Century-long legacy of Spirit-filled outreach at Markethill Elim
Markethill Elim was born via a mission and a handful of Spirit-filled Christians. A century later, another mission and outreach projects run by dedicated church members are keeping that legacy alive, says pastor Alan McCann.
“Our church started in 1923 with a handful of people in a hut and a gospel mission where folks were baptised and received the Holy Spirit,” says Alan McCann.
“There are records of people being spat at as they went to church because of how Pentecostalism was viewed in Northern Ireland then, but the church just grew and grew. More than 100 years later there’s a thriving church here because of their encounters with the Spirit and their willingness to seek and serve God.”
Alan is talking through the past and present of Markethill Elim. What’s clear as he moves between the 1920s and the 2020s is that this early character of the church is still evident today.
Markethill Elim is a rural, family-orientated church with a congregation ranging from the children of its founder members down to young families. It is well connected to its close-knit community and in the three years since Alan, his wife Steph and their children arrived, that’s one thing he has sought to strengthen still further.
“To a certain extent we’re already well embedded here,” he says. “I had an email from a housing association last week, for example, asking if we could mend some elderly people’s fences, and if we could help a homeless couple who’ve been living in their car. We also have a monthly food and fellowship group for older people which 50–60 come to, the majority of whom don’t go to church, and we do assemblies in a primary and secondary school too.”
New outreach activities
But recently, some new outreach activities and groups run by church members have been introduced. In late August the church put on a free fun day for the community to which 300 people came. It included everything from a coffee cart and a bookstall giving out ‘bags of hope’ to inflatables, a penalty kick competition and a petting farm with goats, calves and chickens.
“The supermarket donated drinks and the police neighbourhood team let people into their car and showed them some of their gear,” adds Alan. “Most importantly, we were able to have real conversations with people about the love of Jesus.”
Alan hopes to build on this by running pop-up kids clubs on the housing estates at weekends or during the holidays, and also to launch kids’ work during the week.
With echoes of its early days, the church also held a gospel mission on 18-21 September. Youth and adults gathered in the evenings and an Alpha course was launched immediately afterwards to follow it up. Another new activity is a parents and tots group on Mondays.
“We’ve had around 30 families come and it’s been powerful because 95 per cent of them would rarely come through our doors otherwise,” says Alan. Also established in the past couple of years has been a fellowship group for women, which attracts a mix of around 25 ladies, ranging from life-long Christians to some fresh out of Teen Challenge. “It’s been a real blessing to connect with new people there,” says Alan.
Last year, Alan introduced fortnightly home groups on Sunday evenings which he’s pleased to see are also attracting people from outside church. “It’s been quite a significant change for us. It wasn’t necessarily planned as outreach, but we have people coming who have never been to church. They like the environment of a small group where they can be open and chat about Jesus.”
Church vision
Alan explains that the church has a vision – “connect, acquire, advance” – into which all these activities fall. The community groups have the “connect” part well covered, he says, but within the church itself “acquire” has risen to the fore recently too. “We’re in a season when people are experiencing the Holy Spirit in a tangible way that is fresh, biblical and benefits the wider church. We have messages in tongues and interpretations, and demonstrations of giftings in our worship. We’re seeing people being built up in the work of God, stepping into new ministries and bringing others along with them. There’s still a lot to be done, but that’s not a bad thing – if you get to the point where you think you can give yourself a pat on the back you’ve probably got it wrong, haven’t you?”
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.