Legacy

Once upon a time...

The vision for a Youth Congregation based in Benfleet is one that has been born out of a long journey involving many different people whom God has brought together to turn the vision into a reality. In January 2001 members of St George's church and the Community of the King were approached by Bar’n’Bus about the possibility of acting as the supporting church for an outreach mission work to be held in the local comprehensive school, The Appleton School. After much prayer and discussion the decision was taken to agree to support the mission including establishing a youth work, based on the existing small group of youngsters meeting weekly in the vicarage, but with a more formal identity. By the middle of that same year the existing group from St George's was re-branded and the "twenty-somethings" from Community of the King had joined them to form Legacy, the Youth Congregation of St George's Church. Thus, Legacy was born.

What is a youth congregation?

There has been much debate over the last few years about the validity of Youth Churches and Youth Congregations and it is no accident that we have settled on the latter as a description of Legacy. There is only one church and it belongs to Jesus consisting of every Christian community throughout the world. However, each of these individual communities will reflect the wider secular community in which it is located in terms of culture and styles of teaching and worship.

A Youth Congregation is nothing more than the recognition that young people within such a wider community represent just this, a distinct social grouping within society. Youth Congregations are probably best understood as church plants into a distinct culture, in our context the culture of post-modernity. It does not mean that young people are separated from the rest of the Christian church it just means that for some of the time they meet together just as any other special interest group within the church would do. Legacy remains firmly a part of the family of St. George’s and always will! To this extent it is not expected that one day the young people who form it will grow up and attend "proper church" but rather that a distinct church is being planted and born into new and virgin territory, although this territory is not physical but cultural. For more information on this issue we would recommend the Grove booklet EV57 “Youth Congregations and the Emerging Church“ by the Bishop of Maidstone (Graham Cray) who is also Chairman of Soul Survivor.

The focus of Legacy is to devlelop ways of being a real community where everyone is valued for their friendship and just for who they are. Whilst not everyone who is part of the group that makes up Legacy would describe themselves as a Christian, the central figure in the group is Jesus and, together, we are trying to find out more about what it means to live life to the full in imitation of him.

Within three years the Legacy Youth Congregation has grown to about 70 consisting of teenagers and those in the early to mid-twenties, although we rarely manage to see more than 40 of us together at any one time! One of the most exciting things about the group is that the majority of the young people are from non-church backgrounds with no family members attending a local church on a regular basis. Two ladies have come to faith as a direct result of their son’s committing their lives to Christ and many other families have been impacted by the gospel. Anyone of Secondary school age and over is welcome to join in and, whilst it has its own distinct identity, Legacy remains a part of St. George's and the wider church community in Benfleet. Though it has a leader who takes responsibility for running the congregation the activities of Legacy are supervised by an oversight committee headed up the Vicar of St George's to ensure that proper lines of accountability are maintained.

The Legacy Youth Congregation currently has three cell groups which meet on different evenings of the week. There is a 13-14 group, which is run by one of the cell members supported by an older leader, and a 15+ group, also run by one of the members supported by another older person. There is also a 17+ group who look after themselves! The aim of the cells is to provide a more intimate environment in which relationships can be developed between the group members. In addition these support structures aim to develop members confidence in sharing their faith reaching out to new members.

Alongside the cell groups runs Legacy XX. Legacy XX is not a separate group but rather exists to meet the needs of girls within the Legacy family. Some youth congregation evenings during the year are specifically given over to gender specific meetings addressing issues and running activities that are particularly appropriate for girls. In addition Legacy XX aims to develop activities at other times in the week which are very socially orientated in order to strengthen friendships between girls. The initiative is headed up by one of the leaders of the Youth Congregation who will be encouraging group members to take a lead as the activities develop.

Another initiative which has an identity but does not meet as group in its own right is Legacy Justice. The Legacy Justice team’s commission is to keep issues of social justice at the top of the Youth Congregation’s agenda. They are responsible for co-ordinating such activities as the 24 hour famine in aid of World Vision, a logo fast and are working on a number of other ideas to keep our focus outside as well as in. This team will also spearhead developing links with churches in developing nations in order to have a personal contact with those from other cultures bringing a direct contact with young people from different countries where possible. See our teaching on justice here.

