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to people with life-disrupting problems |
Christian Activities
Introduction
There is a certain tension in our work: we are a Christian organisation, offering a distinctively Christian approach to caring for vulnerable people; but in reality, there is very little Christian activity - little that, from the outside, would appear to be explicitly Christian.
Bridgehead Church
For many years, we ran a project called 'Bridgehead Church'. It took various forms over the years, but always offered some combination of friendship, Christian encouragement, Bible study and prayer to anyone who would like to come.
We know that people who have become Christians through contact with CCM often find it very difficult to fit into a 'normal' church. Bridgehead Church was our attempt to bridge the gap between church and street.
We described the vision and purpose of Bridgehead Church as follows.
"In the Bridgehead Church we aim to provide our customers with an experience of Christian worship and teaching which is accessible to to them on a cultural level, which is spiritually powerful, and which helps prepare them to start to become integrated in to more traditional churches where they can receive the long term pastoral care and discipleship they need."
As the Coffee Shop grew and developed, it became increasingly difficult to fit Bridgehead Church into the limited space available, or to cope with it when our staff and volunteers were being stretched more and more in other directions.
So, for the time being, we are not running Bridgehead Church. But as we settle into our new building, and as we build links with the Congregational Church next door, we are starting to think and pray about the possibility of starting it up again.
If this area of work interests you, please contact our office and let us know: we would be grateful for additional help and support in this area - both in the prayer and planning, and, possibly too, when we start to run it again.
Other Activities
We have not given up on Christian activities completely: we continue to pray for people who use our services when they ask for it.
We also run a weekly Chaplaincy service on a Wednesday lunchtime, when a local minister comes in to the Coffee Shop to talk and pray with anyone who is interested.
We support the Life Recovery Group, which provides Christian input to many of our clients on a weekly basis, and in many ways continues the work of Bridgehead Church under a different name.
And the staff and volunteers meet together most mornings around 10 am for a short time of Bible reading and prayer. If you are around at this time, you are very welcome to join us.