Bodmin Road Church, Hull

Necessity proved the mother of invention for a church in Hull when floods devastated its neighbourhood in 2007.

Bodmin Road Church is set in the midst of Bransholme, one of Europe’s largest council estates, where in the words of pastor Richard Bentley ‘unemployment is high and aspirations are low’.  Built between 1965 and 1983 as part of a slum clearance and re-housing programme, by the 1990s Bransholme was classified as an area of social deprivation.

The church had long engaged with the needs of the community, but the 2007 floods prompted a rethink as the church building took months to dry out and Richard and other church members coped with damage caused to their own homes.

After a period of soul searching and prayer, the church decided to launch a community café in place of a long-running lunch club that only benefited a certain age group.  The café has proved an effective weapon in tackling social exclusion, isolation and loneliness – a first step into the church building where people can get known and find support.

The cafe

‘It’s always packed out and has been a phenomenal success in terms of the people it reaches,’ says Richard. ‘In one recent example, a guy called Gary, who lives in the block of flats next to the church, thought he should pop in and have a bacon sandwich. He’d walked past lots of times but this particular day he was feeling a bit down.
‘The café provided a first point of contact and he’s since been on an Alpha course and he’s now a Christian. He’s a single dad in his 40s with three teenage daughters and a mixed-up family background like many people on the estate.’

Richard believes this community-based approach is the only way to meet the needs of people on the Bransholme estate.

‘People here are very parochial, so the only way to reach them is to plant a little fellowship in every corner and that’s what I’d love to do. Mega churches are fine in city centres, but they will never meet this type of broken parochial people.
‘We’re not a church with doctors and lawyers who can put a decent whack into the offering, we’re a church of sixty people and nearly two-thirds aren’t waged at all. So cash is tight. But the church has a great deal of trust in the community, the café is overflowing to the rest of the church building and our toddler sessions are bursting at the seams.’

Advice to churches

To churches embarking on social action, Richard is passionate about passing on the biggest lesson that he feels the church has learned.
‘Don’t call your work ‘a project’, keep it organic, use your own people. This is about church being church so, keep it all under the same spiritual leadership umbrella.

‘I’ve known churches that have created a separate identity, maybe set up a different charity and eventually that charity has become totally divorced from the church. The people employed there have no connection and the church gets to the point where they feel it’s not really our project. I’ve seen churches set things up that lose their Christian roots. They’re still maybe doing a good job but they’ve lost their spiritual heartbeat.’
The community café offers a first point of contact for people who might be wary about setting foot in church, but who need unconditional compassionate support.