Legacy XS Youth Centre & Skatepark

Our vision was to build on the success of the existing Legacy Youth Congregation through a new purpose built Youth Centre constructed in Benfleet called Legacy XS. The key aims of the project are to meet the Physical, Emotional and Spiritual needs of the young people of the community. Our approach is a holistic one meeting needs either directly, through services and facilities provided at the Centre, or by acting as a network enabler between a variety of agencies including schools, social services, police and the local authority. Throughout the project our focus has been upon building a sense of community using leisure activities as the catalyst for deeper involvement and the development of this sense of belonging and inclusion.

Focussed on a specific people group, in this case primarily (though not exclusively) young people in or on the edge of the skater/BMX community, the Centre incorporates a drop-in café and skatepark open 7 days a week. Acting as the base for the Legacy Youth Congregation it helps facilitate the elements of any healthy community by becoming a focal point for the social and worshipping life of the youth community in Benfleet. On Sunday evenings the centre is the venue for evangelistic focussed gatherings incorporating creative worship sessions and including the Legacy worship band.

Our vision is also to support the development of youth congregations in other parts of Essex encouraging the establishing of young people led initiatives which may or may not wish to adopt part of the Legacy brand. Where groups think that they want to ascribe to our values and feel that being identified with a larger group is of benefit we will work with them to develop whatever the Spirit is calling them into. We have no intention of empire building and don’t want to fall into the trap of thinking “one size fits all”. But we do believe that we have been called to have a mission focus at the heart of our community and that is not bound to a geographical location. Legacy Canvey? Legacy Pitsea? Legacy Basildon? Who knows…..?

Painful Lessons

This all sounds very exciting, and it has been, but it is also important to share some of the more difficult aspects of our journey too. Fluctuation in weekly attendance so that not everyone is together at any one time is a challenge that most churches face in today's society. This is exacerbated in the context of a mainly youth congregation, as young people are subject to more external forces than adults, with choices being limited by parents and family pressures (lots of families now have their main Sunday meal in the evening!)

Within the first three months after the opening of XS the pressure began to tell on some of the more committed young people who were suddenly spending not just one or two evenings a week doing things connected with Legacy, but instead were a the Centre five or six times a week. This meant that lots of us became a bit “stir crazy” and wanted to just get out of the place! We also learnt a valuable lesson that the pastor of the church can’t also run a Skatepark without a big conflict of interest in terms of relationships with people (staff and members alike!). Now that the months have drawn on most people have started to get the balance a bit better!

Another issue we faced was a drop-out by those for whom Sunday night worship had obviously been more of a social event than we (or they!) had realised. With the opportunity to socialise now presented to them throughout the week Sundays became less of a priority and so they stopped coming. Whilst we still see many of them at other times it is sad that they have fallen out of the habit of worshipping with their community and it has undoubtedly had a negative effect on their walk of faith.

We’ve been through several “phases” over the years and it’s important to remember that God takes us one step at a time rather than changing everything in one go. Having said that, it is also fair to say that his steps tend to be quite a lot bigger than ours! One phase has seen us focus on young leaders and this continues to be very important to the growth of individuals and the community as a whole. We have quite a time developing our preaching ministry, investing in teaching young preachers and then giving them opportunities to preach (sink or swim style!).

Alternative Worship

One of the most exciting developments since we opened the doors of XS March is the way in which we have developed prayer and worship using the Skatepark ramps. As part of our ordinary prayer or worship gatherings we have seen young people begin to use the sports they love (mainly BMX and skateboarding) to express themselves in worship and prayer. This is not a gimmick but a genuine attempt to allow people to use all of their bodies in thanksgiving and praise to God. We would not think it odd for someone to dance as worship so why should it seem odd that someone could skateboard as worship too?

In lots of ways how people plug into this will be very different for each person. For some it will be very much a solo activity when they are out street skating or riding but we have tried to make it more of a corporate activity. We have also tried to blend more traditional ways of worship such as corporate singing, with this more experimental style. Some worship times have involved skating and riding with music from the Soul Survivor stable or other worship events playing in the background, whilst others have seen us commission the riders and skaters to go onto the ramps and ride them as acts of spiritual warfare carrying the names of our loved ones painted on their bodies with war paint. We have also combined groups of young people with non-riders and skaters drumming in the Skatepark whilst the riders and skaters do their thing.

The truth is that this is all very experimental but the reaction of the young people giving it a go has been amazing. After the sessions they describe their experiences with some saying how much easier it was to land tricks performed in worship for the audience of One. Others explain how tough they found it skating when doing so as an act of spiritual warfare, challenging the powers of this dark world through prayer with their bodies. All we know is that this whole experiment seems to be unlocking the power of prayer for a group of young people for whom we would perhaps expect prayer to be a challenge.

