Packed programme helps us get to know our neighbours

What’s your church got planned for Christmas? For Coatbridge Elim it includes carols with firepits and breakfasts with Santa to build local relationships.

Ask Peter Wright about Coatbridge Elim’s plans for Christmas and he’ll reel off a list of inventive activities. But closely linked to them is a point that comes up time and again: every event is an opportunity to meet local people then get to know them individually throughout the year.

We’re not talking crowds of hundreds, he says, but patient ongoing outreach. So what’s on this year’s programme and how have previous events helped the church get to know its neighbours?

Carols on the Corner

“We’d always done a late-night Christmas Eve service because we wanted to reach our community, but year after year no one from the community came,” says Peter.

“So last year we decided to do something different. I said to the leadership team, ‘Why don’t we just go outside, sing some carols and invite the neighbours to join us?’ The church is on a corner, so we called it Carols on the Corner!”

As a group – complete with a mum and son playing the saxophone and guitar – sang around a fire pit, three curious neighbours sat on the wall opposite to sing along.

“Three people might not seem like a lot, but for us it was a step in the right direction,” says Peter.

“God tells us not to despise the day of small things because seeds grow from it. What’s interesting is that one of the people who came was a lady who’d started coming to our café. She brought two of her friends.

“It reminded me that all the times we wish things would move a bit quicker, God just says to build relationships, take it step by step and things will begin to change.”

This year, Carols on the Corner will be back, starting at the church, then venturing into the estate for carol singing in the surrounding streets.

Breakfast with Santa

For two years running, junior school kids and their parents have been invited to Breakfast with Santa in the church’s café.

“The maximum we can squeeze in is 50 and I’m not kidding, it sells out in minutes,” says Peter.

“That’s because of the hard work one lady, Mairi Marshall, and her amazing team in the café do to build relationships – people feel they can come.

“We put out a breakfast and some art and craft stuff, then Mairi does a brilliant job of transforming a little office area downstairs into a grotto. It has such an impact on the kids and families.”

Christmas drama

One of the highlights of Coatbridge’s line-up is a drama written by church member John McKinlay.

Last year it was “Cinderella & that Charming Fella” – a mix of family fun with the Christmas story woven in – and the building was packed on both nights it ran.

“Many in the audience came via Breakfast with Santa or our Little Hearts toddler group,” says Peter.

“Within the church there’s these little pockets who we build relationships with, then people come to our various events.

“This year’s drama is ‘Nearly Narnia’, which should be another great evening of fun as well as hearing of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Chocolate programmes

Coatbridge Elim is connected to Langloan Primary School nearby and every Christmas gives selection boxes to its teachers, staff and pupils.

On them is printed the church’s Christmas programme, inviting people to its various events.

“One year we were holding a ceilidh on New Year’s Eve and a family turned up,” says Peter. “I asked how they’d heard about it and they told me it was via a selection box one of their kids had been given.

“They said, ‘We didn’t want to get drunk but just wanted to come and have fun.’ And so this family joined in and had a great time together. From that their two kids started coming to our Kidz Alive programme and we were like, ‘Thank you God for that connection!’”

Festive lunch

Last December, a Christmas service – with carols, a Gospel message and the Christmas story – was followed by lunch for over 100.

“We had so many people we had to sit some of them on the stage,” says Peter.

People felt comfortable to bring their friends along and they had a great time. They couldn’t believe this was church; people having fun and laughing together.

Looking at Coatbridge’s outreach, Peter says the value of each event is the way they help make inroads in the area.

“Have we seen masses of people saved? No. Have we built relationships? Yes. And during the whole year, whatever the event, people feel comfortable about coming to us because of the relationships that have been built.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.