Night Church: A church without walls

It was an all night prayer meeting in a former bank building on Gitana Street, in Hamley, Stoke-on-Trent.

Gordon Crowther and his team were asking God how best to engage with the community when suddenly the doors burst open and in walked five lads in their early 20s.

They wanted to know what was happening and straight away one of them wanted to talk about his spiritual life. And there Gordon and the others had their answer: simply open the doors and the people would come. And that has been their tactic for Night Church ever since.

The pioneering project has been going for just over a year now. It is run by volunteers from many different denominations every Friday night from 10.30pm till about 4.00am.

“The idea was to engage people who did not traditionally come to church as we know it,” said Gordon.

It started as the Church Without Walls when the diocese appointed Gordon as Church Planter and Mission Priest for Newcastle, Stoke-upon-Trent and the Stoke North Deaneries.

“Initially, we used to meet on Sunday afternoons for a worship service,” Gordon explained, “but we still felt that we were missing a group who would not engage on that level.

"So when our five lads interrupted that prayer meeting, we knew that the way to go was a night time project that targeted those people who were usually out at that time. And so Night Church was born."

Gitana Street is a back street during the day time, but at nights it is a hub of activity because there are several night clubs along here and so many people come past the church on their way to and from different clubs.

Just over a year ago, Gordon and the team started off monthly and opened their doors from 10.30pm until about 2.00am, but the response and the needs have been so huge that they have had to start going weekly and extended the time to 4.00am. As the Bible says, ‘the harvest truly is plentiful’.

“Hospitality has always been key to the initiative," said Gordon. "We have welcomed all kinds of people: asylum seekers, people sleeping rough, clubbers and older people who are in the city at night just wanting something to do or someone to talk to. People come in just for tea or coffee or for prayer or to talk and ask questions about matters of faith."

And lives are being changed, he notes.

“It has been marvellous to see what God has been doing in people’s lives. We have had great conversations and meetings with people."

One such person was a young man from the Royal Marines who had been to Afghanistan. He had witnessed three of his friends get killed there and on the night they met him he was out to get drunk. He came into Night Church and stayed for hours and we had the opportunity to pray with him.

“I remember too the 17 year old girl who came in and knelt in front of the cross and just started praying aloud about some trouble her friend was in," he shared. "We went and prayed with her. She wanted to talk with us about some strange spiritual experiences she had encountered and it ended up as a deliverance session. Afterwards, she told us that she felt so free."

One of the fruits of the Night Church project is the way it has brought Christians from different traditions together.

“Night Church is truly an ecumenical project and it has been great to see groups who would not normally work together now working together for the good of the community.”

Gordon leaves for another assignment in South Africa in December but the Night Church continues under the leadership of Catherine Cowell.