New touching points

The Rev Scott Rennie highlights how commerce and ministry can meet for mission.

ONE of the privileges of being part of the General Trustees is to be able to help congregations in fulfilling their hopes and dreams when it comes to augmenting their buildings so that they can serve their communities in new and innovative forms of ministry and mission.

Sometimes that means through offering a grant for major works or very often a loan which helps congregations get over the funding line or achieve matched funding for another grant giver.

One such recent example the Trustees supported is Fountainhall Church in Aberdeen, whose church at the Cross (formerly Queen’s Cross Church) was refurbished at a cost of just under £2m, to provide improved and upgraded facilities for community use, new purpose-built space for their Nursery School, and finally, create a space for their artisan coffee house.

The coffee house which is run by a commercial community partner has become a go to destination for local residents, workers in local businesses, and even for coffee drinkers city-wide because of the quality of experience and accommodation on offer.

It has evolved as a neutral space in the congregation’s buildings where church and community can meet, and the wider community can see into the life and work of a congregation committed to serving in Christ’s name in their community.

That service consists of musical moments for dementia sufferers and their carers, a parent and toddler group, a craft group, and a get together for folks with special needs and their carers, along with many other ventures that address community need. That easy sharing of space between church and community, sacred and secular, young and older is testament to the inclusion of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the commitment of a congregation to love their neighbours.

At the most recent General Assembly the Assembly Trustees noted the importance to the future sustainability of the Church and congregations of finding additional revenue streams to fund ministry and mission, and of course the maintenance of our buildings.

Fountainhall Church in Aberdeen provides one such example where commerce and ministry can go hand in hand. Indeed, it’s an example of where commerce can actually become a vehicle for mission and ministry, where a commercial entity can provide a platform for the building of relationship between a congregation and its local community.

While there’s obviously a financial and sustainability benefit of such a venture to a congregation, thereal value of such projects is their ability to create new touching points and relationships between a church and their community in an increasingly secular Scotland.

The Rev Scott Rennie is minister at London: Crown Court and Vice-Convener of the General Trustees.