“Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
(1 Corinthians 15:58).
The period after Christmas and New Year is a strange time. The leafless trees, barren landscape and inclement weather can give the impression that nothing is going on and as we experience the short, dark winter days, it’s easy to forget that under the soil, green shoots are getting ready to push through the earth and that the miracle of spring is not far away. In our Christian walk, it’s tempting to compare ourselves to others to our own detriment. Why is our outreach not bringing more people into church? Was that informal coffee morning with the school mums really what God wanted? When we doubt ourselves, it’s important to remember that God’s mission is constant – prayerful listening and obedience will lead to His faithfulness in small things.
No one knows this better than Jonathan and Rachel Oatridge. They moved to a large village in North Lincolnshire in 2013. Two years later, they met with a small group of other Christians who had a heart for the village and began intentionally missionally listening. They organised prayer walks, got to know people in their community, chatted at the school gates and sought God. But where many missional listeners are in communities suffering with disaffection, unemployment and isolation, the Oatridges were up against a very different kind of challenge as Rachel explains.
“The village is quite self-sufficient and comfortable, so people don’t think they need Jesus. Many people never leave, so I found it tough to make friends at the school gate as there is already a strong social network. While many people don’t come to church, they get very upset if you try and change anything with beloved traditions, such as the Christingle service!”
In 2015 after some team prayer, Jonathan and Rachel decided to rent one of the village allotments and join the gardening community.
“We were a bit taken aback by the rampant weed growth, but there were lots of opportunities for theological reflection! We stayed for two years, but we found that nearly all the allotment holders were retired and started work at nine in the morning. We were turning up after work and missing them, but although we didn't make as many connections as we expected, relationships and growth happened within the team."
Stopping a ministry well is just as important as beginning one, and the Oatridges were ready for the next step.
“After conversations with a local councillor about opportunities to serve in the village, we started a regular ‘Community Cuppa’ drop-in in the village hall around the time that carers were picking children up from the local primary school. For a variety of reasons, this never gained the traction that we had anticipated and so, after a year, we also took the decision as a team to shut it down. However, we journeyed with a group of around eight people for a year and we had conversations about faith. Nothing dramatic happened, but we still see those people around and chat with them. I suppose you could say that we were tilling the soil for God and that He had His own purpose for it.
When Covid hit, we started an intergenerational gathering on Zoom which led to us hosting church around our breakfast table. We also felt God calling us to be missional listeners and enablers for the whole of the county to enable others to seek new ways of being church in their local area. "Long story short, at the start of 2024, the zoom gathering came to an end and we felt as missional listeners for the area that there was a real gap in people carrying the gospel into the business community.”
In 2021, Jonathan and Rachel opened up a business community hub in Scunthorpe. Open to anyone local who works from home, it gives anyone self-employed the chance to spend a day working in the company of other people. It’s good for dealing with the loneliness that can come from working solo and it also offers free coaching for unemployed people to get them back into work. There have been unexpected signs of growth, of green shoots pushing up through the earth.
“It’s important to stress that this is not a Christian business. However, we seek to bring kingdom values of community, love, openness and generosity and we've found that there are plenty of opportunities for conversations as people help each other with aspects of work or stop for a coffee etc. One of our clients had been watching a programme about Guy Fawkes on Netflix and asked us what the difference was between Catholics and Protestants. That led to a really good talk about faith. We’re both qualified life coaches and we feel that God has fitted us for this time and this work.”
Wonderful stories have come from Jonathan and Rachel’s intentional listening and relationship development at the work hub.
“One of the group who I’d been coaching had lots of challenges in their life. They had become more open and one day I mentioned that Jonathan had been a church leader and they almost fell off their chair! They thought that we were so normal that we couldn’t possibly be churchgoers.”
Jonathan agrees. “We spent time with one young business owner, who, while being very open-minded in some ways, was suspicious of the Bible and of Christians. Chatting to Rachel one day, she said that the point of being called a Chirstian is that the clue is in the name – Christ at the centre. He was dismissive. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘but you’re basing your ideas on the Bible.’ Rachel asked him if he’d ever read it and he went all sheepish on her and said he hadn’t. He went off to uni shortly afterwards, but he came back to spend time with us in reading week and we’re praying that we can read it together.”
Through Rachel and Jonathan’s work in the community, they are getting little glimpses of God’s grace working in people’s lives.
“The soil might be hard, but God is the great gardener and he knows what growth there is beneath it. We simply find people of peace who are happy to do life alongside us and wait on Him to reveal His purpose.”
First published in MOSAIC Issue 15, January - April 2025
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