There’s a Weoley exciting future for church!

Seven years ago, Castle Elim Church faced closure. Now it has two congregations and is running out of space, explains pastor Rachel Jewson

“I was standing in church today thinking how on earth did we get here?” says Rachel Jewson. It’s a fair question, considering how much has happened at Castle Elim Church over the past 12 months.

Since last summer, the church in Weoley Castle, south-west Birmingham, has become independent from the sister congregation which once rescued it from closure. Not only that, it has also taken over a neighbouring church and expanded so much that it’s now virtually outgrown its buildings.

But rewind to 2017 and things couldn’t have been more different. The church was in trouble. Numbers were so small it was no longer viable. Elim recommended closing or merging, so Castle Elim was brought under the wing of Encounter Church in Selly Oak.

Encounter Church stabilised the congregation and expanded it with projects such as a new Limitless youth group. In summer 2021, Rachel was brought in as Castle Elim’s new pastor and for two years she worked with Encounter to lead it. Then she started sensing that change was coming.

“We were very, very grateful for everything Encounter Church Selly Oak had put into the church because they literally stopped us from going under, but I felt we were coming into a new season,” she says.

Castle Elim was stronger, so the leadership team decided it would become independent on 1 October last year. But that wasn’t the only big change.

“At the same time we were approached by a neighbouring AoG church called California Christian Centre which was at the point of closing down,” says Rachel. “They asked if we’d consider merging. We agreed and began to lead it.”

Growing a team
With two churches to run and new people joining, Rachel and her team decided to duplicate their Sunday services. She and the worship team begin at 9.30 at Weoley Castle and repeat the service at 11.30 at California, with the children’s work run at Weoley Castle.

In the face of all these changes, Rachel quickly adapted her own leadership style too. “When I first came we had 30 people, so I pretty much organised everything myself. Growing to 100 was quite a shock! Over the past year I’ve brought a leadership team together because I can’t run things single-handedly anymore, especially as I’m part-time.”

In February, Rachel also brought in part-time assistant pastor Lynette Pienaar to focus on pastoral care, visiting and preaching once a month.

She is hugely grateful to all the church members who have volunteered to step up and help too.

“God has been great at sending people to us who have a lot to contribute, and I’ve been able to release things to them,” she says.

“We run a homeless project in the winter, for example. People told me they wanted to pray and help homeless people, so we talked about how that would work and they got it underway. Then the other day a lady said we needed an extra connect group and that she and her husband would be happy to organise it.”

Making it manageable
Rachel says leading a smaller church like Castle Elim is totally different to the larger places she has served in previously, like Birmingham City Church and Lifechurch Central in Halesowen.

This means she has focused on making sure the number of activities the church runs is manageable. These include the Limitless group, a weekly Welcome Space plus a toddler group in the California building.

“From day one I made it our culture that everything we do has to be sustainable. I’m very keen not to kill people off by giving them too much to do.

“In large churches you have a big vision, action points, goals and strategies, then you gather volunteers to make it happen. We do things the other way round here. We ask what God has given us and what we can do with it.”

Another priority has been caring for an influx of new church members.

“Half of the congregation have only been coming for 18 months, so we’re taking time to get to know them,” says Rachel. “I’m surprised by how many times neighbours and others have just turned up.

“I had a lady message me a month ago to say her son, who’s been coming to Limitless, wanted to become a Christian.

She asked if could we help, so I met up with them.”

During her three years at Castle Elim, Rachel says she has sensed God lead her through several different stages. In her first year, God guided her to spend time discovering what was happening at the church. In her second she felt him telling her to watch what would grow from it.

The third year was full of big change. And now, Rachel senses God is once again leading them into something new.

“I feel the Lord is saying we’re going into a season of sowing, planting and reaping,” she says.

“That means we’re planning to do evangelism training; looking at ways to reach out more effectively with all the growth we’re seeing.”

Building troubles
A potential fly in the ointment is the building trouble the church is currently navigating. Plans for new chairs, carpets and more are all on hold thanks to a debate with the council over responsibility for a decaying retaining wall.

But could this be God’s timing?

“I had to halt spending on the building because we were faced with scaffolding costs, project management and surveys, but actually in the 18 months that’s been going on we’ve outgrown our buildings.

“I’m wondering if God timed it so we wouldn’t spend money on revamping our current place.

“Maybe if we’re supposed to sow and reap a harvest we’re also meant to move.”

So the church’s long-term location is open to question, but Rachel is trusting God for the solution.

“One thing I’ve learned over the past couple of years is to wait and see what God will do. He hasn’t let us down so far!”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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