The Church without Walls
George Bingham-Davis
Something old, something new: how a Weston Park gathering is exploring what it really means to be a church.
If you’ve ever found yourself in Weston Park on a Sunday morning over this past year, chances are you’ve probably heard the chorus to ‘Everlasting God’ and ‘God’s little light’ being sung over the dawn chorus.
What you’ve stumbled across is Weston Park church, a group of passionate Christians who gather every Sunday to meet and share the news of God’s love with passers-by.
This gathering, started by Alan Lamb and Martin Jacobs, brings together people from different congregations and denominations across Sheffield, from Pentecostal to Catholic, from Crookes to Dore.
‘I guess technically it started before Lockdown.’ Alan told us on a particularly nippy August morning. ‘Every Sunday before church at STC Crookes, I’d come out here with a few others and we’d sing the words of the Lord. But then Covid changed that.’
‘I’d had a vision,’ Martin tells us, ‘of this park, Weston Park, being full of people worshipping the Lord. This was about 18 months before Covid started, and I’d mentioned this to Alan at the time, So we came down to the park and prayed about it. ‘
‘On Pentecost Sunday 2020 Alan rang me up, asking what I was doing for church this Sunday, and I said ‘We’re on Zoom.’ and he said ‘I’m going to take my guitar down to the park, do you fancy coming?’
I said yes, we had such a fantastic time. People from around the park were coming up to us and thanking us, so at the end we prayed and felt led to continue to come every Sunday morning.’ And just like that, a new church service was born.
The key part for us was continuity.’ Says Alan.
‘We didn’t want it to be a throwaway thing where we’d come once, go home and then come back a year later. So we’ve been here every Sunday, even through the Winter.’
Just from arriving at Weston Park, you can feel the warmth that this church service brings as they sing and pray. People are waving and saying hi as they walk by. Families are stopping by to see what’s going on. And the congregation has helped many people through these troubling times. ‘We’ve had many people come up and chat to us who haven’t talked to anyone face-to-face in a year. This is sharing the love and life of Jesus.’
Martin went on to tell us about an older woman who’d come to them from down the road outside the park. ‘We don’t use a microphone or speakers or anything, she’d just heard us down the road. And she’d been praying that she’d be able to have a conversation about God with other Christians for months.’
After our conversation, we prayed with her and she sat on the bench at the side of us singing along to all the worship songs and she continued to come back and do this for several weeks.
Alan shared his vision about how the Weston Park gatherings fit in with other local Christian activity. ‘Church buildings are wonderful places where communities can really connect with themselves.
I mean it’s not like this has replaced it, we still go to STC after this. But if we want to reach out to new people, they’re not going to be in the churches. They’re in the parks, playing football or walking their dogs, or even sleeping rough here in the worst cases. They’re the ones who need to hear about God the most, and we’re not going to reach them by staying inside our churches.’
Whilst this new outdoor church is making waves, this idea of an outdoor service might prompt memories of a not-so-distant time when Christians – some of whom were here in the park today – would fill Weston Park at the end of the Whit walks.
As recently as the 1980’s, Christians would come through Weston Park as part of the Christian Aid walks and hikes.
In front of the museum overlooking the park is an information display showing pictures of the park full of people worshipping, ‘We didn’t realise that the picture was there before we started and it was a few weeks before we noticed it.’ Martin told us. ‘But it makes sense if you think about it. If everyone was part of their local church community, why wouldn’t they use the park like that? It’s not bothering anyone; so far everyone we have met and spoken to has been very welcoming and we get the chance to speak to people about Jesus and pray with them.’
Photo by Jake Fields
‘So in that sense,’ Alan adds. ‘Knowing what’s happened here before, we feel part of something that is bigger than us. We can’t let things like this go away for people.’
The Sunday gatherings, then, aren’t just a new way to reach out to people, but are part of a bigger picture of Christians coming together and praying for the city and its people, with Weston Park at the centre of this renewal.
And Alan and Martin have big hopes for this new wave of faith, believing for a move of God and for revival to break out across the city and continue through the nation.
‘We had this vision, of our gatherings being part of a living river of people and faith going by.’ There’s obviously a literal part of this idea, as Alan gestures to the path that runs by the museum. ‘As we’ve thought more about it though, if we’re out here speaking to people about the Lord, we as Christians can be a big part of this rejuvenation of faith in this city, and even in the country as a whole.’
‘A few months ago, we had a man from down South stop to talk to us,’ Martin adds. `He was a Christian, and he asked if he could take this idea back home with him and go out into his local park. We don’t own it,’ said Martin. ‘It is God’s plan that all should GO and tell of the good news. We prayed with him and told him to go for it.’
Perhaps then, Sheffield can be the living river of hope and faith that connects this country, and become the spiritual heart of the country. If anything, it’s certainly in the right place to do it! We pray for the rejuvenation of this city, and the country along with it.
The church meets from 9am-12pm every Sunday. To find out more about how you can get involved, email Martin and Alan: citp.westonpark@gmail.com
Images courtesy of Jake Fields
