Shaftesbury Christian Centre

Article written by Tom Dowding from Shaftesbury Christian Centre
December 3, 2024

For over 100 years, the Shaftesbury Christian Centre has sought to reach Battersea with the good news of Jesus.

Lord Shaftesbury’s gospel convictions and broken heart for the marginalised led to many such mission hubs across the UK. Down the decades, ‘The Mish’ in Battersea has sought to hold out Jesus with an incarnational approach to the neighbouring council estates.

But recent times had been trickier – church members had moved away, Covid had impacted the centre and numbers were thinner on the ground. So, with a warm relationship developing between Shaftesbury and The Bridge Battersea – a 15-minute walk away from the Doddington estate – discussions and prayer started around what a potential grafting partnership might look like. By September 2023, prayers for workers for the harvest field had been wonderfully answered, and a grafting team including Co-Missioners from Christ Church Mayfair, St Peter’s Fulham, St Michael’s Fulwell and The Globe enjoyed a ‘relaunch Sunday’. The Lord has faithfully sustained and blessed us in this new endeavour together ever since!

The harvest is plentiful around the Doddington and Battersea Park estates. With 5000 people from all four corners of the globe crammed into the densely packed local tower blocks and flats, different new endeavours have been started to try to reach them. Door-knocking has seen people starting to trickle in on Sundays; an after-school club had over 50 (predominantly Muslim) kids from the local primary school coming along in the first term; a coffee morning aimed at single mums has gotten underway; and an evening Zumba class has been a hit with some local ladies. Sunday services now see a lovely mix of those who’ve been at Shaftesbury for decades, those who ‘grafted in’ from Co-Mission churches and those who have started coming to church since the new outreach started in September.

‘Y’ is one such newcomer who’s been dipping his toe into things. It’s hard to imagine a more troubled background – he fled to London after being tortured and seeing his family murdered by a totalitarian regime in the Middle East; he’s been fleeced of tens of thousands of pounds since arriving in the UK by local scammers taking advantage of his lack of understanding; and his life is full of anger, despair and depression. But he’s been befriended by Lewis, Shaftesbury’s mission worker, who’s spent many hours listening, serving his practical needs and praying with him. He’s been introduced to other Christians who’ve spent time with him. And he’s started making his way to church a few times. He’s not professing Jesus for now but he comes because he says, ‘The people seem to draw me along – their love is different.’

Would you pray that ‘Y’, and the many other harassed and helpless sheep around the Shaftesbury Christian Centre, would come to know the gospel of the Good Shepherd who loves and died for his sheep?

Shaftesbury Christian Centre

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