NEVER SAY NEVER…
‘Never say never’ has become quite a catchphrase in our house!
Honestly, we are sure that at times God is just having a laugh with us. All the things that we were adamant on not doing have literally gone out the window and it actually feels so liberating.
We knew back in the Summer that we would need a venue. Our house is big but not big enough to house the team that is building with us. From the moment that we knew that God was calling us to Church plant we always thought it would be out of town. We did not know where but we felt that it would not be right to build anywhere closer than Accrington or Blackburn. We were willing to go further but our perimeter of where we couldn’t go was set!
Very early on into looking at venues, one of us (I think you can guess who) mentioned a venue that not only was within the perimeters we had set but so close to the place we had come from. They felt that God had showed them that there was hurting people who needed a touch from Jesus. The other person was not convinced and they began to search a little more desperately! They wanted a Cinema and so looked at Vue Cinema’s in both Accrington and Blackburn.
A Cinema would meet many of our tick list ‘wants’; the trouble was that our tick lists were actually trying to recreate what we had previously known church to be! There was nothing wrong with what had been created at our previous church but was this for us now? We wanted a dark room, a big screen, ample parking and a place that people knew. Vue Cinema could meet all these but something did not feel right in our spirit but the talks continued.
It is strange because we presumed Blackburn would be more expensive than Accrington. We didn’t really take into consideration that because Accrington is a smaller setting that it would be nearly double the price of Blackburn. To be truthful, Iooking back we think that we would have still gone for Accrington but God stepped in. Both venues could only give us one room! That wasn’t good for us; it literally meant there would be no Kids Church. To us it didn’t matter if we had 1 child or 50 children; there was no way that we would sacrifice our children’s work.
Writing to alternative venues became frustrating. A hotel we had our eye on had no facilities until 2023, many of the Schools and conference venues no longer open on Sunday’s since being hit with the Covid Lockdowns. Many other providers were keen to accommodate us until they knew we were a Church and then the regular interaction became quiet. For those who could offer us their venue, let’s just say that we really felt no connection.
Other people in the team started to put forward Oswaldtwistle Business and Conference Centre which was the same venue that was originally wanted by one of us. The person who had previously dismissed this venue was already pondering on a scripture that had been given which is found in Acts 18 v 7. How Paul left the synagogue and went next door! It was enough to at least ask the Trustees to make enquiries.
As soon as the email was sent; a response immediately came back and a visit with the Trustees was arranged straight away. As soon as we arrived there, we just knew that this wasn’t our venue; it was actually our home! The room was so welcoming and warm (winner in this climate). It was more than that though, it was everything we were looking for. Even though we had wanted a dark room, we now found ourselves in love with a room that had light walls and ceilings. It reminded us of why we loved the venue of Light Church, so bright and airy. Why were we even looking for a dark room? We were a church plant and being a small group there was no way we needed to control lighting in the same way we would need to in a bigger venue.
We just loved it but more than that we instantly felt that this was it. We spoke to Gill who was showing us around and these words came out of her mouth “What you see is what you get with me”. Wow, this was confirmation from God as we had literally just wrote our core value of Authenticity and put the strapline “What you see is what you get”. We hit it off like a house on fire; she literally couldn’t do enough for us.
We arranged another meeting with the team so that they could all view the place and give feedback. Everyone was of the same opinion; this felt like our home not a venue. Without hesitation we signed the contract and for much longer than we expected. We had in our head that we would change wherever we chose so were only looking for somewhere until Christmas yet here we were signing for a year. This made us tenants with keys! We could come and go ourselves without anyone having to be there. Boy, did we feel grown up!
It is closer than we expected but that’s good. There still aren’t enough churches in the area to accommodate all those that live around here. Our new home has Oswaldtwistle in its name but actually it’s in Spring Hill. It’s next door and are only desire is to be Good News to the community around us.
Simon & Valda
September 14th 2022
