Yesterday I had the joy of visiting my “home church”, the place where I grew up and put my trust in Jesus. Sunbridge Road Mission is a city centre church in Bradford, planted 137 years ago. This year, the church family will be moving across the road to a new purpose built building having raised three million pounds over quite a number of years to enable this.
On Sunday, they had a thanksgiving service to enable them and friends of the church to look back and give thanks to God for all he has done in their present home before looking forward to the future.
I thought it would be good to take a bit of space here on Faithroots to share some expanded reflections of growing up at the Mission. I hope you won’t merely indulge something personal though as there’s hopefully some lessons, especially for those of you who are engaged in or considering urban context mission. At this point I should say, I’m going to mention some names if people that you probably would not otherwise have heard of. There’s a reason for that, which I will come to later
I mentioned when there was opportunity in the evening meeting to share memories that if you had visited the church in the late 70s and into the early 1980s that you might have been tempted to think that this was first of all a church that focused on the up front ministry. The tradition was to have a platform party who would walk onto the stage and be seated up front having prayed in the vestry , a narrow room to the side of the stage with a gallery of black and white pictures of past pastors and the founder, a man by the name of Mr Sleight.
Secondly you may have considered the church conservative. You would have been greeted by a Hammond organ to one side of the stage and a whole section of staging given over to s grand piano. That space is now given over to a drum kit in its own little perspex box. It seems we consider drummers in need of greater protection. The worship was lively but fairly traditional with Methodist hymns in the morning and Sankey Gospel hymns at night. There was occasional clapping but no hands raised and you would not expect things like tongues, prophecy or healing.
However, something was clearly going on. The main hall was packed out with about 300 adults and the upstairs rooms and rear hall with children and teens (that room was known as the Morning Room, as not many years previously the morning service was small enough to fit in there). The afternoon saw Sunday School classes with many children coming specifically for that. Then a full hall for an evening congregation, not to forget a Chinese fellowship meeting in the afternoon. I guess there must have been over 500 people altogether, maybe more. Large for a church outside London at the time. Moreover people were constantly moving on and being replaced, to the mission field, to pastor churches, starting new churches.
What was happening? Well first there was a laser focus on the Gospel. The pastor’s practice, I found out yesterday wax to go out in the week to share the Gospel one to one, with a concern that what happened on Sunday should make sense to the people he met if he were to invite them along.
Then there was a lot happening in the background. The stuff we associate now with charismatic renewal was happening, not up front but in the week as people visited and prayed with the sick.
I reflect back now that there were things integral to the DNA and these are things I probably picked up on so they are now in my DNA, especially a concern for urban mission.
Returning to the perception that this was up front church, it strikes me that this was far from the case. I have been reflecting on the impact that many individuals had on my life, that’s why I plan to name some names. There was real, every member ministry.
First, let’s go back to my conversion as a young child of five. The catalyst was a testimony from one of the Sunday School teachers, a lady named Vera Parker (later Taylor).
We learnt about the importance of welcome, love and hospitality. This came both from my own parents modelling it, my mum would consistently be looking out for those on their own, and from others who helped look after us. There was a couple called Byran and Marjorie Topham who looked after my sister and I one summer whilst my mum was away visiting her grandma in Northern Ireland. A number of families were long term foster carers, no surprise then that Sarah and I later found ourselves drawn to adoption. I’d seen the power of a home for good.
We learned to pray from people like a man called Jack Firth who would often pray with a clear, natural trust and joy in the Lord.
We picked up on the importance of cross cultural mission from a Lionel Fitzsimons who devoted his life to reaching Muslims in Bradford. When we found ourselves hosting a large influx of South Americans at Bearwood, we knew what yo do because we had seen such welcomed modelled by Fred Keighley who had helped get the Chinese Fellowship started.
I learnt about evangelism from going door to door with Eric Stocks. Eric was also my first theology tutor using Emmaus materials long before I went to Theological College.
We learnt the importance of caring for children and young people from the Tophams who led to children’s work on a Sunday afternoon along with a man called Leslie Sykes. Brian and Leslie were both wealthy businessmen but you would not have picked up on that from the humble way they carried themselves and their willingness to get down to our level as children.
By the way, it strikes me that Pastor Evans who was leading an incredibly large and diverse church made time to come in and see the kids work and to lead a summer holiday club. Philip Dyson as pastor remained committed to leading a midweek youth fellowship. Today out our church you will see that the elders are first in line to volunteer for children’s and youth ministry.
There are some snap shot reflections. In summary.
- People, even children will pick up and carry on the DNA of a church.
- Don’t confuse what happens up front with the full story.
- Don’t miss out on what God is doing through ordinary member of the church.
- Stay faithful.
Faithroots 