Church Community Outreach Initiatives
Emma Veal on how the Neighbourhood Chaplains scheme helped her church in Ballymena step out in faith – and what happened when they did.
Our church started as a church plant beside a large housing estate in Ballymena, more than 40 years ago. It has had its ups and downs over the years, but we are now in a period of stability, with around 80–100 people attending and a real desire among the members to reach out into the local area with the Good News of the Gospel. It is a challenging area – there is a lot of social difficulty, including drug and alcohol abuse, broken families and racial tension. There is a real lack of interest in church attendance among people who live nearby, and we found it very hard to get people to come to us. So we decided we needed to go to them.
That is why we joined the Neighbourhood Chaplains scheme four years ago. We wanted to reach out into our community, and NC provided the training, support and guidance to help us do that. We now have seven members in our team, with extra helpers for special events.
Our outreach has taken many forms. We run a community lunch once a month for anyone in the local area who would like to come along. We visit people in their homes. We hold events. This Easter, we ran three: a special Easter-themed community lunch, an Easter fun day, and an Easter Sunday service designed to be welcoming to people who might not normally come through our doors.
The fun day was the one that stayed with me. It was the first time we had held something like that in our own church building, and I will be honest – I was not at all sure anyone would come. I remember warning the volunteers that we might not get a big crowd and feeling really anxious in the runup. But then I realised what I was doing: I was limiting God through my doubts and forgetting that He can do anything.
So we prayed. And on the day, family after family streamed in. I started panicking that we wouldn’t have enough food or goody bags! But God really provided, and proved to me again that He can be trusted. Everyone had a wonderful time, and we got to have real conversations – with people who were struggling and just wanted someone to talk to, and also the opportunity to share the Gospel with everyone who came.
That is what four years of this work has looked like: long and faithful and sometimes slow, but full of moments that remind us why we keep going. There is the older lady who lives alone, whom we first met through door-to-door visiting. We now take her to medical appointments, visit her monthly, and read the Bible and pray with her. There is the man who, if we are honest, first came for the free food – but through coming, has heard again and again about a God who loves him. And there is another man who became a Christian years ago but had no church connection. He started coming to our lunches. Now he attends church regularly and is eager to learn and discuss the Bible.
We could have tried to reach our community on our own. But with NC, we have had excellent training, support, and the encouragement of being part of something bigger – learning from others across the country who are doing the same thing. I would say to any church considering it: don’t be afraid to try. You can make it your own. No two NC schemes look the same – it all depends on your team, your area, your vision and what God makes possible. We don’t know what the next four years will look like, but we keep trusting God to lead us.
And sometimes, all it takes is showing up – and letting God do the rest.
To find out more about Counties Neighbourhood Chaplains, visit: countiesuk.org/neighbourhood-chaplains