Welling up at Woodseats
Duncan Akehurst has travelled the world sharing God’s word. Now, as he sets down roots in Woodseats, we ask him about his journey, and what he’s learned along the way.
Tell us about your journey planting a church in Woodseats.
The simple answer to that question is Jesus!
The long answer is that when we were in Mozambique, we’d often pass through Sheffield on our way to visit our families, and we ended up meeting with Nick and Marjorie Allan, the senior leaders at The Well. Shortly afterwards they messaged us to say ‘Hey, if you’re ever back in the UK, come and set up base here.’ And so we did!
At the same time, the old Baptist Church in Woodseats had been left with no congregation in it for about five to six years, and the owners – Yorkshire Baptist Association – really wanted to find a group that would use it.
Then out of the blue, The Message – a Christian charity from Manchester – managed to make a deal with the YBA to use the building as their administrative local base, as long as the building was also used as a worship space. The rest is history!
How did the pandemic affect your plans for church planting?
It’s strange. Obviously the pandemic has been extremely tough, but it’s also helped in a few surprising ways. We started to connect on Zoom before we’d officially started up as a plant, so we were able to meet on Wednesday as well as Sundays, which helped us build up some great core values and DNA.
And in all honesty, not being able to go fast has been a real blessing. I think we sometimes overestimate what we think can happen in a year, so not having that pressure to prove anything in the early stages has been really helpful.
When planting the church, who did you look to for inspiration?
Nick and Marjorie Allan have been a great source of inspiration for us as church leaders of The Well. To see the power of the gospel lived out in their lives is such a joy. Their core values have always been high accountability, low control. And to really feel that – with them releasing us and cheering us on as we plant the church with their support – is incredible.
“But also, it’s important to remember that teachers can be anyone. Some of the people who have taught me the most about Jesus are people you would never have heard of, but who have the most radical faith.”
Have there been any stories from your congregation that have stuck with you?
We started intentionally training our group to share their faith with others, giving people practical tools to share how they’ve encountered God and how it’s changed them. We’ve also been equipping people to know how to pray for others in a non-weird way, but at the same time not being afraid of the Holy Spirit breaking in powerfully.
To put that into practise, part of our Sunday morning meeting involves spending 45 minutes going out into the streets, talking with people and praying for them. That’s not easy to do. I’m an outgoing person who loves talking about Jesus, but even I can try and find a hundred reasons why I won’t talk to someone. So to see our whole group go out there with that courage has been so inspiring.
One of the cool stories we got back was a local lady a couple of us met two different weeks apart. The first time a couple of guys met her at a bus stop. And as her bus was arriving, they quickly prayed for her, she jumped on her bus.
End of story, right?
Then the next week, whilst we were out talking to people, we started chatting to this lady, and it turns out to be the same person! She told how she’d been thinking about that moment all week, and how wonderful it was that there were people who wanted her to be blessed by God. We asked her again if we could pray for her, she said yes, really enthusiastically. And we just felt the presence of God fall over her, and she started weeping.
“I think that’s been the most exciting thing: seeing normal people feeling empowered to go out and pray for others, watching them discover that each of them can share their faith in their own way.”
What are your hopes for the church going forward?
Well, we want to know Jesus as best we possibly can, because the more we know him, the more we reflect him. Our goal is to see genuine community grow around and within the church.
We hope that we can create an atmosphere where we can allow people to make that genuine connection with others in our church family. After all, ‘God commands a blessing where there is unity.’
Do you have any tips or advice for others who would like to share their faith?
My number one tip is: just do it!
The biggest thing that holds us back is us thinking that we can’t. We don’t have to be qualified, we don’t have to be total experts. Sure, there are things we can and should learn along the way, but we can still go for it, even if we don’t have all the answers right now. It’s impossible to steer a ship when it’s sitting still.
So be bold! Open your mouth, go across the room, speak to that person. You might be worried in that moment about what you’ll say, but you’ll soon realise as you get into that position, that you’re really hungry to figure out how to do it.
How can others get involved with Woodseats Church?
If you’re committed to giving your energy to bringing the Kingdom of God to Woodseats and the surrounding areas, then you’re more than welcome to join us here! You can join our Sunday morning gatherings at the old Baptist church, from ten till twelve.
A lot of that time is us connecting and building relationships, becoming aware of His presence, because transformation and change only start when we are aware of His presence. We’ll teach from the Bible, and we’ll pray for one another.
What advice would you give to others looking to plant churches?
On the one hand, the first thing Anna and I will tell you is that we don’t have a clue what we’re doing! And that might scare some people, but I actually think that’s a great place to start: having a complete dependence on Jesus, the Holy Spirit and papa-God, seeing how that love grows and bears fruit in others.
You can’t lead people to a place you aren’t prepared to go yourself. There are many courses you can do and many books you can read, but never step out of complete dependence on the Holy Spirit.
What has been bringing you closer to Jesus recently?
I’ve been reorganising my life after speaking with the Lord, asking myself what my practical life looks like, and where my priorities are. God told the Isrealites to pitch their lives around the presence of God, so I’ve been trying to do the same.
For me, that looks like getting up a little earlier so I can have a quick moment in the morning with Him. Thanks to my position as associate minister, I can free my time so that I can spend a day in the month where I can just spend a day being in His presence; no agenda, no looking at my emails or any of that.
Also, just hanging around other people who know Him, who are drawn to Him and want to be closer to Him, as well as going out and talking to people about my faith and praying for others: these things really energise me.
