Community Pastors in Weston Super Mare
Three new roles have been created on the new housing estates in Weston-Super-Mare recently for Community Pastors. With a focus on being the hands and feet of God out in the community, each of these Community Pastors is seeking tobring God to the people in their area in a relevant and accessible way.
The three roles have been filled by Fiona Mayne at Haywood Village, Ellie Gray at Westwick and Claire Roberts at Locking Parklands. Claire is studying and Fiona commences Ordination training in September at CMS Oxford and Ellie is beginning a Christian counselling course in September at Trinity Collegein Bristol.
The three work with the community in their local areas and also work well together and pray together as a triplet fortnightly and work collaboratively with other local Churches.
On the Locking Parklands estate, Parklands Community Church was planted by Worle Baptist Church. Initially meeting in homes to pray for the area, they started meeting weekly on Sunday mornings in April 2017once the newly refurbishedcommunity centre opened. Claire took up her role in September 2017 and has been working alongside the team there to develop and grow the life of the church. New people have been joining the church, many of whom have little or no Christian background and it’s exciting to see the journey God has them on.
As well as Sunday morning gatherings, there is a home group and various prayer initiatives as the church prayer walks around the community. The church has run various community events at Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc which are well attended. But as the estate currently has no local shops, school, pub, café etc – one of the biggest challenges is making contact and building relationships with those on the estate in an ongoing way. The church is currently exploring setting up a monthly community café to provide a space for the community to get to know each other and welcome new residents.
At Westwick Ellie runs Take 5 there which is coffee and crafts in the community held in the local school and a pop-up church which meets Quarterly and has also started a weekly life group. At Haywood Village Fiona has replicated Take 5 from the model Ellie started and has now moved to the area and has started a monthly café style church called Tea and Toast Church.
She is also starting a life group and Alpha from September there as well as hosting community breakfasts. Transforming Lives for Good mentoring programme is also beginning at the School there which she will be involved with which is a Christian mentoring programme. The future plans for all three areas are to gather people and share the gospel in a relevant and exciting way on these new estates and to help to build a community .
There has been much collaboration of local Churches working together in these projects which has been very positive. For example, volunteers at Take 5 and Tea and Toast Church are from many different Churches not just one Church. This provides an excellent witness that Christians are able to work together and celebrate the things they have in common rather than their differences.