Uncharted territory

Today we literally went into uncharted territory. A small group started out from our church building and distributed the official Methodist Church leaflet "make a journey of faith" together with a more local newsletter.

The uncharted territory included two entire new estates that had been built on the site of the former Mitchells and Butlers brewery. These new streets still have to appear on any maps either hard copy or online.

We had hoped to distribute the leaflets to 2000 homes. In the event we managed 1400. It was interesting to leaflet an area which contains some of the most deprived housing in the UK. I think I realised how little I knew about our immediate catchment area.

Conversely I was amazed at some of the wealth we found. There was one home which housed a magnificent grand piano. There were others where the drives were choc-a-block with Range Rovers and Mercedes cars.

Our prayers for a fine day were answered but as darkness gathered we became aware of the miserable impact of "Halloween" on some communities. Groups of youths in masks, some dressed as the grim reaper, were knocking on doors. Some people hearing our leaflet going through their door assumed we were "trick or treaters" and shouted abuse at us.

All in all, a very useful exercise. I doubt very much whether any Methodist Church in the UK has recently tried a similar exercise. We actually made contact with many people and were especially interested to find that many of our ethnically Asian neigbours were keen to tell us that they were Christian.

Great things are happening here in our little corner of Birmingham. We pray and prayers are answered. We ask and we receive, though not always in the way we requested. We open our hearts and are surprised by joy as lives and perspectives change.

We may be a little church that has been battered by the less attractive aspects of Methodism but we know that the Methodist theology of going out and speaking to people about faith actually works. Lets have less bureaucracy and more vision, less complacency and more confidence that Jesus wants a successful Methodist Church.