We are a small, but lively church situated in a picturesque village in Cornwall, in the South-West of England. We have a small congregation of about 30 people and a large Junior fellowship who, as well as having their own meetings, regularly participate in collective all-age worship services. As a result we are very forward looking in terms of types of worship and in the world at large. In particularly in addition to traditional hymns played by our organist we also have two worship bands who lead the singing of modern worship material. We also like to use alternative forms of worship including drama, dance and multi-media style presentations during the course of normal Sunday services.
Of course, as our Lord Jesus Christ stated, the Church's primary objective on Earth is to go out and make disciples of all people. With this in mind our church is very active in numerous evangelism and outreach projects throughout our local community and also further afield in partnership with the other churches in the vicinity
Millbrook isn't a big church, not yet at any rate and our buildings are slowly falling around our ears despite sustained fund raising and renovations. But are we laying down and waiting for someone to shovel the dust of years over our heads? No way!
We had our introduction to evangelism in 1993 when a team from Through Faith Missions' Walk of 1000 Men were stationed at the church and we've just carried on from there. We are fortunate to have two enthusiastic music groups, 'The Christianaires' and 'Sonny Side Up' each with their own distinctive style, so we have been able to experiment with lots of different music, both in services and in eccumenical gatherings indoors and out, from Summer Songs of Praise by the sea to carols in the Village Tanyard with frost forming on the keyboards. Members of the church have been involved with Share Jesus missions and Walk missions Yorkshire to Cornwall, Cambridge to Ulster and Eire.
This Methodist Year however has been particularly exciting as we have st last begun to grapple with ongoing evangelism on our own patch. In October (97) we began taking a leaf out of the village J.W.'s book and started door to door visiting using a questionnaire to encourage people to talk about their beliefs and needs. We plan to visit every household but we are finding that most people take very little encouragement to talk about their faith and fears, so it is going to take a long time, and then we shall start again! At Christmas, at the suggestion of Kendra, our young and dymanic American minister, we followed Mexican tradition. On Christmas Eve a young couple from the congregation dressed as Mary and Joseph wne we all processed through the village singing carols and knocking doors (prearranged) to ask for a place to stay. It was amazing how difficult people who were taking part found it to turn them away. All the of the village pubs entered into the spirit of the event and the publican at the Mark of Friendship sent us on our way with great gusto and dramatic verve!
The Sunday before Christmas, with our young people home from university we decided to take advantage of their expertise and put on a multimedia service aimed evangelistically at people who don't usually come to church. Every home in the village was targeted in a leaflet drop and we did attract a few new faces. I doubt that they were any more surprised than our own congregation by the use of computers, videos and changing visual images as well as fast moving drama and music to put over the true significance of the Christmas Gospel.
The pace didn't slacken in the new year - in fact it hotted up! At the end of January we hosted our own mission. Aided by a team of very experienced lay persons from Through Faith Missions we went into local schools taking assemblies and classes, visted the play group and the rest homes, visited the pubs and came second in the village pub quiz, spoke at several coffee mornings and house groups, and put on special evening events from a healing service to a Christian Cabaret Evening. It was hard work but nonetheless fun. The most exciting part was the Kid's Club which ran every day after school and on Saturday mornings. Ten children from the village made commitments so after the mission we started a special Alpha Course, using Youth Alpha books but adapting the material so that we could use it effectively with children and some of their parents who came along with them.
Along side all this work the ordinary - or maybe the extraordinary - life of the church goes on. We have a keen house fellowship using the excellent teaching videos availible from the Christian Resource Project, a weekly prayer meeting after our morning service, a Disciple Group with members from several churches, a thriving junior church, the Kid's Club and 'Yoof', a small youth club organised by the younger members of the church for the younger teenagers, and a brilliant catering team who lay on weekly coffee mornings and monthly lunches which provide a regular drop in venue for the village.
Sometimes we look at our dwindling congregation - so many of our older members now worship with the Church Triumphant - and we wonder wether the church will still be active in two years time. So far all our efforts have not resulted in any new members. But this is not really the point. What matters is that people hear the Gospel and are able to make up their own minds on the basis of Biblical Truth, not the distorted truths of folk religion. Already the children are begining to respond. We pray and work so that one day we will see their parents, aunts, uncles and grand-parents come into the Kingdom of God. We are a small congregation today but we don't plan to stay that way. It took eleven apostles with the power of the Holy Spirit to change the world!