As Edinburgh Elim celebrated its 90th anniversary a special youth event took place to mark the occasion
Edinburgh Elim celebrates its 90th anniversary
What do you do when your church hits 90? Take a whole month to celebrate and do lots of community outreach, says Edinburgh Elim’s Gordon Allan
With the 90th anniversary of its congregation coinciding with the 150th year of its building, Edinburgh Elim had the perfect excuse for a month-long celebration in October.
And from kids’ parties and community cake sharing to worship nights, an anniversary meal and some random acts of kindness, the church took every opportunity to mark the occasion.
“We wanted to recognise our legacy and give thanks to God for his faithfulness, but also to use the anniversary as a launchpad into our future and to talk about our faith,” says pastor Gordon Allan.
“We’re asking what it looks like, not just to have a good church but if our entire church was mobilised in mission to impact the city.”
With this in mind, activities for every age created the perfect opportunity to invite the community to join in the celebrations.
“We had a kids’ party which the Sunday school could invite their friends to, and two Ukrainian families came who didn’t know each other but were able to chat and exchange numbers,” says Gordon.
“We had bowling for the youth to invite their friends along to, and a birthday cake giveaway in the community where we gave out cake, invitations and information about the church.”
Gordon was also keen for church members to engage in ‘90 days of blessing’, where they per- formed random acts of kindness to bless people throughout September, October and November.
“We had contributions to food banks, cups of coffee bought for people, emails and cards sent expressing words of encouragement and gratitude, and people giving lifts in the rain.
“It’s been worthwhile and has sown a culture of blessing in the church. That’s not to say people weren’t generous before, but having this at the front of peoples’ minds is especially important in a cost-of-living crisis where everything can be about shrinking and withdrawing.”
Members of the church took part in ‘90 days of blessing’ as part of the celebrations, and also enjoyed an anniversary meal
As Gordon says, Edinburgh Elim was keen for the celebrations to help it look to the future, and since October the church has continued to invest in a raft of new and existing activities.
He lists a toddlers’ singalong, street out- reach, a fortnightly soup and sandwich drop-in, men’s and women’s ministries and support for Teen Challenge as part of its energetic outreach mix. But there are several other areas which the church is excited to see growing.
Edinburgh Elim has an active student
and young people’s church
“We’ve begun to invest strategically in our students and young adults – we have someone who is passionate about looking after them and beginning to develop that group really well. She’s providing opportunities for students to find a family within the city and is really intentional about discipling them too.”
The church’s ‘Above the Line’ training project – based on a book of the same name – is also helping to develop potential leaders.
“It’s a book of leadership principles, but I thought it would be great for church too. Rather than the usual ‘here’s how to pray, here’s how to plan a sermon, here’s how to run a small group’ it has a different take. We’re using it to develop people and give them the chance to grow giftings within themselves and to see where, as a group of potential leaders, we could step into new opportunities.
“We’ve just come to the end of our first year and we’re looking at how to take people on beyond that now.”
Online church
Another goal for the year is to get Edinburgh Elim’s ‘embryonic’ online church fully up and running. “We’ve had sermons online for years, but we’re pivoting with a chat bar, prayer room, space for people to meet and training opportunities.
“There’s no substitute for being in the room, but how do we develop people who do have a level of investment in the church even though they’re not in the building?
“It’s also about creating discipleship pathways, a teaching platform and a doorway for people checking you out.”
With a three-year-old church plant already well established Edinburgh Elim is also mulling over the possibility of further expansion.
“I’d love to see more communities planted, and there’s every possibility that that could happen this year.”
To be brought up in a Scottish Elim church and to now be pastoring one in his country’s capital city is a huge honour, says Gordon.
“It’s a great church with a sense of joy and family that we really work at.
“We create that sense of togetherness, fun and abundant life that Jesus said we should have.
“Our tagline and mission is to bring the kingdom of God to the city and beyond, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
City’s churches united in prayer
For the past four years, a growing group of pastors has met to pray for revival in Edinburgh.
“We have joint churches’ online prayer gatherings and numbers have been 400 and over,” says Gordon.
“There’s a genuine sense of Team Jesus in the city and a common purpose. It’s a safe place for pastors and leaders to come where we can celebrate and console with each other, but most importantly call out to God for his move in this city.”
Helping Indonesia
Edinburgh Elim has close ties with churches in Indonesia and recently joined forces with Glasgow Elim and Elim Coatbridge to supply iPads to children and people setting up small businesses.
And when a visiting speaker mentioned the need in an indigenous village for a speedboat to improve transport links, the £3,000 needed was pledged within five minutes.
“We saw pictures of the boat last week and it was great . You wouldn’t get one like that for £3,000 over here!” says Gordon.
Church plant was answer to prayers
Sheri and Mike Johngrass, who are leading Haddington Elim Church, left, which includes a Messy Church
“Do you think that was a God conversation?” Gordon Allan asked Mike Johngrass. The pair had just met for breakfast and discovered God had placed a desire to plant a new church near Edinburgh on each of their hearts.
“Mine and my wife Sheri’s time as interim ministers in Stockbridge was coming to an end,” says Mike, “so we’d been praying about the idea of planting a new church, while Gordon had also been praying about launching a campus church out of Edinburgh Elim.
“He said, ‘What if we partner together to do that?’”
They spent time driving to different places, walking and praying, and eventually felt God lead them to the market town of Haddington.
Convinced this was the place to plant, they launched Haddington Elim Church in January 2020 with the help of three families from Edinburgh Elim.
Fast-forward to post-pandemic times, the congregation – which is now 30 people – was growing and the church needed a bigger place to meet.
God opened the door to Nungate Community Centre in September 2021, says Sheri. “Two Christian ladies who manage the centre for the council invited us to have our services there, so we now meet there on Sundays and have our Messy Church there too. We’ve also partnered with them to launch a youth café.”
The church is actively engaged in community outreach, where at a monthly farmers market, for example, a smart evangelism tactic is employed.
“We give out dog biscuits,” says Sheri, who also makes balloon animals for passing kids. “Owners love their dogs and dogs love biscuits, so they stop to chat.”
Mike also met a local councillor at the market and was able to ask how he could pray for him and the town.
As the couple consider this steady growth of the church and its outreach, two verses come to mind, says Sheri.
“One is Zechariah 4:10, which talks about not despising the day of small things. The other is John 15:4 – about our need to remain in God because we can’t bear fruit otherwise.
“As this church plant, we’re seeking God and trying to remain and abide in him, because that’s where growth and fruit will come from.”
Meeting prisoners to talk about salvation
At the same time that Mike and Sheri were praying about church planting they also had prison ministry on their hearts, so the couple got in touch with Prison Fellowship Scotland back in 2019.
“The chaplain at HMP Edinburgh had just contacted them to ask if they had any volunteers who could come in, so we really felt this was God’s timing,” says Sheri. They began to go into the prison to deliver restorative justice courses through the education department, and the fact this was considered an essential service meant they could continue during lockdown.
“It’s been great to meet prisoners and talk about salvation, restitution and redemption,” she says. “During a course we did recently one guy asked what it means to be born again. This is a wonderful opportunity God has given us to share the gospel.”
This article first appeared in the March 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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