In September two members, along with two of the congregation, at Laindon Baptist Church ran the Baptist Union Wellsprings course. Wellsprings is an eight week course for women which combines some ‘me time’ with an opportunity to look at issues which affect women today from a Christian perspective. It was written by Leisa Barton, one of the ministers at Chelmsford Baptist Church and is published by the Mission Department.
Laindon Baptist is a small church with limited finance so an application was made for a BU Mission Grant. The grant meant that we were able to buy covers for the sofas we had been given and sew cushions to make the room we were going to use more comfortable and less like a waiting room with chairs around the walls. We were also able to buy some equipment, including a simple coffee machine so we could serve proper coffee easily. People from the church were asked to make home made cakes to serve at Wellsprings.
We chose to run the course fortnightly, as it made practical arrangements with children and partners easier for those who attended. Each of the eight weeks focussed on a different issue, among those we explored were self image, failure and relaxation. The activities needed to be led properly by someone who was qualified to do it so we had to look outside our membership to find suitable people. After having called in favours and done some sweet talking we used more of the grant money to buy in the expertise we needed. We were only able to have 12 people attend because some of the treatments on offer were individual, so any more attending would mean that not everyone could join in. We publicised the course at Noah’s Ark, the mums and tots group at our church, and all the places were filled very quickly. Most of the ladies attended each week and if they couldn’t come we normally got a message to say why.
Each evening consisted of a chance to chat, drink coffee and eat home made cake. Then there was some ‘girlie’ activity which linked to the theme and finally a short talk putting the Christian perspective on what we had been doing. Conversation usually centred on family life and the ups and downs of juggling looking after small children, the school run and getting to work on time.
When the course started only two of the ‘team’ were baptised members of the church but in order to run Wellsprings we needed more than two, so we felt it right to involve willing volunteers. Since starting to help one of the helpers has been baptised and come into membership at Laindon Baptist Church. In addition, two people prayed specifically for each evening.
The eight sessions of the current course ended in mid December and we gave out a customer survey form. The response was positive and they were all interested in continuing to meet on an occasional basis. Many of them already attend the mother and toddler group at the church so we are in contact.
The Wellsprings talks spoke clearly of the gospel and the vision was for it to be a stepping stone to the Alpha course, which is run regularly here at Laindon, and there was some interest. Of our twelve attenders eight were of Indian origin and several of them spoke of celebrating Hindu festivals. Any journey to Christianity for them is likely to be a long one.
The ladies who attended have already asked about another course next Autumn and have talked about friends they would like to bring. The Mother and Toddler group has, for the first time in its history got a waiting list, so there are plenty of potential ladies to invite.
In the meantime there are plans to keep the Wellsprings idea going by holding occasional Wellsprings Extra evenings, running to the same format and offering a one off activity. We asked those who attended to suggest activities for those evenings and some good ideas were put forward for us to work on.
