we do here is not my or Church Army’s work but God’s. On one of our windows in our College Chapel we have Jesus’ words, ‘I am among you as one who serves’ and I hope that that is what we are all about.
Captain Hugh Boorman is Associate Minister at the Ladygrove Church, Didcot.
Helping High Wycombe re-engage with the gospel
I had always had a strong desire to help people, and a gift for talking to people about their faith, but until six years ago my thoughts of ministry were along the lines of becoming a lay chaplain and running Alpha courses at our then church in Hounslow.
One day after helping and praying with a woman who I had found in some distress outside the church, the Church Army officer suggested I had the skills to become a full-time evangelist with Church Army.
I’m a great believer in what Church Army does. It is such a vibrant, relevant organisation in today’s disparate society, able to discern need and go direct to people in all sorts of situations, working with them to help them re-engage with their spiritual side and to hear the Gospel.
But I’m also a person who likes to feel in control of my life, so to consider full-time ministry and trust God for my wages and my family’s security was a major journey for me.
Then I thought how God had already blessed me in so many ways, giving me jobs and positions which had allowed me to drive forward His mission. My job in the prison service and as a civil servant in the Home Office had given me experience in race relations and with people on the edge of society. Joining Church Army seemed like a logical next step.
As a Church Army evangelist I want to take the church on a journey. To push out of the comfort zone and help people who have lost touch with their spiritual journey to re-engage and rediscover God.
Placements before High Wycombe have honed skills I have in spiritual discernment, and have helped me develop a listening ear for God on the street. Now on a Sunday I will go out and pray around the streets. On one occasion I felt God stop me walking down one street and head for another instead.
Why do this? It reaches people. Of people I have approached we have had a couple of baptisms and two are now helping on an Alpha course .
One of my first initiatives as ‘new congregations minister’ here was to set up a café-style church. It’s different in that it takes an interactive approach. It’s a dangerous place to be for a preacher to invite dialogue and questioning. But it attracted people who didn’t feel at home with the usual services including, interestingly, many men.
Another calling I’ve had since coming to High Wycombe has been to create a home for people from Asian backgrounds who would come to faith in Jesus. We have a very vibrant Asian community in the town.
God showed me the way forward through a member of our congregation who told me about a dream she had had to develop such a ministry and we began by organising an alternative Christmas event with worship songs in English, Urdu and Hindi as well as readings in Hindi and English and, for the first event, a talk from Oxford Diocesan Racial Justice Adviser Raj Patel.
We were overwhelmed with how much interest there was in the event and have since held an Easter celebration which was again very popular.
The most important part of the evening was that we were engaging with people who would not normally attend church, in a relaxed, informal way. And we are definitely looking to develop the ministry further.
It’s fantastic evangelistic stuff that makes our faith relevant and living.
Captain Joe Farnand is the New Congregations Minister in High Wycombe, working with St Birinus and St John’s Church.
Sharing faith with tea and a listening ear in Bracknell
When I was commissioned as a Church Army Sister 32 years ago it was to ‘pastoral work and evangelism’ and I firmly believe that all I have done since then is what the Church Army logo says we do… ‘Sharing Faith through Words and Actions’.
My ministry as a non-stipendiary officer here with the Bracknell Team Ministry touches all ages in the community from the children and young people’s work I do with my husband Steven, to leading and preaching in the regular services at St Paul’s in Harmans Water, funeral ministry and worship in residential and nursing homes.
But one of my favourite projects is the Tea House in Bracknell’s main shopping centre. The first time I opened the doors of the Tea House in June 2004, to offer a Christian presence in the town centre, I had about 20 customers. Now I regularly serve around 80 people a week, offering Fairtrade tea and coffee and most importantly a listening ear.
Through such a simple service there have been so many opportunities to declare God’s love to the people who drop in. Many have become friends and our Friday morning tea and chat has led to families requesting baptisms, and a chance to offer support to friends and relatives of families for whom I have led funeral services.
One of my regular customers at the Tea House often says to me: ‘I don’t believe in God’, but then adds, ‘I wish I could believe like you do.’
That’s what Church Army is all about for me. Being out among people in their everyday lives, showing them God’s love by being there with them.
I joined the organisation two years after becoming a committed Christian, when I was 20. I went to a Church Army rally and felt God say to me that he had a place for me there.
Since then I believe my role has been to attract people to God, whether I have been working as a full-time evangelist or, as now, a non-stipendiary officer in parishes around the country.
An evangelist is what I am, not just a job I do…sharing faith through words and actions.
Jenny Colby was commissioned as a Church Army Sister in 1974 and is currently licensed to the Bracknell Team Ministry in Berkshire
Hog and Bog Ride Out
The ‘Hog and Bog Ride Out’ across Northern Ireland is just one of the outreach events organised by Captain John O’Neill with Gordy and Val Black as part of their mission to provide a church for bikers by bikers in Ireland.
Up to 24 people meet regularly for worship, prayer, fellowship and support as well as the ‘ride-outs’ that enable them to build friendships with non-Christian bikers.
John says the idea began when a fellow biker asked him about the fish symbol on the back of his motorbike. This led to a conversation about his own understanding and experience of the Christian faith and a continuing relationship which he prays will be the start of another changed life.
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