Section C: How to work together with others
Introduction
The New Housing Hub was formed with a vision to share God’s love in every new housing area. No one church denomination or network has the capacity to meaningfully engage with every new estate. Although all new housing falls into an Anglican and Catholic parish, and much of it is within the missional reach of a free church, this does not equate to meaningful missional engagement in many areas. Large new housing estates often develop their own identity and do not relate to the existing community, especially if there is a well-publicised protest group situated within the established community. Parish or free churches may feel that the new housing is being built in their area, but the experience of those living on the new estate may be quite different. People with no connection to the church are disinterested in ecclesiological boundaries. Instead, the shared experience of moving into a new estate brings a new culture and identity quite separate from the existing parish or community. This is even more apparent if the demographic of the new and existing housing is quite different. Being close to an existing church does not automatically mean that there will be a connection with the new area.
In smaller areas of new housing there may be a feeling that the new housing will simply integrate into the existing mission of the local church. However, the reality is that many churches find it difficult to connect with people beyond the church and those moving into the new housing will be no exception. Sadly, this means that this special Kairos moment – the thin space that emerges when people move into a new community – is lost. (See Kairos moment in links below.) In order to meaningfully engage with areas of new housing there needs to be an intentional approach, with relationships developing in a contextually relevant way on the estate.
No single denomination has the capacity to meaningfully engage with 300,000 new homes each year for the foreseeable future. Thus, to see the vision to share God’s love with every new area become a reality, Christians need to work together across traditions and denominations. In large areas, churches need to work together to see who has the financial resource to fund a worker and, in smaller areas, it is about gathering human resource to engage.
