The Story of i61 Church
Some people, when they heard the news of i61 have been asking us,
How did i61 come about?
Isn't this a bit sudden?
What's the story?
Why did you leave PDBC?
Is it a plant of PDBC?
Is there still relationship between you and PDBC?
What will happen to Prayer Week?
So this blog entry is dedicated to answer a few of those questions......
here's the story....
Almost a year ago now, We felt that God was calling us to something new.
God began to speak to us about the need to reach people that are spiritually lost, the hurting, broken, lonely, broken families, abused desperate people in our society.
Now you may say well isn't that every Christian's aim? Yes it is,
But the reality of it is that the people who need to find answers to their spirituality questions, are generally not looking to the church for answers. They think we're not relevant!
So we did some behind the scenes research and asked people we knew, why they didn't come to church, what was it that put them off, and if they had come once or twice, why didn't they return? The answers we got opened our eyes!
They thought church was full of weird people, that want to hug you all the time, that wasn't the norm in the world. They didn't know what to expect, sometimes wacky things happened, it's a bit scary when you don't understand it. There was no structure to it.
The Christians used words that only they knew the meaning of: 'redemption' 'sanctification' 'atonement' and stuff like that.
The sermons were long and full of scriptures that only made sense to people who knew their Bibles really well. It was boring.
Never-ending singing, never-ending sermons!
We then asked Christians we knew, like ourselves, why they didn't invite their friends and neighbours to church..... We got the same answers! They didn't know what to expect, would it be cringy, wacky weird, boring or simply too long for them, and would they be able to face them in the street or at work the next day if they didn't like it!
The truth was we were all a little embarassed.....
We came to the conclusion that Church was a place that was very comfortable for church-going Christians. We had got things just how we liked them!
The only people who were attracted to us were people just like us!
So we felt that God was calling us to change, to create a church that was totally aimed at the un-churched on a Sunday morning, with lively contemporary worship, short relevant messages, using drama, multi-media presentations, the best of the modern day technology, aiming for excellence in all we do.
A church where we could happily bring our un-churched friends to without any cringe-factor.
A church that connects with the local community in practical helpful ways.
So with this call and vision in our hearts, we knew that our church, PDBC was looking for a new Pastor. We felt that God was saying to put our names forward for the roles of joint Pastors.
This was a long lengthy process of Elders and Deacons meetings lasting seven months, followed by Church members meetings to discuss the possible problems with this, i.e. it would mean one of the Pastors being a woman, (is it Biblical?) Both of us never having had formal training, although twelve years in the church mostly in positions of leadership, teaching and preaching etc.
But was that enough?
Also part of our vision would mean returning to the five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4, and building a team of leaders for the ministry.
So that would need Pastors with a strong gift of leadership to build up the body for this 'new' style of ministry, so would that be acceptable to the members?
No longer just the 'one-man-band' type pastor......
Do we really want or need to change as a church? Are we not okay as we are?
The leadership and the church had all these things to consider.
In the meantime we began to preach on our vision to the church, it would mean that we would all be more involved in being the church in our town, and some of the ways we do things would have to change. For many it involved a change of mindset to change from 'doing' church to 'being' church!
We began to teach on giftings and encourage the development of the Spiritual gifts in people. PDBC had no lack of spiritual gifts, we were well equipped!
Eventually last March the church voted on this, as is the Baptist way.
The vote went 60/40 in our favour.
Unfortunately this was not a high enough percentage for us to be called by the church to be their new Pastors.
Many of the above reasons being given by the 40% for their 'no' decision.
Of the 60%, some thought, Oh well back to the drawing board lets start again....
But the majority were extremely hurt and disappointed with the result. They were fully supportive of us and the vision God had given to us. They were excited to get on with it!
They loved us and we loved them in return. We were grieving together....
Our hearts were breaking for them.... God had really given us the heart of the pastor.
We have been in PDBC for over twelve years, we became Christians there, baptised there and grew up in our faith there. We have many many true friends whom we love dearly as our own family. Even some who we know voted against us, we undertstand their reasons....
So the decision we now had to make was the most difficult of our Christian life.....
Do we stay and let the vision die, or do we go and chase the dream?
Well as you know, the choice was made, with much prayer, soul searching and tears... We left.
God had said to us a while back, "I want you to use what I've given to you to build My church"
In our human understanding we couldn't see beyond PDBC, so now we had to re-think those words, what do we have? what is in you hand?
Well we have our home, and we have our business, a caravan park with a club house....
So voila - i61 was born, a church in a pub!
