Church without a building

As mentioned elsewhere in this book our family had been praying that God would lead us to a local church since we first moved to Broadmayne. We went to a ‘Bible Week’ in August at Stoneleigh; while we were there we heard about a couple who felt that God was leading them to plant a church in this area. We met up and found out that they had eight adults who were prepared to support them in this. We expressed an interest and they were very excited because it was actually due to start that following week.

We were meeting in local homes for about two months before we decided it was a bit cramped and, as we had a bigger house here, it seemed to be the choice. Our bedroom was used for the Sunday school; the kitchen held the crèche. Our hall was used for a smaller group of this Sunday school. We were meeting at our house from November 1995 to about January and we had grown in numbers so much that we could no longer fit into our house. We decided to enquire whether the village hall was free, which it was, so we moved in to the village hall in January of 1996. There were twelve adults and twelve children at that time.

We enjoyed being in the Broadmayne Village Hall. A local retired doctor in the area approached us and told us that while it was being built, they had walked around it and prayed that God would use it. He and his wife lived opposite the hall, so it was really exciting for us that we had moved into the right place. Many people from the village and local churches came to see who we were and what we were about. We built up many friendships and often held joint praise and celebration meetings together. The rector in Broadmayne was very supportive and understood that there was a need for the two different types of worship, one more charismatic than the other, but both worshipped the same God. The rector at that time was Richard Gregory; he and Jeff Moss, the pastor of the Dorchester Family Church, as it is now known, became good friends. Our church grew beyond our expectations; a lot of people who would not normally go into a church building, and felt quite intimidated, felt quite free to visit us because we were in the informal setting and a lot of the local people became Christians. I think we had about twenty adults who gave their lives to Christ while we were at Broadmayne and quite a few children had the knowledge of whom Jesus was in their life, which makes such a difference to family life. When we first started at the village hall, with a small group of us, we only had a guitarist. Over a short period of time many musicians were added to us – we had a violinist, a pianist, and Mary Miller from Brickfields used to play the piano. We had three children’s groups – five to seven, eight to ten, and the crèche. We just grew and grew and at that time the crèche was out in the lobby. In the winter it got absolutely freezing out there and it was no longer an option to continue. Many of us were sorry to leave Broadmayne, especially those who live here; we had seen as so many wonderful things happen and we tried to involve the whole community in it. I remember one Sunday the footballers were out in the field and we were having a social after church and we took a lunch in. I remember there were some sandwiches left over and a group of us went out and offered them to the footballers - they were so amazed they wanted to know where was the catch.

We did some door-knocking activities asking people what they actually wanted from their local church and find out how the community viewed their Church today. Many old churches have been closing their doors and we wanted to know what people were actually looking for in their church. They seem to be searching in a new way, they wanted something but didn't know what it actually was. We thought it would be really helpful if we set up a questionnaire and were quite surprised by some of the answers. Many thought that Christianity was about attending church services and not about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Many of us made good friends at St Martin’s and together, we were able to break down the historical denominational differences that so often cause problems between churches. After all, we all love the same Lord Jesus Christ, but express that love in different ways. We get together regularly and pray for this area. Our church membership ranges through all ages – I think the oldest member is in her eighties, down to babies – it really is a family-orientated Church. The whole family gets involved, there's none of this “Oh, I don't want to go to Church”, and we have a Sunday school which is separate. We begin our service at ten thirty, and have about three-quarters of an hour of worship, and then all the children go into their groups and whoever was teaching God’s Word – usually it was Jeff Moss in the early days – would then preach. We would then leave at about twelve thirty after coffee, so it is quite a long morning, but it all seemed to me to go in about fifteen minutes. The Church has now developed further and in May 1998, we moved from Broadmayne to the Corn Exchange in Dorchester; already, in such a short time we are filling the building. Our numbers now reach 130 at our Sunday meetings. All this from our beginnings of 12 adults and 12 children in 1995. God has been so faithful. Men and women have come from as far as Portland and Lulworth and encountered the presence of God and the friendship of his people. Over the years we have baptised 20 born-again adult Christians.

People just come off the street and in time give their heart to the Lord. They see that we really care about them. We believe in a community that isn't just a Church for Sundays, it's your every-day life. In fact, life is incidental, it is part of the church, really. A lot of my friends are within the Church, but we are not an isolated body, we very much go out into the community and invite people in, by having things like quiz social evenings, as I mentioned before. We want them to understand that we are just people like them. Some people feel that we are super-spiritual people, that we believe in something different. Some of them are quite afraid of finding out who people in the Church are and what they believe in. Once they realise that we are just the same as everybody else, they then relax and can enjoy it. We meet on other days than Sunday and have what are called ‘cell’ groups; because the Church has people from all over, such as Weymouth, Sydling St Nicholas, Puddletown, Crossways, etc., the Church had a vision of a spider's web and at the time, they didn't really understand it.

When we moved into the Corn Exchange , right in the middle of Dorchester, we became a focal point for the outlying villages. In the week, we split down into cell groups, we have one in our house in Broadmayne every Wednesday when local people can come here, rather than travelling to Dorchester each time. In this way, we very much impact on the community in which we live and are much smaller and intimate groups. In the summertime, we meet up regularly after church and invite anybody who would like to come and go to the beach or go for a walk. We very much feel that by breaking into smaller groups, you gain that intimacy; because we have now got so large, people can feel overlooked. You have some people who can relate to anybody and then those who tend to be rather shy and can be overlooked. It doesn’t happen in cell groups because everybody is important, everybody feels valued, so no-one gets to feel left out. It is the responsibility of the ‘cell’ group members to look after those who may feel a little shy and to help them out, like the elderly if they want their lawns cut – I have just decorated somebody's hall because she is too elderly and can’t afford to have it done. The contribution from Broadmayne is quite small, about five families; but it is increasing.

Our church is also involved with other churches through the Alpha courses. We have a small meeting, an Alpha supper where people can find out a bit more about the church and God, without feeling that they have got to go to church. We are involved with many of the local churches in that. When people come to the Church, we give them a newsletter and in it we explain how we began, who we are and what our visions are. One of our visions is that God has told us to plant cell groups in Dorchester and every village surrounding it. These cells will be the light of the gospel in their community through which their activities or inhabitants of the towns and villages will know of the love, grace and power of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The cell group values are to make Christ the centre of its activities, to practically care and support one another, to be equipped and matured to go into the world and befriend others and show them the love of God. The cell group is the basic Christian community and all the other activities of the Church are geared to support them.

For the future, I cannot see how our children will be able to stay within the community, because it is farming orientated and rather small industrially. I hope that they would be able to settle down here because we would just love it. Like most parents we would hope that our children would be near us, but I don’t really envisage them staying in this area. As they go to college they will widen their interests and move to where the work is; unfortunately it may not be in this area. It will of course depend on what they choose to do, but the world is getting so much smaller nowadays, they have so many opportunities out there. We hope our boys will grow to be men of faith and continue to care about other people and the community where they live.

Caroline Dowley