Engaging With New Housing

Introduction to Engaging with New Housing: a set of How-to Guides

Introduction

Britain is in a housing crisis. One of the ways in which the Government has responded to this crisis is to commit to building 300,000 new houses each year for the foreseeable future. This is creating huge cultural and social change.

Individual Christians, churches and denominations are beginning to wonder what the Christian response should be to this change. New housing developments can be soulless places, with high levels of isolation, and a lack of a purpose-built church building or formal Christian presence may leave them feeling spiritually barren as well. Increasingly, The Church is exploring how to missionally engage with these new housing areas, challenging these negative images of new housing areas and investing time and resources into inhabiting these spaces as places of new possibilities, new life, and hope.

New housing areas appear to be spiritually ‘thin’ places where people are open to talk about what life looks like now, in this new space, and address existential questions. They are also a context that fosters both new friendships and an openness to engage in new activities.

A Kairos Moment?

Is this time of social and cultural change a Kairos moment, when God is inviting his people to embody His love and blessing in these spaces? Is this a moment to help build healthy new communities where people can thrive? Is this a time to share the Good News that people are not abandoned or isolated, but that they are precious and loved by a God who created them? I believe that it is.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Housing Church and Community

The Archbishop’s Commission was set up in response to the housing crisis to consider how The Church might respond. The New Housing Hub has partnered with the Archbishop’s Commission to raise awareness of housing need and to consider the relationship between Christians and new housing areas. The New Housing Hub has a vision to work together to share God’s love with every new housing area and this vision is woven into this work.

These How to guides have been developed in conversation with other new housing practitioners and enablers to explore what Christians are doing that is having a positive effect upon new housing communities. My own stories are woven into the stories and experiences of others. They address areas such as: how to get started; how to work with councils and developers; how new communities of faith are being birthed; and what theological and missional principles have emerged which underpin this ministry.

How to use these guides

A set of How to guides sounds deceptively simple. It suggests an off-the-peg one-size-fits-all approach to missional engagement. This is, however, not the intention. The first section of guides focuses upon being Christlike and suggests a posture that acts as a lens through which to read all the other guides. Rather than suggesting an off-the-shelf approach, the How to guides include stories and examples of how others have engaged missionally in new housing and encourage the reader to consider how these principles might apply in their context.

The guides are deliberately short.They are introductions; something to inspire and initiate deeper thought, prayer and action. Many have links and resources to go deeper. Furthermore, The New Housing Hub website has a variety of resources and links to training and events that will hopefully help develop your journey into new housing engagement.

Each new housing area is different, and God’s Spirit leads us in different ways, however I hope and pray that these How to guides will be helpful food for thought.

The How to Guides will be organised in the following sections.

The guides in Section A are available to download now & the other guides will follow shortly:

Section A: How to be Christlike in New Housing Areas
Section B: How to Deal with Practicalities
Section C: How to Work Together as the Body of Christ
Section D: How to Plan and Evaluate
Section E: How to Engage in Different Contexts

Please note that these guides contain personal stories and accounts of individuals working in new housing areas. These individuals are often referred to on first-name terms, but information about them and their ministry can be found in the ‘List of Contributors’ section.