We are non-denominational, but firmly founded in Christian beliefs......
We are a group of Christians all working together for the same vision.
On sundays we meet at Bryn Morfa Club Bar in Conwy. Our aim is to minister to the un-churched, our priority on Sundays is not ourselves and what we want.
Our aim at these meetings is to connect with new people to make them welcome, make them feel valued, and to give them the space and time they need to find Jesus for themselves in a comfortable, friendly enviroment, even if for some that is over a pint of Lager and a bag of Pork Scratchings!!!! Sunday are for reaching out to others.
We want to do events for all ages that will create a community spirit in the town and region once again. To break down walls of suspicion and fear.
And we have an amazingly talented team who are eager to do this.
Our childrens pastors are totally awesome, their energy and ideas are endless,
we have kids clubs during the message times and funny sketches that the adults love as much as the kids!!
i61 is growing slowly, every week we have new faces, and every week we're talking to people who need to hear Good News... and we're caring for people who need to know someone cares, "People don't care what you know, until they know that you care!"
We meet at i61 ( The club bar, at Bryn Morfa) every Sunday at 11am, the meeting last approximately 1 hour.
We have no Sunday evening meeting on purpose, because we encourage the afternoons to be given over to family time, we encourage hospitality, invite someone new for Sunday lunch.
We find with no one under pressure to be back at church at a certain time, afternoons often carrying on to the evenings. Sunday BBQ's at our house are a popular time and can last for 5 hours or more. We believe that this is part of 'being' church. Sharing what we have with anyone.
On Wednesday evenings we have a meeting at our house aimed at the Christians who are ready to mature in their faith, called 'Deeper'
This is a time for ourselves to grow together. A time of hanging out, drinking tea, eating biscuits, talking, building relationships. A time for going deeper in worship and the Word.
We meet 7.30 for 8pm every week.
So to put it in a nutshell, on Wednesdays we fill up and on Sundays we give out!
This is a new way of doing things for us and we must admit to being challenged and stretched by God in every area. He has us doing things we would never of dreamt we'd be doing just a year ago..... But it is so so good, we're loving it!
So was it's God's will to do this at PDBC ? or did we get it wrong?
Did He want us to start i61 in the first place?
Did He simply know that it would take a bomb blast to get us to leave!!!??
Time will tell....
We have a sadness in our hearts for our friends still at PDBC, because we miss them, but we know that God will find the right Pastor for them and He has great plans for the future of the church in Colwyn Bay. We pray abundant blessings for them.
PDBC will always hold a special place in our hearts, it was the place we were born and grew up in our Christian life, when we go back it feels like going home. We get a fantastic welcome!
Overall our relationship is extremely good, of course there are some that are not happy with our decision to leave, and some who were happy to see us go! But they are a small minority.
They are still our family, we are one Body in Christ. We love them, pray for them and we know that they do for us....
As for Prayer Week, nothing is changed whether it remains at PDBC or comes to i61
It is an international ministry of the world wide church, it has always been what you make it and Christians throughout the world have made it something powerful for God.
When Christians unite together in prayer in such numbers, we are fulfilling the prayer of Jesus that we may be one as He and the Father are One. So that the world will know.......(John 17)
We believe that we are on the threshold of a mighty harvest of souls, and as is often the case we are the answers to our own prayers......
Jesus said, Go into all the world and make disciples....
The world begins on our own doorstep.
www.i61.org
posted by Steve & Gill @ 2:31 pm
12 Comments:
Betcha don't realise how awesome you guys are! We love you to bits.
Great blog.
what no pictures?
oh thats better.
okay now we got the picture sorted shall we comment on the blog?
I never knew there were pork scratchings!! yaaay!
Not sure if this will interest anyone but we are doing a FREE 'Cheese and Wine' evening this friday at 6pm at Bryn Morfa Bar Club. A chance to get to know us or get to know us better if you already know us - inc 'Shiraz' for long winded named friends
Wow, what a blog entry.
I began reading it this morning, but I've only just finished!
Ok, I did go to work and work on my sermon in between, I wasn't just reading this short blog entry.
Yay for i61!!!
Yay for God!!!
Oh, and Yay for my pastors!!!
Yaay!, and some snowdonia cheese company's black bomber.
Am i just trying my luck a bit now?
please explain Shiraz
well it's kind of this dark red wine with a spicy kind of finish, kind of peppery...........hmm?
Excited for you on this new phase of the journey! Loved being with you too, to see first hand what God is doing through you and the crew!
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