Growing Good for action and theology

Men’s life expectancy on the Magdalen estate is 13 years lower than the highest in the country, and 31% of the parish live alone.

The Workshop is part of a much larger programme of outreach designed to achieve the church’s mission: to be a community being transformed by, and transforming their neighbourhood with, the extraordinary love of Jesus.

As much as activities like ‘the shed’ grow organically from visitor passions, a framework underpins the community groups. Rev Matthew Price and his team have used the underlying principles of our Growing Good course to drive and motivate their work.

Revd Matthew Price, Vicar at St Mary Magdelene said: “The affirmation that the Growing Good report gave us is really significant, because it describes exactly what we’ve experienced here. A church that is reaching out and serving the needs of its community is generally a growing church.”

Anna Heydon, Deputy Community Worker, appreciates Growing Good for both the practical and theological elements: “I think one of the things that strikes me is the principles that underlie it which are reflective of what Jesus did on earth - being with people, empowering people, engaging people at whatever stage of their journey, not waiting for them to necessarily have everything sorted in terms of their faith, but engaging them in His work as he was doing it.”

In this context the church has developed a model that seeks to welcome everyone, no matter what their faith or background, with generosity, encouraging participation and partnership to build an authentic community where everyone is encouraged to serve together.

Participation
The church has more than 80 volunteers working with them, many of whom don’t attend services on a Sunday. Anna Price, Community Development Worker explains: “People want to be part of something great for the community.”

Anna H agrees: “Everything is designed really carefully to be relational. We really aim to work as much as possible at grassroots level. Starting with people: what the needs are, but what the passion is as well.”

The church food bank is a prime example. “Everyone that comes in speaks to Richard, the community support worker. It's not just about coming and collecting food and leaving. Richard listens to people for a long time, and can then connect them to further support, so that we're not just delivering crisis support. The percentage of people coming back to the food bank is a lot lower than the national average because we connect them with the support they need. People can also go through to Open House, even if it is just on this one occasion, and they can see that they're welcomed as part of a bigger community. They're more to us than just someone to give food to, we actually want them to know that they're valued and welcomed. And for some people, that is a starting point for connecting to other things.”

And the church participates beyond its walls. St Mary Mags hosts Gabi in their office, an Identity Youth Project youth minister working in partnership with four local churches to serve young people in the Gorleston area. In the run up to the 2024 general election, St Mary’s hosted a husting with all the candidates standing for election in Great Yarmouth; the church hosts Scouts, Slimming World and Pawsitive Partners dog training. Revd Matthew also plays a part in school life in the area, with some children bringing their families to church activities as a result.

The team at St Mary’s are passionate about empowering the community, drawing on the God-given strengths and resources that already exist in the area in order to see lives transformed.

Adaptability
Longevity and growth don’t mean the team rest on their laurels. They respond to changing circumstances to truly provide what’s needed.

Anna H recalls: “We used to run a group for families during school holidays, because that was a real need, but then other things came up in terms of local provision and what we were offering wasn't what people needed anymore. So we've developed other ways of working with them. We have our Magpies parent and toddler group and youth group, as well as bigger events that are very family focused. It is constantly changing.

“In terms of how people come together to worship and to learn about faith, we have Jesus Time on Fridays. This is a group of more vulnerable people with often lower literacy levels. So that time is very much shaped with them in mind and what works for them.”

Rev Matthew also continues to learn and adapt as he leads his church: “God’s been teaching me some lessons about how we raise from within, about how we help disciple people so that they can take on leadership, and how we adjust what our expectations are around leadership, and what that looks like.”

Hospitality
From the generous lunch and lift to the train station that the CUF team received on our visit to the 80 people having tea at the Open House, hospitality is very obviously baked into the core of St Mary Mags.

Anna Price is clear that: “We have actively prioritised as our strategic priority the most vulnerable in the community, in the neighborhood, and how we serve them, and kind of let the rest follow on from that.”

St Mary’s welcome is all encompassing, with Anna H telling us: “We really love to bring in volunteers from all faiths or no faith. We want them to be here with us, engaged in what we're doing in building the kingdom and discovering what God's Kingdom is about. And often they're doing that through practical ways and seeing that in action.”