Our ministries are flourishing inside and outside the church
What priorities underpin your church’s life? Jamie Lavery talks about what drives the community and discipleship projects at Elim Church Crawley
Ask Jamie Lavery what matters most in Elim Church Crawley and he lists four things: worship, discipleship, ministry and mission.
That’s why, in the eight years he has pastored the church, he has poured his efforts into each of these areas to nurture flourishing ministries both inside and outside the building.
“Our mission is to glorify Jesus and transform lives, and that’s the ethos that works its way through everything we do,” he explains.
When it comes to mission, the church has long invested in outreach to its Sussex community. The area was hit hard by the pandemic and then the cost-of-living crisis, so the church has recently ramped up these efforts still further.
Its popular Tea & Toast Friday drop-in has run for 20 years, for example, having launched after a request from Crawley Borough Council that the church help support isolated older people. Today, this group is growing as a wider mix of people come along for friendship and a warm place to meet.
“It’s now a more eclectic community with older people, but also young mums with preschool kids and carers bringing along those they care for,” says Jamie.
The services of the church’s Christians Against Poverty centre – established nine years ago and run in partnership as a separate charity with neighbouring churches – are also in high demand.
With Crawley located close to Gatwick the area is home to hundreds of shift workers whose jobs depend on the airport. Covid lockdowns turned the town into ‘the furlough capital of the UK’, says Jamie, heightening the need for the CAP centre. The cost-of-living crisis since then has done nothing to dampen this need.
Families in need
For this reason, another outreach project was born during the pandemic. “At that time we had just had our church kitchen redone and were thinking about how to best utilise it,” Jamie explains.
“One thing we noticed was a lack of provision for families in need. “There were food banks, but we realised we could help in another way by using our kitchen to provide hot meals to families who were really struggling – during Covid and then as the cost-of-living crisis kicked in.
“So for the past couple of years we’ve cooked community meals every Wednesday evening for people who need additional support. This has become a warm hub more recently too.”
Also in a bid to serve the community, the church hosts its Trinity Tots group and a Friday night drop-in for local teenagers. Meanwhile, within the church congregation itself Jamie is keen to help people grow in faith.
“My drive and heart in ministry is to see people captivated by God’s glory and for non-Christians to have the chance to get to know Christ,” he says.
Accessible theology
To this end, much energy is invested in ministries such as youth and children’s work, Connect groups, prayer and Alpha.
“We ran an Alpha course in the autumn and had 23 people come along. Quite a number made decisions to follow Jesus and be baptised.
“We also make sure that in every service, no matter what the topic is or its theme, we offer people the chance to respond to Jesus.”
Jamie invests heavily in discipleship and accessible theology teaching to help church members live out their faith.
“Theology isn’t something that’s locked up in the ivory tower of a Bible school. It’s very practical. It’s about knowing who God is and living out our lives in a way that mirrors this.”
One way the church has sought to equip members to live in a changing UK culture has been via a teaching series called ‘This is us’.
“We looked at why we do what we do as a church: what it means to be the church, why we share communion, why we use the gifts of the Spirit, why things like kids’ ministry and evangelism are important.
“As the UK drifts away from a biblically normative culture it’s important to help believers understand the world we’re living in and how to live faithfully in it.
“It’s also important to be able to share our faith in ways that are understandable and appropriate.
“Part of that involves the language we use and having a real gentleness and kindness of spirit when we talk about the big things happening in our culture – around sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity, for example – so we speak in a way that’s helpful and that honours God and others.
“It’s back to that point about mirroring God, and that’s really my desire for our church: that we live in a way that pleases him and is worthy of our calling.”
Connecting in Creole
Crawley is home to around 4,000 Mauritians, many of whom are first generation in the UK and for whom English is a second language.
And so, when church elder France Bontemps and his wife Shirley-Anne noticed people struggling to get to grips with English and access council services, they approached Jamie about launching a service in Creole.
“France and Shirley-Anne had a real heart to start something for Mauritians in the town,” says Jamie.
“They’re from Mauritius themselves originally and really wanted to reach this community, so we did some training and launched a service in June 2017.”
Creating a service in Creole enabled the new congregation to hear the gospel every Sunday in a traditional style that suited their cultural background, but France and Shirley-Anne wanted to do more and offered practical support too.
“Shirley does a lot to help people, particularly with the local council; translating and helping with some of the jargon.
“She’s done a lot with our CAP centre too, when she’s come across Mauritian people who’ve needed financial help. They are well-known in the Mauritian community and involved in people’s lives. They’ve done a great job of connecting our church with them.”
Mission-minded to reach out overseas
Elim Church Crawley loves supporting overseas mission and has built connections in Rwanda, Pakistan, India and Macedonia.
“In Rwanda we support a mission which takes care of children by establishing orphanages and schools,” says Jamie. “One thing they’ve done recently is bought the children and their families medical insurance to ensure they can have good healthcare.”
In Pakistan, the church supports another mission in its work to establish churches and new businesses and help children living in poverty.
“They work in really practical ways to reach out to children who work in a brick-making factory.”
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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