We interviewed Liz Hayden, a member of the staff team at Christ Church Mayfair, to find out what motivates them to be a global church. Christ Church have sent many people, including Dave and Cristyn Wakefield, who are preparing to teach theological education at Moffat Bible College in Kijabe, Kenya.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about Christ Church?
Before working at church, I was a missionary myself. For two years I worked in East Asia and later as a Staff worker with Christian Unions in London.
Christ Church Mayfair is an evangelical Anglican church in central London. We are a ‘gathered church’ as our church family is spread all over the city, not many people can afford to live in Mayfair! We’re well suited to those who can reach the church easily for midweek events and find it easier to invite unbelieving friends and colleagues to church in a central location. The church family is mostly British, but with a strong international contingent.
Why is your church committed to sending people to other countries?
Primarily because the gospel is for the nations. Although we have opportunities to share the gospel with people from many countries, cultural and religious backgrounds, there are still so many in our world today who do not have access to the gospel.
Although we’ve always known that overseas mission is a good idea, our practical commitment to sending gospel workers overseas has developed over time. When we were first planted 20 years ago having missionaries seemed like a good idea, so we hastily ‘borrowed’ some from churches we had connections with! But gradually we have sent more and more missionaries from our church family.
How do you discern who to send?
We look for the same things we look for in those we appoint to leadership roles in the church: godly character, knowledge, and skills useful for ministry (or a willingness to acquire them). People typically have a desire to serve abroad, an affinity for cross-cultural work and then have a chat with the mission support group or a member of the staff team.
How do you maintain a strong connection with the workers you send?
We love it when our missionaries visit us, and we encourage them to do so as often as they are able. We regularly interview missionaries in our services and prayer meetings and feature them in our prayers each Sunday. Our congregation is quite transitory so every time our missionaries return the congregation will look very different to the last time they visited. We are considering connecting our missionaries to a home group, so that they can build deeper relationships with a smaller group of people.
Where we have sent someone from the church, we feel we have a stake in their ministry – the highs and lows, big decisions they are making – and so we like to send a staff member to participate in reviews and debriefs with their mission agency. We also link them with a member of the church who can check in with them pastorally.
How has sending people, like the Wakefields, helped and encouraged Christ Church?
Sending missionaries is a really healthy thing to do. When people like the Wakefields leave, it’s painful, but sending key people overseas keeps us from becoming too comfortable or inward looking. It reminds us of the priority of God’s kingdom and keeps us depending on God for our needs here.
Dave and Cristyn’s decision to go overseas with a young family has also been a challenge to their peers. It’s a stage of life that naturally encourages us to seek stability and familiarity. It’s obvious to parents of young children that there is a cost for Dave and Cristyn. They will be far from home and their support network; they won’t be progressing on the property ladder or in their careers. To lots of people, including Christians, that’s crazy! But it reminds us of the immense value of the gospel and that it is worth taking risks for, whether we stay at home or go overseas.
What is the most encouraging thing about being a church with a global focus?
It’s encouraging that we can pray for the gospel to progress in places that many of us will never have the chance to visit. We get to hear stories of God working in unexpected ways in some very challenging contexts.
What challenges are there to remaining committed to global mission?
The challenge for us is to ensure our missionaries are really known by the congregation, which has a high turnover. Some are with us for the long term, others are only here for three to five years to study or work. This can be hard for our missionaries who won’t recognise many faces in the room when they return. However, it is a wonderful opportunity to encourage young Christians to have a global focus.
