Westcliff Baptist Church, Westcliff on Sea, Essex

Westcliff is a small Baptist church near Southend which ran the Just People? course in 2008.

Sue Barclay, the part-time church leader who co-led the Just People? course with another leader, outlines how they were able to involve the whole church in the course, as well as how they are managing the next stage of their journey.

For us, deciding to run Just People? was part of a journey - as a church we’ve been learning that it’s less about us than about others.

We ran both the youth version* in Spring 2008 and the adult version in the Autumn. We suspended home groups and ran the course in conjunction with a preaching series on the Biblical message on poverty and justice, covering nine weeks. This added to the overall impact, and ensured that the whole church was involved, not just those who could come on the evenings we ran the course.  Of a small church (55 members) an average of 24 people took part in the adult course – maybe a third of whom were regular attenders. 10 young people participated in the youth one.

We found running the course an extremely positive corporate experience for the church - many responded immediately with ‘so this is why we are here’, when looking at the Bible passages about church being a light and city on a hill.

As well as bringing us together, and giving us a shared experience and shared sense of purpose we feel it impacted the church significantly and that we benefited in a number of ways.

What did you do for the practical day of action?

The young people did a Car Wash day at the end of their course, raising money for a project sending reconditioned bikes to Africa. This was well supported by church members, and raised enough for 21 bikes. They also had a lot of fun – which was important.
The adults took part in Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, gave gifts to people attending homeless lunches run by other churches as well as to council-run hostels for their Christmas party and concentrated on planning for the future.

What difference did the course make?

We found that everyone’s awareness was raised of what the Bible has to say about poverty, money etc, although some people’s thinking was engaged more than others.  For many there was definitely an increased awareness that practical engagement with the community and the wider world is an integral part of our discipleship and not just a bolt-on for those who feel keen.

As a small church it was easy to make it central to the church’s programme for a whole term. At the end of the course and the sermon series we had a church lunch and a mixed group of those who’d done the course and those who hadn’t brainstormed ideas for what they could do and agreed to come back to it.

For some people, there have been lasting personal effects. One church member saw a patch of ground where rubbish had been dumped and cleared it up with her son. She then stood up in church (after week two!) urging everyone to do the course and told people, ‘we are making a difference’! Since the course, we have also registered as a Fairtrade church, and the football team have been looking for Fairtrade kit.

Plans for the future?

We want to build action for the local community into our church life, and so we’ve set up a project called “Small Steps”. The name is to emphasize that we don’t have to try to change the world all at once – we can simply take small steps, and they will make a difference. We have formed a “Small Steps” action team made up of some of the people who’ve done the course and are still enthusiastic, and they will take whole agenda forward.

Our first small steps have been to have a collection point for items needed by community charities, such as a local project for the homeless. People just buy a few extra groceries or toiletries and put them in the box. The charity and the items requested change each month, to keep people interested.

For longer term projects, ideas are mainly focused on action in the immediate environment of our church – other churches are already active in this area, so we hope to be able to link in with what they are doing rather than reinventing the wheel. For us, this is part of “walking humbly” – our projects don’t have to have our logo on them!

In summary, we are beginning to recognise that it’s about why we are here in town – the needs are not about starvation and cholera, but there is relative poverty here and living out being the kingdom of God means making a difference locally.

We are committed to looking at what impact church should be having on the community and realise it’s all about being the kingdom of God locally.

We have talked with other church leaders about all this, and found that they are fascinated and very positive about what we are doing.


Sue Barclay, April 2009
For more information on the church, please visit www.westcliffbaptist.org.uk

If you would like to chat further with Sue about running the Just People? course and Westcliff’s experiences, please email mharding@livability.org.uk.


*Please note, the youth version mentioned here was trialed by a number of churches but is not yet available for general use.