Hope Hamilton Church » phils-files
My family and I...
May 4, 03:14 PM, Phil White
(Written May 2005) My family and I moved into Hamilton in mid December 2003. There was no church building, and there won’t ever be a formal building. Although St. Mary’s Humberstone had been working hard in the estate for some years, we started afresh in December. Hope Hamilton Church of England Primary School has now opened and the school building includes a worship centre / community room.
To be given a brief of starting a new church with no previous history is very releasing. However it means that we have to be able to ‘think outside the box’, to dream of what a church could be and perhaps what the church should be! We do not have a building to maintain or an established congregation with traditions etc. As a consequence we have been meeting in various homes and even the Tesco supermarket!”
A handful of local Christians were very welcoming and have formed the basis of an all age cell (ages 6 – 70) meeting weekly to explore vision and to worship together. We eat together, spend time in worship followed by some input and vision exploration, trusting the Holy Spirit to lead us into becoming a Church that is relevant in this community. We also pray for one another and for our friends and colleagues. We give ourselves permission to have fun too – so many Christians are overburdened with Church activity, they don’t have time to enjoy themselves. One person has said ‘this is the closest thing to New Testament Church that I’ve ever been involved in’. Our vision includes the establishment of a number of ‘clusters’ (around a common interest) each with a separate focus but linked together in different ways.
We also meet together on Sundays. We basically operate a four weekly rotation.
First week: ‘Encounter’ – a type of service (Now re-branded: re.turn)
Second week: Social
Third week: Prayer
Fourth week: ‘Mercy’ – where we do something for other people.
One of the things we’re finding is that we need to be able to do what we’re doing now yet give ourselves the freedom to change what we’re doing when it feels right and appropriate. That seems to be one of the characteristics of new ventures. In fact we have actually described what we are doing as an adventure.
Our general focus is on three types of relationships: with God (UP), with other Christians (IN) and with those in our community (OUT). Surely we can only be church when we have these three relationships in balance. We were created by God who Himself is in perfect relationship.
We are currently in the process of identifying the needs of the community. We hope that the church in Hamilton will be a blessing to the community e.g. the alternative Halloween ‘Light Party’ our Christmas curry evening and recent car wash.
Some might worry that what we are doing is not Anglican enough. Can I reassure those people that it is – though it may not look like many other Anglican churches. Surely we have to be able to do things differently and in new ways amid the serious decline in the Church in this country?
Our vision is to build a vibrant Christian community that is both Biblical and contemporary. Our aim is to obey the two greatest commandments spoken by Jesus:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind and with all your strength … and … Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Phil and Anne White
