Lesley Crawley explains.

I recently heard a talk by the Reverend Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and he talked in a very practical way about funding church ministry. There have been various models over the centuries:

The Benefactor – often the Lord of the Manor would upkeep the church and pay for all that was needed. Very handy if you can find yourself a benefactor, but on the other hand perhaps one person could have too much sway – I guess everything, including the vicar’s sermons might have to please the benefactor.

Stewardship – the way that free churches have always organised themselves. If there are 10 people in a church and they give 10 percent of their gross income then they can afford a minister. That is fine for a house church where people meet in houses, but to get a building then a few more people need to give 10 per cent of their gross income! Anglican churches encourage Stewardship too, but rarely can people afford to give quite as much as that, or perhaps there is a different culture around giving amongst Anglicans – the Church of England recommends five per cent of our gross income.

Again, it is very handy to fund the church this way, but perhaps there is an issue that it only involves the church congregation. After all, as Anglicans, everyone in the village is part of the church. Everyone has access to the church building for services – baptisms, weddings and funerals, and for prayer; everyone is part of the ‘cure of souls’ that the vicar promises to look after. Perhaps, therefore, everyone in the village can have a hand in funding the local church. Stewardship alone might be rather inward-looking.

Social enterprise – this involves the community. It can be aspirational, for instance employing only the homeless, but at the heart of every social enterprise is the need to make money. Churches do various things – run preschools, offer themselves as concert venues, sell merchandise, and run cafés. In our case, we hire our churches out as venues for parties, meetings and clubs. Social Enterprise makes the church a seven days a week building, increases by a factor of 10 how many people come through the doors, and brings us into conversation with a huge range of people.

Who are we in conversation and partnership with? Well, lots of people, we can’t list them all but here are some examples:

We have particularly strong links with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association and now have an interfaith women’s group with them. Stella has been asked to speak at their Itfars (the fast-breaking evening meal which Muslims have during Ramadan) and they are keen to help where they can with community initiatives, eg the Warm Hub. They have joined in our flower festivals, craft markets and the poetry festival. We get a lot of bookings from them at both St Mark’s and St George’s.

The Syro-Malabar Church hire St George’s every week to teach Kerala dancing and took part in our concert for Christian Aid.

Magikats teach students at St George’s every Tuesday and kindly donated £100 for Father Christmas presents at the craft market.

Florescence is a small floristry business at St Mark’s and has sponsored the flower festival.

Alder Valley Brass Band have hired St John’s and St Mark’s and have played at some of our events.

The Badshot Lea Ladies Group brings people from the village into St George’s who might not otherwise feel part of the church.

Baby Ballet have been regular hirers at St George’s for several years and have danced at our parish fete.

Honryu Martial Arts has just started hiring St Mark’s and the leader is keen to help support the church’s work with young people (he’s a counsellor and uses martial arts to support people with behavioural problems).

Luke from Guildford Tai Chi, who books St Mark’s on a Wednesday, took part in the embodied worship series, giving us a free session.

Stella has worked with Right at Home on some memory workshops at their Sunflower Café (for people with dementia) and they have booked St Mark’s and St George’s for various activities. We have a great relationship with them and look forward to more partnership working.

Several groups have donated raffle prizes.

The relationship with the Badshot Lea Working Men’s Club (WMC)is now excellent and we help each other out with parking. They often pay to use our car park. There is a group of older people (mostly in their 80s+) who meet at the club who are very grateful for the car park. Several of them came to the Jubilee tea party last year. Stella has been asked to baptise the son of one of the women who works at the WMC.

In addition to all this, I strongly believe that God gives us everything we need. For years we scratched our heads, wondering how to pay our way, and thanks to God’s mercy, our buildings, members of our congregation within them and Stella running our Social Enterprise, we now can pay our way. We need to do ministry and fund ministry. Hiring our buildings is a mixture of both.

More than anything, our community must experience the church as a blessing. Our hospitality is a reflection of the hospitality of the God we serve. Not long ago, Stella received this email:

I wanted to extend my sincerest gratitude for providing your hall as the venue for my baby’s first birthday party. The event was a great success, and we couldn’t have asked for a better place to celebrate this special day.

Your hall’s facilities and ambience were perfect for the occasion, and our guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Your assistance and support throughout the process made the planning much easier, and I truly appreciate your kind cooperation.

Once again, thank you for making my baby’s first birthday party memorable. We are grateful for your generosity and hospitality.

The community are blessing us through this ministry; not just with their money, but with their gifts such as music and dancing, allowing us to share in their ministries and their communities, giving to us out of their expertise. Hopefully, we can offer more than our space; we offer our hospitality, and our faith. For everyone in our villages, we have space that can honour you for us, every relationship is a taste of Christ.

Rev’d Lesley Crawley

Pictured top is St Mark’s Church set up for a party