Case Study: Christ Church, Norris Green

Christ Church is located in an outer city housing estate that was built between the wars and is in the upper 5% of parishes based on the UK Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).

The first church building in the area was a mission hut opened in 1927. A 'new' church building and hall were later opened in 1932 as a memorial to Bishop Chavasse. But by 2005 both of these buildings were in a poor state of repair and would have required large sums of money just to make them reasonably habitable. In fact there had been no heating system in the church for twelve years. A review undertaken in 2006 concluded that it would not be good stewardship to invest in the existing buildings and consequently they were demolished.

Over a number of years good relationships had been developed with the people of Leamington Road School and so the fellowship was able to move its Sunday Worship to the school in 2005.

The loss of the church and hall freed the fellowship from having to put its major energies into maintaining the buildings and allowed them to focus on mission, outreach and faith. The ex-vicarage was converted into the Church Centre, with much of the work being completed by local talent.

The changes have seen major growth in a congregation of local people new to church life. Good contacts have been developed through baptisms, funerals, the school and activities based within the Church Centre. The people don’t think twice about funding quality mission projects.

The Giving in Grace Programme

As the numbers grew so did people’s faith, but giving increased only slowly and a need to teach about giving was identified. (There had been no teaching on giving for fifteen years, but older members of the fellowship gossiped about it.) Foundational teaching on faith had been given, including being one body and the use of talents.

The aim of the teaching was two fold; -
1. To give people an understanding of Christian financial stewardship.
2. To increase the giving and thus increase support for the mission and outreach of the church. There was an agreed mission plan that involved mission and outreach activities which were free to all, including a 'fun day' at the school.

Material was selected from the Giving in Grace Website to suit the particular needs of Christ Church. Every person in the fellowship received a personal letter and the brochure Our Church, Our Challenge, Our Choices from the Vicar, on behalf of the fellowship. This had been agreed by the PCC. All responses were followed up immediately, as were non-responses. Differentiation was used in all of the correspondence.  

The weekly notice sheet was used to keep everyone informed on how many people had responded and how much had been pledged. This was seen as a source of encouragement. There was also continual feedback to the PCC.

One Sunday was committed to the direct teaching and this included testimonies from those living locally of how they had learnt to give first to the Lord. The testimonies were felt to be an important part of the process. Mid-week, the small fellowship groups also discussed the issues and provided a good place for people to explore their personal faith.

Through the Giving in Grace programme, the fellowship found that God does things in unexpected and encouraging ways. The people responded generously and giving increased by over 100%. They found the programme enjoyable and it helped build relationships within the fellowship. The process has been part of enabling people to fit into and become part of the full life of the church.

The people were enthusiastic about the outcome and clearly mission minded. A decision was taken (June 2008) to postpone any proposal to build a new bespoke worship and community resource, on the vacant church and hall site, for at least three years. This was to enable the fellowship to continue to concentrate on their outreach. Saving for the new building will continue, but it will not be a major project for the time being.

Grants to support the work of the church were applied for, but there were no fund raising activities outside of the regular giving of the fellowship.

By the end of the whole process, the fellowship felt that they had truly experienced God being able to do immeasurably more than they could have asked or imagined (Eph 3:19-21).