Elim Network offers great opportunities

It can be a lonely experience pastoring an independent church, but being part of the Elim Network offers great opportunities for fellowship and support. We talked to recent and long-standing Network members Lisa Parkes and David Morrison

Lisa Parkes: the new Network member

As a new pastor, Lisa Parkes found leading her church during a global pandemic very challenging, but by joining the Elim Network she gained the support of other leaders in the same boat.

Lisa had been leading Living Hope Church in Dudley for just 11 months when Covid struck.

The independent church’s leadership was already mulling over the benefits of connecting to a wider network or denomination, but when lockdown plunged everyone into an unprecedented new world, for Lisa and the team the decision was made.

“We felt like a boat lost at sea and that we needed to connect straightaway, so it all happened pretty quickly,” she says.

“We’d been looking at different groups and felt the Pentecostal route was where we were most at home.

“Elim felt very well established and had so many things in place that would help us, so we chose to join.

“ We actually had a lot of relational connections with the movement already – my background is working for Christ for all Nations and a lot of the staff at their head office where I worked went to Lifecentral in Halesowen, plus I’d worked for Lifecentral for eight years myself. I really loved how Elim seemed to view us, a small church, as being able to contribute to the wider movement. It felt like it would be a reciprocal relationship, and we’d benefit from the greater accountability.”

Just before lockdown and before she joined up, Lisa was invited to a Regional Meeting.

“The pandemic and the fact churches would be closing was all over the news, so Leon Evans from Lifecentral brought a group of Elim ministers from the Elim West Zone in the Midlands together to talk about what this would mean for us.

“I thought it would be really helpful to meet with other ministers who were all trying to figure out the same things together.”

As the pandemic went on, Lisa found invaluable support through these monthly zone meetings. “ I found these groups really helpful. I found it incredibly challenging to lead my church through lockdown and was wondering if that was because I was new or because I wasn’t cut out for the job.

“I was thinking, ‘Have I done the right thing, maybe it’s just me that feels this?!’

“But then during one of these regional meetings a minister who had been in ministry for decades said something that really stuck with me...

“He said something like, ‘ I’ve been in ministry and leading a church for 30 years and I’ve never found church leadership as difficult as I’m finding it right now.’

“I really valued that comment, honesty and vulnerability and in that moment I realised it wasn’t just me.”

Another thing Lisa loved – and still does – about these meetings is the large number of female leaders involved. “I could see that around 30 per cent of the leaders on Zoom were women and that really helped me to connect. I go to so many meetings where I’m the only woman or one of just a few, but I felt here how much Elim values female leaders.”

Post-pandemic, Lisa has appreciated the support of the Elim Network as her church has moved buildings and grown in numbers.

For 18 years, Living Hope had been meeting in a school hall on Milking Bank estate, but the pandemic brought this to an end.

During lockdown, Lisa sensed God calling the church to put down roots in the neighbouring Russells Hall Estate, a deprived area and community. Shortly afterwards she was excited when the opportunity to move to a great new location presented itself.

“The Church of England were looking to close a church nearby and approached us about taking on the building. They said, ‘We can see you’re a church without a building but you have a fantastic missional presence. We have a building but no church, so would you be interested in it?’”

Last September, after renovations, Lisa led Living Hope to begin life in its new home. Since then, she has watched it grow significantly.

“We’ve more than doubled in size. The people coming in are from the estate – they are atheists, Muslims or people who are genuinely searching for something more for their lives. We just finished an Alpha course with 19 people attending weekly – we had a really rich time together with people genuinely seeking God.”

20th anniversary celebration of Living Hope Church

Being an Elim Network member has helped during this time, says Lisa, not least because people who are new to church are able to see that Living Hope is part of a trusted and established national movement. It also helps with her day- to-day pastoring of the church, she adds.

“I’m the only pastor here, so one day I can be helping a vulnerable person get to a hospital appointment or leading a playgroup. Another day I could be preaching or leading Alpha.

“The great thing about being part of my regional group is that sometimes you can feel like you’re trying to do these things on your own, like it’s just you. But then we meet up and we get to walk alongside others who are trying to do the same thing, who are living out the same calling and are experiencing the same joys and problems.

“The biggest thing for me is having people to walk alongside you on that journey who have more experience of leadership, and that we can pray for and strengthen each other when we come together.”

David Morrison: the long-standing Network member

David Morrison has pastored The Peoples Church in Falkirk for the past 16 years. He says the accountability and fellowship of the Elim Network has been a great encouragement throughout.

For the past 37 years, The Peoples Church in Falkirk has offered a mix of worship, teaching and adults and children’s ministries in the heart of the town centre. The pastor, David Morrison, has been there from day one – from church member to assistant pastor for 14 years, then in 2006, succeeding former leader George McKim.

“Outreach has always been central to the church,” David says, and thankfully PCF is currently enjoying seeing new people join its services.

“For the past six years, we’ve been holding outreaches each October and we make the most of times like Easter and Christmas.

“Throughout the history of the Peoples Church Falkirk, our Sunday evening services have been a blessing to many who bring family and friends along to hear the gospel.

“Since Covid, we’ve been meeting every second Sunday, but we’re looking to build that back up because we’ve always been a Sunday evening outreach church.

“We’ve had new people and families come in recently, which has been great to see.”

Throughout David’s time in leadership, PCF has been an ECI – and now Elim Network – church, George McKim having joined the group originally and David continuing this membership.

He lists several ways he benefits from this.

“The accountability helps and it’s also good for fellowship and encouragement. You might feel quite isolated otherwise,” he says.

“I connect with a group of Elim pastors from east Scotland for breakfast meetings, and also the Scottish Regional Mornings with other pastors and leaders. The worship is good and there’s always a great atmosphere and message.

“The church benefits too,” he adds. “We had an anniversary service recently where pastor Chris Cartwright came to speak – it was good to get to know him.

“The regional team have been very supportive with our church Zoom meetings too. Rather than it being the same face – me – every week, we have about half a dozen others speaking too along with some of the Elim pastors. And as far as connecting goes, I know the Elim Network team is there and has information if I need it – the team is very supportive.”

Find out more about the Elim Network at elim.org.uk/network

This article first appeared in the May 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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