The Baptist Union has recently looked at the concept of the church community and come up with five Core Values by which it can be described. They suggest that a church community should be

· a prophetic community that recognises and confronts evil in the world and sides with those who are oppressed;
· an inclusive community that deals equally with people irrespective of age, sex, class or ability;
· a sacrificial community that encourages its members to give themselves and their money in serving others;
· a missionary community that puts its resources together to share the good news of the gospel with people who may not otherwise hear it;
· a worshipping community that is constantly trying to find ways of expressing the faith that are meaningful to the widest range of people.

These are my words not theirs but I hope a fair summary of most points.

When I was thinking about the ideas I was encouraged to realise that I can recognise most of them as parts of our own life in Fallowfield. You might like to try and match the different headings with our activities and see how well you can fit them.

I was particularly interested in thinking about our contact with people 'outside the church'. One of the biggest changes in recent years is that we are in touch with a wide variety of people through O & A, through the other leisure groups that use our premises, through the Social Services 'Drop-In' project and through the Breakthrough project.

I believe that the time has now come for us to start to look outside the church in a different way. We are fortunate enough to share a faith which means am great deal to us. Few of us would be able to agree on all the details of that faith, or be sure on our own understanding of everything. Yet it is a central part of our lives. Most people today are not as fortunate. I believe that we must 'screw up our courage' and risk sharing with them the important place God's love plays in our life and could play in theirs.

I know that some people think of this as being patronising. I think of it rather in terms of sharing. An image I like is that of one starving person telling another where they may find bread to eat. Patronising or sharing - it depends on how we approach people and on our own motivation.

I have come to the conclusion that we need to look at the materials that other groups have been preparing and using, select those that suit us best, and then make a start. I know that we shall never find material that is perfect for us. Material designed for people 'outside the church' must start from a different viewpoint and few of us are experienced in judging what communicates effectively. It will certainly raise some questions for us and we will have to think about how we can best use it. However, the material is there ready for use. As a start I would suggest that we look carefully at the video Jesus and the accompanying promotional material. The video is a film record of the life of Christ as told in Luke's gospel. The suggestion is that we purchase a number of these and then offer them to households in the neighbourhood of the church. If the offer is taken up then we would return to ask a few questions about people's reactions and, if they wished, to talk further about the meaning of faith in God. As an entry point it seems to me excellent. I'd like others to comment on it or suggest alternatives.

Whatever method we choose I would like to see us planning for and putting into force a strategy to share with other people the challenge of the belief that God loves them.

This is a very personal statement rather too full of the word 'I'. Perhaps in the next issue there will be another article dealing with similar questions but full of 'we'. Anyone interested?

Michael Welford 
Nov/Dec 1999