Bridging Community and Church

Barbara is a Community Minister at St Oswald’s and St Chad’s. She completed Stepping Up in December 2022 and was commissioned for her role where she engages with the community in lots of different and creative ways. Barbara is often seen as a bridge between the community and church.

Her story is testament to how mission doesn’t always shape up as it’s first planned but she has continually listened to God for direction and vision along the way. Barbara’s role first set off with a focus on community walks with people in her local area. This is something she still does and sometimes takes the form of prayer walking around the streets and houses around the church building.

Barbara also helps at the weekly kids group as part of her work as a community minister. They can have between 12-20 children each week, where many parents/ carers choose to stay and listen, and participate!

At St Oswald’s, the Genesis Project has been running for a number of years where people come to the church space to access support in lots of different ways. Over 200 people come through the doors every week and Barbara takes time to welcome each person as they come in, building relationships through listening and offering prayer. As part of this work she has helped develop a new prayer space which is a quiet, reflective room that can also facilitate meaningful conversations.

To deepen the discipleship with some people Barbara works with, she helps lead a weekly Bible study group. During stepping up, she found journalling a really helpful tool to record and document lots of things God was saying and doing throughout the year. She’s given everyone in this group a journal to encourage them to listen to God and write about their faith journey as they learn together.

Barbara is passionate about loving Jesus and sharing His love with her community. She writes about her experience in kids work, “We can see real genuineness of faith in some of the children. One child said, ‘All I want to do is sing!’ and this really struck me because I knew they meant how much they love to sing about Jesus. This made me think about what our church would look like if we all carried that same delight and joy of always wanting to sing God’s praises.”

She reflects on what she’s learnt from completing Stepping Up and how she applies this to church mission, “The key skill I’ve developed is how to listen to others more and have found myself talking less so I can really hear what people are saying.”

To read more about Barbara’s story click here.