Of Palm Trees and Planting
Images courtesy of Emmanuel Church
One young church’s story of finding new roots in troubled times.
The last 18 months have been chaotic to say the least. Locked in homes, parenting, teaching and caring for our families. Looking out for our neighbourhoods, whilst being cooped up.
Now imagine doing all that while also trying to plant a new church.
That is the struggle faced by many church planters over the last 18 months, including David May. Now leader of Emmanuel Church Sheffield, David felt called from his church in Oxford to plant new roots in the North.
“We were telling some close friends of ours about looking to plant a church, and our friend stopped us and said: ‘Actually, I’ve felt God speaking to me about Yorkshire, and a place filled with palm trees.’” When David and others started exploring their options for church plants in the North, he and his family felt prompted to visit Sheffield.
“As we looked around Sheffield, we immediately had a good feeling, and the longer we stayed, the more we started to see palm trees around us. Outside Town Hall, the Peace Gardens, the Winter Gardens. We even saw a gardening stall outside Fargate selling palm trees!”
And so, in 2019, with the support of their home church and wider network, David and fifteen others made the courageous decision to move to Sheffield, trusting in God.
Then the pandemic hit.
“The whole experience has been completely different from what we imagined it would be. I’m not sure what was just standard church planting challenges, or what was difficult because of Covid.”
The group found themselves in an unexpected situation: locked down in an unfamiliar city, far from their old home, not allowed to meet each other, or make new friends, unable to share their faith with others as they’d planned.
“A group of friends who’d moved with us up to Sheffield said to us ‘It’s just not fair. We’ve moved to Sheffield with you, and we can’t even see you!’” David remembers.
Nevertheless, in spite of tremendous difficulties and unprecedented challenges, Emmanuel church has emerged from lockdown stronger than anyone could have hoped.
“I feel that a lot of our learning through this whole process was about trusting God.”
“And what kept encouraging us was how well our community grew during all this. We’d had people who’d never met each other, but felt that they’d come to know each other quite well. Being over Zoom has also helped us include people who were going to move to be part of the church plant, but hadn’t moved in the early stages. It has also meant I could stay in touch easily with the leaders back in Oxford to receive support, oversight and encouragement.”
The chance to connect with others online has really helped Emmanuel in these isolated times, especially with other church leaders in Sheffield. “During lockdown, Together for Sheffield has been helping us connect with other church leaders around the city through Sheffield Leaders in Prayer and praying over Zoom.”
“We’ve just been blown away by how well we’ve been received by other churches around Sheffield. Through those connections some churches have even contacted us out of the blue to offer us financial gifts, which is just wonderful!”
Images courtesy of Emmanuel Church
“Oh, absolutely!” He tells us. “My only caution would be to make sure that God is calling you to do it, because when things get tough, and they will get tough, whether you’re in a pandemic or not, so you’ve got to know for sure that this is what God wants you to do.”
We pray for Emmanuel Church’s continued success, and wish them all the best this season.
If you wish to get involved with Emmanuel Church Sheffield, you can find out more at www.emmanuelsheffield.org/, or email David May at dmay@emmanuelsheffield.org.
