Leadership And Congregation

Every member ministry

St Matthew’s is a medium size urban church. We are Charismatic, Evangelical, with a commitment to all-member ministry. In 2013 we were recognised as a Covenanted Parish in shared ministry. We recognise the God given gifts many members of the congregation have. Individuals are encouraged to use these gifts in service to the Lord, church and community and a rota is created to help organise those who serve in various ways on Sundays.

Our congregation is diverse in age, background, and life experiences. We have a strong core of long-standing members alongside newer families and individuals. At the start of 2024, whilst in interregnum due to the sudden death of our vicar, we were just over 100 on the Electoral roll, but at the 2024 APCM a majority of the PCC resigned, left the church and the Church of England and formed their own church, as a result, we lost about half of the congregation. The reason this happened was that they disagreed with the Church of England leadership over their inclusion of the ‘Prayers of Living in Love and Faith’.

Since these events, the church has shown consistent growth in numbers. The electoral roll is currently 52, but the number of attendees regularly exceeds that. At least 20 new people have become regular attendees during the past year. We believe that the growth is due to the joyous atmosphere and welcoming fellowship that is tangible within our congregation. The word of God is easily expressed by members at opportune moments during the service.

Training & Teaching

The church has been a training ground for Clergy, having had two Curates in recent years, along with placements for Curates and Readers partway through their training programme. Within the last decade, the church received funding that enabled us to support two full-time staff members: one focused on children and families, and the other serving as a Youth and Worship Pastor. During this period, we were also able to offer a Youth and Worship Internship. The intern later joined the team as a full-time staff member, contributing to our youth ministry, going into local schools, and assisting with the daily operations of the church. We appreciate the value and need for teaching programmes at other times of the week for our church and non-church members, and have offered Alpha, Freedom In Christ and various other teaching courses programmes.

These moments occur in such a way that newer members have felt comfortable enough to join in at later meetings. This often results in interesting and searching comments during our after service refreshments time. This time allows us all to get to know each other better as the weeks pass by.

Some have said that it’s like an electric current dancing from person to person and that the presence of God is apparent in this hour of caring, sharing and often laughter, every bit as much as during the service. The presence of the Holy Spirit is attracting more people to spontaneously join us, as is noticeable in our Thursday “Light Break” drop-in coffee mornings. We are enthusiastically looking forward to seeing more people joining us, whatever stage they find themselves in their spiritual lives. Most of all we want to learn and listen to what God wants us to do to expand his love more and more in our community.

Training & Teaching

The church has been a training ground for Clergy, having had two Curates in recent years, along with placements for Curates and Readers partway through their training programme. Within the last decade, the church received funding that enabled us to support two full-time staff members: one focused on children and families, and the other serving as a Youth and Worship Pastor. During this period, we were also able to offer a Youth and Worship Internship. The intern later joined the team as a full-time staff member, contributing to our youth ministry, going into local schools, and assisting with the daily operations of the church. We appreciate the value and need for teaching programmes at other times of the week for our church and non-church members, and have offered Alpha, Freedom In Christ and various other teaching courses programmes

PCC and leadership

We have a newly formed PCC with some members that have been attending St Matthew’s for many years, some that have rejoined us and some new members. We aim for the PCC to be open and transparent and try to keep the congregation informed of our discussions and decisions. We also publish the Minutes of our meeting on our notice board. We have nine members of the PCC, a vice chair, two Church Wardens, one is also the Treasurer and one of two Deanery Synod members, and the other is our Safeguarding lead, a PCC secretary and 4 other members. During our interregnum our Rural Dean has also attended our PCC to help guide us in our meetings. He also comes to us once a month on Sunday to officiate at our Communion service. Leading and preaching the other services is covered mainly by our PCC vice chair and one of the Church Wardens, with others from time to time.