Alan the bouncer

We have a bouncer here at church.co.uk to deal with the difficult people that come through the door....The move to hire Alan came about as a result of my dealings with some intimidating and aggressive individuals. I've never heard of a church that has a bouncer so we must be the first. You might be saying "i thought the aim behind the church is to be inclusive to all people!" but i've come to the realisation that you cant always be inclusive. We don't have the energy to be constantly inclusive to all people because a lot of the people we deal with are very demanding. If i've learned anything this year it's about having good boundaries. I certainly feel determined to change people's lives but there is only so much i can do. Often i've felt a burden to be the answer to all people's problems perhaps because of my open job description. Volunteers don't have a definite position and so i found myself using my skills wherever possible and over time this has taken a strain on me. The result of months of hard graft is i've got little energy for the people i had so much time for in the past. I'm still pleasant to them but i've lost sight of my initial aim to support them.

There is this one homeless guy who's deaf in one ear. I've been working with him to try and get a hearing aid through the NHS but as times gone on I've lost the energy to deal with all the hurdles we need to overcome. Because of his hearing deficiency you have to repeat everything twice and because he's homeless you never know when he's going to turn up at the church. This makes meetings impossible. Alongside him there are lots of other homeless guys all desperate for a listening ear (excuse the unintentional pun) struggling with loneliness and poverty. For a long time i would try and speak to them all because i felt that was my job. I didn't feel there was a commitment in conversation but this led to me identifying need and then wanting to do something about it. This year has been a great training for my journey into Statutory Social Work. I'm well aware of my limits and i realise the importance of joint working whereby people work together to solve issues. I'm not sure i want to work for a church in the future. I've enjoyed the chance to outlive the values of my faith in a church setting but i feel more passionate about professional working. I've struggled at times with the less professional approach of the church (this is not a criticism) and look forward to the more structured approach within professional social work. No doubt i will face other challenges and i approach them with an open mind.

I've discussed with many people that Churches need to become more like efficient businesses. Businesses have a product that is culturally relevant in the sense that people use it. Alongside this they have long term vision and aims.....Church.co.uk is on a journey to run like a business. We offer our services like products and then market them in line with the current marketing campaigns around us. People are essentially interested in the fellowship the church offers but it does us no harm to appear professional. We're also very aware of our mission. We ask the questions about what our niche market is.....is it the homeless or do we have a problem in our community with youth crime. We work to the needs of our community and we try to identify the needs of that particular group. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing me next year when i move to Glasgow is finding a church. I moved to London because of my struggle with Church. I have wonderful christian friends and am grateful of the nurturance my home church has given me. However, Church.co.uk suits my theology perfectly. I do not go to church to receive and i do not go to church to listen to a sermon i cant relate to my daily life. In my eyes a sermon that doesn't offer practical advice is nothing worth hearing. That may be a strong view but Jesus never preached anything that didn't have a practical meaning. I go to church to act upon my faith and i go to church to leave with direction and mission for the week ahead. "your being to picky Andrew!", no I'm not. All church should be like this, and i can assure you that a church like this will not lose most of it's teenage population at age sixteen. It's not just the responsibility of a youth worker to youth work but the responsibility of a whole church - 'working church - a church that works'.