by Craig and Heather Maiden

Ballycullen Community Church started meeting in the Firhouse Community Centre in January 2004.  We are a church-plant from Grosvenor Road Baptist church in Rathmines, and that was the date when over 60 people including young people and children stood up the front in Grosvenor, and were commissioned, and sent out to start worshipping in the Ballycullen/Firhouse area.  

It was an amazing day, both for those leaving and those staying.  For many of those leaving it was the culmination of 5 or 6 years serving in the Ballycullen area, with the expectation all along that one day we would leave Grosvenor. Anyone who got on board the work back then (98-99) was under no illusions as to what it would cost in the end. It would mean leaving the church you never considered leaving.  It would mean stepping out to a setting very different from what you were used to.  It would mean uprooting spiritual ties in Grosvenor, and in many cases there were tears about this move years before the actual move was made. In a way, when the move came it was a long time coming, so we had an excitement and sense of anticipation because it was well prepared for.  

On the other hand for Grosvenor, the mother church, the real sense of loss and grieving happened at this moment rather than in the past.  Maybe it seemed to come together very quickly in the end. It was hard to see good people, families and young people leaving for Ballycullen.  It was such a large proportion of the church.  Grosvenor sent some of their best people, and it was costly, particularly for the first year after we all left.

I want to talk about ways we seek to reach out in Ballycullen, but church-planting in the first place is a major step for an established church like Grosvenor in outreach.  After nearly two years of meeting on Sundays and over 7 years of working in the area, there are adults, families and young people attending Ballycullen Community Church, and going on Christian camps and activities, because Grosvenor paid the price and sent people into this area. Would they have been reached with the gospel if Grosvenor had not paid the price and taken the step of faith?  I firmly believe, in most cases, not. The fact is that there are over 30,000 people in the Firhouse/Ballycullen area, and there is an evangelical church meeting only a few minutes from them in the Firhouse Community Centre. This is surely worth the cost for Christians.  That’s the reason why John Samuel and others initiated this church-plant talk back in the late 90’s - because it’s worth it, for people who might never hear otherwise.

As well as there being a cost, there is also a benefit for the Christians in all this. For Grosvenor there was a need to fully rely on the Lord, because of the loss of good people, and others needed to step up to fill the gaps. There is a joy and gratitude to God in seeing what goes on in Ballycullen. For the Christians in Ballycullen we are in a unique kind of mission context, where reaching out and praying for our area is a daily task. To see older and younger Christians involved in outreach like this is great.  It’s a healthy way for a Christian to be, and we grow through the process.  So again, the church-plant is worth it, not simply for people who might never hear, but for Christians as a means of spiritual growth.

So, having given background to the step of faith involved in just getting ourselves into this area let me explain some of the ways we have tried to engage with the community in Ballycullen.  I’m sure it is no surprise to say that people do not flock to our church on a Sunday just because we are here! People are suspicious and preoccupied with many things.  They don’t always see the church as the answer to their needs. While this may not surprise many people, we are surprised at how hard it is in Ballycullen down the years to attract people to events we put on in the community centre. Going back many years to ‘98/’99 we have tried different events and the response has always been low. There was a traditional Irish music night, and a night on financial issues. We had the Man Utd. chaplain come to speak, and despite 5000 leaflets, no one turned up.  The event was held in the room next to the pub, and so we went and spoke personally to everyone in the pub. Only two men made the short walk next door to listen to the chaplain. Just a few months ago we held an evening on the Da Vinci code, and again the attendance of community people was very low.   

How do you reach a community if they don’t come to your events?  All the books seem to say “put on a good event… a great event…” but what if they don’t come to the first one, and how would you follow up even if they did?

We are continually being challenged to build relationships. ‘Mums and Toddlers’ has always been successful in Ballycullen in terms of developing relationships and is going strong. Two women have come to know the Lord as a result, and others have come into contact with Christians as a result and begun the process of observing Christians in action over time. Also a weekly basketball coaching session for kids is a great a route into the community for us.  The key, we feel, is not just to do basketball for young people, but to visit the parents, and to offer a youth club as a follow on. Youth nights are often held in the homes of the local kids.  There is no better context to talk to parents, than in their own kitchen, while the youth club goes on in the living room next door.

As a follow on to these social activities where friendship and trust-building is the key, in many cases the Lord has enabled us to assist young people in going on Christian camps for the first time.  Many young people have been to Avoca Manor from homes that had never heard of SU or Christian camps like that. Some of the original young people, (going back to 2000) are now 16 and 17 and some come to church.  Families have been to our Christmas music evenings and heard the gospel. This takes a long time though and we feel strongly that friendship and trust building is a slow process that is worth the time.  Over the years we try not to lose trust with people by forcing the issue in a wrong way. 

We are convinced that the hardest thing for a Christian is to develop a genuine friendship with colleagues or neighbors.  We can do events, but can we invest in a relationship? We can do church, but can we spend time with someone? Those who come to faith in Christ are inevitably those who have known a Christian overtime. Lord help us not to lose sight of the need to invest in lives as individual Christians.

Over the years we have distributed literature in our area trusting that we would become known that way.  We seek to raise our profile all the time – not just because we meet in the centre for all our activities, but also for those who don’t get to the centre. We have a new website and have sought to advertise that. (www.ballycullencommunitychurch.com)

We long to do all this with a heart for service. We want to serve and bless our community and be genuine in that. Working alongside one of the mothers we know in the area, we sought to gather and distribute shoeboxes at Christmas to families in Dublin who are in need. The Mothers and Toddlers has really developed as a context for caring, as time has gone on. Mothers in Ballycullen are very isolated and in such need of friendship and love. In the same way the older youth club (14-18s) is increasingly becoming a caring context as teens grow up and seek to confront life head on.

As a church we are here for the long haul, and while we are weak, God is strong. We believe that church-planting is a crucial strategy for outreach in Dublin and Ireland today.  Please pray we’ll keep our eyes on Jesus, never settling down, but pressing on in reaching out