A "fresh expression" made me a Methodist

In recent weeks there has been a lot in the Methodist Recorder about "Fresh Expressions", almost an acknowledgement that our church needs to change.

This blog has a growing readership and I know that one or two people feel I am unhappy, even angry, about the way sections of the Methodist Church seem content to drift to oblivion.

So perhaps it is time to explain how I became a Methodist: it was through what would now be called a "fresh expression".

I did not have the privilege of being bought up in a Methodist home, not even at times, a Christian home.

My first real contact with Christianity came through the amazing witness of the local Plymouth Brethren assembly who ran an afternoon Sunday School. However I got to 13 and, like many youngsters, found other things to do.

Five years later I was challenged by the gospel at the local Anglican Church and accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. By the grace of God (and it was the grace of God as I was one of those consigned to the scrape heap of a secondary modern because I failed the 11+) I went to Sussex University. Whilst there I joined the Christian Union, the Baptist Society and had only passing contact with the Methsoc. However I was a member of the Christian Socialist Movement and met many good Methodists involved in politics.

My faith was challenged when in my twenties and living in a new city with a new job. I also found that I was out of sympathy with the harsh social, political and economic teachings of much of 1970s mainstream evangelicalism. Things have changed now, but there was a time when it was virtually impossible to be an active trade unionist, a socialist and an evangelical Christian. About ten years ago I wrote about this period in Evangelicals Now .

Then I started hearing about the interesting things that were happening at a local Methodist Church. I had by then read more about the Wesleys and a series of "co-incidences" found me there one Sunday in 1982. I have been virtually every Sunday ever since.

City Road Methodist Church in Birmingham was doing the sort of things we now call "Fresh Expressions". I was really surprised because I was then under the distinct impression that Methodism was spiritually dead.

Just ten years before in the 1970s the church had been on the verge of closure. Three or four families decided to see if they could pull it around. Though middle aged to elderly, they understood that the hymn sandwich of the past was no longer appropriate for 1970s and 1980s Britain. The church also had the support of a succession of Ministers who were mature enough to encourage lay leadership - John Davies, David Boyle, Ermal Kirby, Douglas Field and Terry Higgins.

Something special did happen. Services were amazing events with a real awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. There was a music group which tried out new songs on an overhead projector, people came up to the front and told us what God had done for them that week. There were classes, prayer breakfasts, well attended evening services, healings, baptisms and a real sense of joy. This was the church of the future.

Although the theology was definitely evangelical, at times even charismatic, there was a strong social witness: the back of the church was refurbished to provide a training programme for the local unemployed youth; a Saturday evening coffee bar attracted many from local bedsits; a playgroup provided a welcome respite for the many single mums in the area; we were the base for Evangelical Christians for Racial Justice, a much needed witness to the evangelical community. I and one or two others used our specialist knowledge of the child care system to help families in difficulty with social services.

Numbers grew. Many of us, who had long given up on other expressions of Christianity felt very much at home. Only a minority were from Methodist families, most were "retreads" having fallen away from other churches and now being called to something different.

Now it wasn't always easy. If you get eighty or ninety positive Christians in a room, things can happen. We all had our own views on how the church should grow. Sometimes it was difficult, sometimes we got hurt, sometimes we hurt others. Older members of the church and successive Ministers were wise enough to point out that there was always unity in a graveyard. But, and this is a big but, the church flourished.

It was not unusual to have congregations of over 120 with latecomers standing at the back. We had lots of lunches (Caribbean food!), always a cup of tea or coffee after the service and lots of hospitality. At one point we provided the majority of preachers on trial in our circuit, several of our members moved into full time ministry, others went on to lead in other, secular, fields.

All this came out of a church which had been on the edge of extinction. The critical factors seem to have been the clear evangelical theology, an understanding that the Holy Spirit can bring about change and a preparedness by the clergy to work with the wider church.

This "golden age" lasted for about 25 years. The truth is that we were seen as being oddballs within Methodism. We did notice the constant sniping at our preachers on trial (for example I was hauled up by the stewards of one church and given a dressing down because I got out of the pulpit and spoke from the floor). I'm thick skinned, but I know that some fine potential preachers were hurt and damaged by this harassment. Occasionally we had visiting circuit preachers or Ministers who gave deliberately provocative sermons and made a fetish of showing that they didn't want to understand our fresh expression.

But "Fresh expressions" worked. People's lives were changed (including mine), we received new hope, new vision. Many former members of our church now play leading parts within Methodism and other denominations.

Then it came to an end. The invitation system threw up a Minister who immediately took away the Songs of Fellowship hymnbook and publicly rebuked us for not knowing a by then obscure Charles Wesley hymn. The children's play group was closed down because the Church had become the "sanctuary" and it was somehow wicked for little children to play on a weekday where we prayed on a Sunday. Gradually the whole witness ground to a halt. We no longer accepted the "priesthood of all believers". We tried a few new initiatives but found these deliberately sabotaged. The new Minister openly stated he was determined to turn us into "real Methodists".

And so it continues to this day. Not so long ago our "fresh expression" attracted congregations 100 strong, with two services each Sunday, the energy to run Alpha groups, cell groups. prayer breakfasts and much more.

This morning we had an excellent service led by one of those who had come through to a new faith at the old City Road. Sadly our "real Methodist" congregation amounted to just 16.