Another of the interesting things about the ministry of Legacy is the impact that we have been able to have among adolescent males. This is partly as a result of our leadership profile, but may also be due to a stream of spirituality that we have developed in order to nurture a specifically masculine spirituality. In doing so we recognise that adolescent lads have a growing awareness of their physical strength, and we have tried to provide forms of expression that tap into this developing physicality whilst at the same time utilising the aspects of their psychological makeup that make them male. As such, male spirituality is something we are exploring in some depth.

What Next?

On with the adventure! It’s fair to ask the question of us, “what next?” but this is where we return to the beginning of our story. The honest answer is that we have a few ideas, but we find ourselves in the same place where we started, listening for the prompting of the Spirit. There is a scene at the beginning of the film Gladiator where Maximus is sent for by the Emperor. The Emperor says to his favourite general that there used to be a dream of which men could only whisper for fear that the dream would be blown away in the wind. “Come,” he says, “let us whisper together, you and I…”

That’s our encouragement to you. Whisper together your dreams in the small hours when no-one else is listening, dream big dreams and as you whisper together another voice will join you. You will hear the whisper of the Spirit who fills our hearts and minds with vision.

How does this all work?

By now you may well be wondering how this all works. Well the first thing to say is that, as a church, St George’s probably doesn’t have many more resources than lots of other churches in the Hadleigh Deanery. We are not a “wealthy” church financially and though we do have a good number of outward looking, enthusiastic and committed people we are not a group of “experts” in the field of Youth work. Secondly, St George’s is not a particularly “young” church in terms of age profile. We do have a number of families but it is probably fair to say that the majority of people are into middle age and older.

It perhaps goes without saying that the main reason why we appear to be having some success among young people is our dependence upon God through being empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have tried hard not to get bogged down in programmes but, rather, have looked for ways of being creative. For example, when we launched Legacy we envisaged a “youth service” with which the youngsters could engage. Within a few weeks it became apparent that this model was not going to work so we reverted to a much more relational approach until the group were ready to engage in more recognisable forms of worship and prayer.

In developing a youth work (almost) from scratch these are probably some of the keys;

Flexibility – The willingness to try new ideas and adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

Creativity – To develop new and experimental forms of communication and engaging with the gospel, worship and prayer. We try to be brave and keep looking for new ideas to try out. You must be aware from day one that what grows among the young people as their expression of church will almost certainly look very little like yours!

Empowerment - Absolutely vital is giving authority and decision making to the young people involved. Doing it all for them is the quickest way to disaster. As quickly as the Spirit reveals them to you start investing in the key “leaders” and empower them to lead. Listen to them and spend time with them.

Safety - As leaders our responsibility is to ensure a safe environment in which young people can develop patterns of church that connect with their culture. We are there to provide a framework in which such developments can safely flourish.

Continuity - We are not here to re-invent the church. Established and even rediscovered aspects of the church’s rich heritage can be enormously helpful in making connections between congregations which may seem very different but at whose heart is the worship of Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The Eucharist forms a vital connection to the rest of the church family and ensures that the central focus of the community is never lost in a sea of projects, creative ideas and initiatives.

Patience - The model of “belong, believe and behave” is absolutely central to all of this. Among the youngsters who are part of Legacy are those who have made a commitment to Christ, those who are on their way to doing so and some who (at present) have no idea what that means at all! But they all belong. No-one is set on a pedestal as being further advanced than any others and, sometimes, you would be hard pressed to spot which category a particular young person falls into. This is because changing behaviour as a result of a walk of faith is also a work of Grace that needs time to be nurtured and to develop.

Dreams - It is vital that as the church we dream big dreams. We have too often adopted a “hold the fort for I am coming” attitude rather than believing that God can transform a community or people group through his Spirit and through his people here and now. We must open our minds to the dreams that God wants to give us. He wants us to dream His dream of a community where His Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Resources

If young people have huge reserves of energy, passion and enthusiasm the one thing they have much less of is money! Any resources that are required to support the Legacy community, including staff, have to be paid for and support from other bodies and individuals is therefore necessary and welcome. Find out how to support Legacy here

Legacy Youth Congregation meets at the Legacy XS Centre, Richmond Park, Benfleet, Essex

 Visit the Legacy XS website

 for more details about where 

 we meet and our outreach.