CPCC History

Church Plant Reflections - Paddy McGlinchey.

Paddy McGlinchey, the Associate Minister at St. Andrew’s, Gorleston, came from a curacy in the East Midlands where his parish (Christ the King, Kettering) had begun as a church plant about 30 years previously. The Gorleston post which Paddy and Helen began in May 1997 had a remit for establishing some sort of evangelistic outreach in the Cliff Park area of the town, with the possibility of a church plant.

Paddy’s motivation throughout his ministry in Gorleston was to reach out to the unchurched population and a visit to the local Middle School headmaster (John Poulter) in November 1998 led to an unexpected outcome. It was meant to be a brief meeting (the purpose of which was to organise a Christmas carol service in the parish church for the First and Middle schools) but it turned into a much wider-ranging conversation lasting about 45 minutes. At the end of the conversation, Mr Poulter told Paddy to feel free to use the school for “outreach purposes”. Paddy felt strongly at the time that this was an open door given by God to establish something akin to a church plant. He immediately thought of recruiting a team of volunteers from St Andrew’s Parish Church who might be willing to form the basis of a newly planted congregation meeting regularly in the Middle School Hall.

A visit to Gorleston Baptist church a few weeks later seemed to throw a spanner in the works. Paddy noticed some posters encouraging people in Gorleston Baptist Church to pray about the possibility of setting up some sort of outreach in Cliff Park school. Chatting to the Baptist pastor, Richard Hughes, it transpired that the same offer had been made to Gorleston Baptist Church as had been made to Paddy. In hindsight, the invitation to both churches to use the school for outreach purposes makes sense in that Mr Poulter probably hadn’t envisaged weekly services, but one-off outreach events. Hence both denominations could have quite happily used the school.

The initial surprise and disappointment (on the part of both men) was soon replaced by a sense that maybe God was calling the two churches to do the work together. It was agreed that a small committee be set up to explore the major theological/practical questions that had to be answered before they could embark on a joint mission to Cliff Park. There were twelve questions needing addressing, including one about whether we could arrive at an agreed baptism policy! Amazingly, we found positive answers to all the questions with the diocese even agreeing to the somewhat radical baptism policy! The policy was that if someone came to faith from a notionally Anglican background, they would be given the choice of baptism or confirmation. If they chose baptism, then they would be registered as Baptist in the plant. Communicant Anglicans were not permitted to be re-baptized in the plant. The policy was not tested during Paddy’s time as the early baptisms were infant baptisms.

A key theological starting point – which determined everything that Richard and Paddy subsequently did together – was that a God-shaped church for Cliff Park would be created. We would maintain everything from our traditions that served this aim, but nothing would be included from either tradition that undermined our mission. Hence, we would be an entirely united congregation committed to God’s mission but leaning lightly on our own preferences when these might hinder the progress of the gospel.

The next big step was promoting the idea within the two congregations so that they would support the venture. Church planting expert, Revd George Lings, spoke at a special Saturday morning meeting in St Andrew’s for all those who wanted to understand what church planting was about. There was a substantial turnout – a mixture of interest and concern - and George allayed many Anglican fears about this radical new step. Eventually, the idea was approved by the PCC after a special away day where the church’s leadership sought the Lord’s wisdom on the matter. The vicar of St Andrew’s, Tony Ward, convened the meeting and by a vote of 18-4 the PCC endorsed the future church plant and people were formally recruited to the church plant team. It was at this crucial time that Jamie and Hilary Wylie began attending St Andrew’s and were to be two of the foundational members of the church plant team recruited by Paddy.

One other significant point regarding George Lings is that he went on to give the church plant team additional support and training which proved invaluable. What was perhaps most striking of all of George’s advice was the very first thing he said to Paddy. He asked, “Do you want to do this for missional or ecumenical reasons?” Paddy’s answer was an unequivocal “For mission reasons.” George replied, “I’m glad to hear that. Ecumenical reasons are not enough. Only a shared missionary vision will allow this project to prosper!”

Another very significant event was a New Wine Leaders’ Retreat in Lancaster attended by Paddy and Helen. On the last night of the retreat, a team from an Anglican church in Derby, who were strongly gifted in prophetic ministry, came to pray over each of the couples involved in the retreat. They knew absolutely nothing about the individuals they prayed for or their church situation. When Paddy and Helen were prayed for – they were told prophetically that they were recruiting people for a new project in a large housing area. One of the team enquired, “Is it a church plant?” They told Paddy that they could be assured that the right people were being recruited and that the new ministry would bear fruit. Someone else added that it would attract people from a range of backgrounds and nationalities. The overall tone of the prophecy was extremely encouraging – the basic message was the church will be planted and it will succeed - and Paddy often looked back to that prophesy in the opening years of the plant. Towards the end of this time of prophetic utterance, the wider group were asked if they had anything else to add. Two days previously someone had mentioned to Paddy a picture they had of a baseball stadium, asking him if it meant anything to him. His honest answer was “no”. However, when others were asked two days later whether they had a message for Paddy, the person who gave the word about the baseball stadium shouted out “Build it and they will come.” (A line from the movie Field of Dreams). This statement summed up all of what was heard that evening.

One final memory that might be helpful to share – this was the unwavering support given to the church plant by the headmaster John Poulter and his deputy, Steve Rogers. John was a constant blessing and Steve and his wife became regular attenders.

This short reflection can’t end without Paddy acknowledging the strong sense of God’s presence and grace through those first three years. His prayer life underwent a radical deepening just months before the launch and this revitalised engagement with the Lord made all the difference. At the very outset, he felt God say to him very clearly, “I will give you a message for every week.” This felt like it was fulfilled over those three years.

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