Getting to know you
A small team from St Peter’s Brighton joined the congregation at St Matthias and together they launched a new Sunday service designed to appeal to the many young families in the community. The church has now grown from 25 to about 200 people including 60 children.
Getting to know you
IN 2017 St Matthias at Fiveways in Brighton became one of three churches in the diocese to be part of the Strategic Development Fund aimed at helping these churches increase their missional impact. A small team from St Peter’s Brighton joined the congregation at St Matthias and together they launched a new Sunday service designed to appeal to the many young families in the community.
Since the launch of the SDF project at St Matthias the church has grown from 25 to about 200 people including 60 children. Many, like Alex,had not been to church before.
Alex, who started attending this service with his family, said: “St Matthias welcomed our family with serenity, reflection, thankfulness, care, music, friendliness and peace. Coming to church on Sunday has been an opportunity to find peace and tranquillity in a hectic life. The atmosphere is one of friendship, openness, welcoming, love and that is a lovely place to be.”
In 2018 St Matthias launched its first Alpha, a course designed to help people explore the Christian faith and to ask questions of life.It has welcomed 52 guests, many of whom had no previous connection to church, including Flo.
She said: “Until attending Alpha, I had a limited understanding of Christianity and nowhere to explore it as faith rather than ‘religion’. Alpha was an important step in my journey as my faith in Jesus brings me joy and strength. I see things differently, sometimes in quite subtle and small ways, but it has had a big impact. I react to things differently, my inner life is transformed and so I make better choices and when I get things wrong, or things go wrong around me, I'm more able to deal with it.”
Alongside Alpha, St Matthias has piloted new initiatives to appeal to people who don’t normally attend church.
Vicar Tom Holbird said: “We want to create every opportunity to invite our community to church, to get to know people and to express God’s love.
“We’ve discovered people love a community party and hundreds of people attend these events so in the last two years, in addition to our Christmas and Easter services we have run a royal wedding party and several school disco events where we raised thousands of pounds for our local schools, couples’ evenings, a World Cup final party, a pub quiz to raise funds for a mental health charity and a beautiful Remembrance Sunday event.
“We launched the night shelter for those experiencing homelessness and welcomed over 1,200 guests to our amazing ‘Tots and Toddlers’ group, as well as starting our rewilding group ‘Dadventure’ which helps us connect with dads in the community. As people start to feel at home at St Matthias, it becomes much easier for them to embark on their own journey of faith.”
As the SDF project comes to an end, there are other initiatives on the way, including are a new St Matthias Café opening in the church, creating a hub for future events and courses, Alpha Online starts in November and a new food bank is being launched in Hollingdean, Brighton, in December to provide for the many who are struggling financially.
Please do pray that God’s love would continue to impact the people of Brighton and that St Matthias will reach those who are most vulnerable at this time. Please pray:
- For the new St Matthias Café opening in the church creating a hub for future events and courses.
- For Alpha Online starting in November.
- For a new Foodbank being launched in Hollingdean in December to provide for the many who are struggling financially.