Colinton Mains Parish Church, Edinburgh
Rev Ian McQuarrie explains how running the
Just People? course resulted in a more holistic understanding of outreach as well as new contacts and initiatives - all of which is hopefully just the beginning...
The need
Following a growing perception that the church contact with our community was (and is) fairly minimal, we felt the
Just People? course seemed to provide an excellent way of seeking to address this issue in an interactive fashion. We floated the idea to our small groups hoping that this would give as a reasonable core group in relation to the size of our congregation (approx 80-90) and then did a few presentations during church services to encourage involvement. The highest number attending was 37 and the average was around 28-29.
'That's my church' - the day of action
We had some difficulty deciding on what we would do for our day of action, knowing that we wanted it to be beneficial to the community as a whole and also perhaps be the springboard for continued involvement, so ultimately this led to our having a few different activities which were as follows;
- A litter pick on a piece of waste ground which was a bit of an eyesore directly opposite our local supermarket.
- A work party which lent its assistance to parents working in the grounds of the local primary school.
This had quite an impact and led to one conversation in the school playground in which a new member of ours, a single mum with a difficult background, responded, "That's my church " to another mum saying how good it was for the church to be involved. A little thing perhaps, but so positive for that single mum and something she felt incredibly good about.
- A visit to our local Community Centre to assist in a group dealing with children with learning difficulties.
Since the course
The main challenge - an ongoing one - was definitely what could come out of the course in terms of a sustainable project that would provide continuing focus for community involvement. One thing that has started subsequently to
Just People? is the " Hot Chocolate Rota " - an initiative supporting Morningside Baptist Street Team who interact with young people in the local park (a favourite drinking spot) around 9pm on a Friday night during the winter months when the young people are encouraged to come along to the church car park where they are given hot chocolate.
We feel that doing the Just People course was certainly a factor in some of our folk getting involved in this.
In terms of the future it is clear that Just People has altered many people's perceptions of outreach - causing it to be regarded more holistically and we feel it has also put 'community' firmly on the agenda. The challenge now is where do we go from here?
______________________
Ian McQuarrie April 2010
For more information on the church visit
www.colintonmainschurch.org.uk