Why come to inner city Sheffield - part one

I find myself at end of week seven. That's because we are now into a new Methodist year which strangely to many runs from 1st September to 31st August. But this new Methodist year has been different. It saw me step back from my role as a co-superintendent Minister in our Sheffield circuit. After 35 years as a minister, and 23 of those as a Superintendent, I find myself liberated from the sense of, and reality of, being 'responsible' for the life of a circuit. It's been like a switch being turned off and all the energy that was being expended, is no longer being drained from the battery. Now I am beginning to find more time and space to allow myself to be recharged, and that renewed energy  can be redirected to the face to face work of ministry, which is of course where I began when first out of theological college. So I am having to be careful not to refill my diary just to be busy, rather to decide what God wants me to to be doing and so live it out with purpose

This change of role has triggered a reflection on why we came as a family to inner city Sheffield just over eleven years ago. Having served in a variety of contexts around the country I felt  God wanted me to work in the inner city. I had explored in my mind should it be really rural or inner city. But having visited a member of the Iona community in the city of Bradford I was convinced of the need to move into the inner city. So many Christian communities have over the decades been withdrawing into what we might call the suburbs leaving behind gaps of Christian presence. This felt wrong to me. 'Was the church only going to go where the money was?' or 'Where it still had the  numbers to maintain its work?'
So we found ourselves living in Burngreave where we have experienced some of the most thoughtful hospitality, often from our Muslim neighbours, who have welcomed us into their homes and their lives.

On arriving in Sheffield I sought to make clear I had not just come to hold the hands of the dying, in other words not just keep things going as they were. After all it didn't take a prophet or a genius to see that decline would continue if you keep on doing the same old things. I had prior to coming reorganised a circuit and undertaken a major building project and neither were to be repeated.  Eleven years on I have found that I have continued to journey with some church communities who indeed want no more than their hands holding, and refuse to grasp the opportunities to change and grow. I was caught up in the coming together of the eight Sheffield circuits into one not long after arriving (something I still believe was the right course of action for Sheffield Methodists), and find myself in the middle of phase 2 of a major building scheme at Firth Park. Either God has a sense of humour or I keep getting it wrong.

But now at last I can direct my energies towards this amazing area of the inner city. As I reflect I realise I did not loose my underlying theology to underpin my actions and work. God I believe called me into being an itinerant minister . This enables me at key moments the sense of being objective, and not caught up totally in the parochial. So I can speak or ask the difficult questions. It also brings the gift of time to discern what God is saying in a particular place and time. The influence of the Iona Community for me remains deeply rooted to the point I don't always realise it myself. Something of the Iona Community's understanding of what it means to be God people can be seen at Firth Park. Before setting out on re shaping the building we asked the community what it wanted. Christian communities can be too good at telling communities what they need only to discover their modernised or new building continues to remain empty of people. So yes here I am again involved in a building scheme. But we have asked what the community needed and are responding. What is also great is that we continue to allow the vision to be reshaped and so we  discover we are being blessed. By the new year one part of the old Church will have been reshaped for worship, group work, community work and contain a soft play facility for the community. Already the conversations are taking place as to how we are being led on to meet other needs in our community, not least the challenge of mental health. So perhaps the old nursery outdoor play area can become raised beds for community gardening.

What I have discovered afresh is that you can sustain a Christian presence in the inner city. You don't have to withdraw but you do have to acknowledge you can't keep all your buildings. When you do keep a building, it has to be more than just so a group of Christians can keep on doing what they have always been doing. The Christian community at Firth Park is made up of two amazing congregations which increasingly are inclusive, wanting to find a way to serve together the wider community. The prophet Isaiah paints a picture of the Holy City where all nations are drawn towards it. My own vision remains of a building near the  roundabout which is open seven days a week. Where everyone feels comfortable entering because they know or have heard its a place of welcome and hospitality. A place where you will be listened to. A place where you can be yourself and not have to be like them!
In fact not a building but a community of communities underpinned by the God of love who says all are welcome no exceptions.
Mark