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(60) THE MISSION SCENE IN BRITAIN The articles In HORIZONS in May and June 1985 about the work in Britain helped fill in some details about the past quarter- century, but several recent changes in the picture make an updated report necessary. In addition, some facts were apparently miscommunicated and some HORIZONS questionnaires were left to collect dust on British desks, so a few corrections and additions are in order to clarify the mission scene in Britain at the end of 1985. The Early Team Ministries In 1970, a decade after Dean and Betty Wegwart arrived in England, Roger Edrington and Darrell Brandon, students at Lincoln Christian College, were invited to work for the summer at the Church of Christ in Coventry. These two men returned the next two summers as well, each time taking a small team with them. It was in 1973 that the first full-time team ministry ~ named in HORIZONS' June arti cle (p. 6) ~ took up residence in Coventry. Coventry was the focus of American help in England for most of the 1970's, both for the evidence of a growing church, and for the opposition of the Churches of Christ national leaders who saw the team ministry as a threat to their hopes for unification with the United Reformed Church. (Up to this time, unification was presented as the only alternative to extinction in Britain; a growing church, no matter how small it started, but paid to the theory that there was no other hope.) A changing situation has sadly stopped the Coventry church's pace of growth since the team ministry's departure in 1979. Springdale College in 1977, Dr. Robert Wetzel, dean of Milligan College on sabbatical in Cambridge, came in contact with a group of Christian businessmen called the Christian Renewai Trust (CRT), a small organization dedicated to keeping the restoration plea alive in Britain. A major part of the strategy was to establish a new ministerial training college to replace the defunct Overdaie College. After this contact with the CRT, the British-American Feliowship Committee was born in America. The CRT and BAFC cooperated to raise funds for the training centre. Dr. Wetzel moved near the site of the old college in Birmingham in June 1980, to open the doors of the Christian Centre for Study and Growth, an embryonic institution loosely connected with the long-established and well-respected Belly Oak Federation of Colleges. Harold and Rosalyn Merritt, who had been ministering at the Bursiem, Stoke- on-Trent, church, joined the faculty from the start. The first classes met in Dr. and Mrs. Wetzel's living room, and the office was a 8 spare bedroom. It soon grew into rented by Jim Dahlman office and library space at the Federation's common buildings. In 1981, two years ahead of schedule, the Centre was granted full college status and became the tenth Selly Oak college: Springdale College. Jenny Case arrived at Springdale in 1982 as the college's secretary. In August 1985, the College bought a fine mock-Tudor building at auction and suddenly the College had classroom and student living space it could call its own. The Springdale College building should be ready for occupation in early 1986. Church Ministries Updates At West Bromwich, near Birmingham, Pete and Jan (Killebrew) Bowen are working as a team with Phil and Helen Walker. Phil is the first Springdale College graduate to be placed in a British church, paid by British Christians. Roger Edrington, having completed his work at the Erdington (Birmingham) church, used most of 1985 to complete his doctorate degree from the University of Birmingham. He is now weighing his options for future ministry, either in Britain or in the United States. Janet Baines continues to work at the Hinckley, Leicestershire, church. She also is known as a reliable free hand to work in several other areas of national work. Curt and Linda Nordhielm, Rita Ide and Gall Burns have recently overseen the renovation of the Tunbridge Wells church's building, and continue to work towards the Kent town's spiritual renewal. Scott and Cindy Schade have been ministering in Selston, Nottinghamshire, since June 1980, and that old church has grown substantially, especially in the past year. Bob and Sue Hartman moved to England at the same time, going to a new church in the Wigston Magna district of Leicester. That church, formed after the break over the United Reformed Church, is one of the fastest growing Churches of Christ in Britain. Jim and Melissa Dahlman arrived in February 1982, to work with the Platt Bridge Church of Christ in Wigan. In 1984, Jim was given a three-year appointment as editor of Christian Fellowship, the national magazine for the Fellowship of Churches of Christ. Three churches received American ministers in 1983: Larry and Carol Dally came to Birkenhead, across the River Mersey from Liverpool. This is Larry's first full-time ministry after serving as an elder at the Central Christian Church in Mesa, Arizona. Dan and Amy Yamell arrived to work with a new church in Redditch, Worcestershire, a fast-growing town near Birmingham. Dale and Lee Ann Winters went north to the Scottish fishing village of Buckle. They were later joined by Sam and Alathela Burton to form a team ministry which also for a time worked with the nearby Portknockie church. In 1984, Curt and Esther Flood arrived from Oregon to work with the church in Bursiem, a historical section of Stoke-on- Trent, Staffordshire. Dick and Yvonne Stitt from Phoenix, Arizona, worked with the new Tamworth Christian Feiiowship from September 1984 to December 1985. Because of fundamental differences over the philosophy of ministry with another leader, they will be going to another church in Britain in 1986. They will then be joining the Hartmans, Yarnelis, Dahimans, Bowens, Nordhielms, Rita Ide, Gail Burns, and Janet Bains in producing The Epistle from England, a co-operative newsletter which originated in the days of the 1970's team ministries. Several churches have benefitted through short-term ministries lasting from one month to one year. Bill and Judy Norrls followed Grace and Milton Johnstone at Burnley, Lancashire. Burton and Katherlne Doyle worked for a year at Liversedge and Mappleweil in Yorkshire. Ron and Sheila Kelley served in 1985's summer at Kirkby-in- Furness in the Lake District of Cumbria. Many others have lectured at Springdale College over the past five years. This is not the full picture, but just a summary of activity focused mainly on workers with the Fellowship of Churches of Christ. The Fellowship, with thirty-five churches and almost 1000 members, is one of several co-operatives among British churches which lay claim to restoration ideals. The overall picture in Britain today shows that only ten percent of the adult population attends any church on a given Sunday ~ but even that is an increase over a decade ago. Other signs suggest that the church is waking up from a long slumber to challenge the nation with the Gospel in a way not seen since the great revivals of the early nineteenth century. The church's light is still a pinprick in the darkness of a secularized and neo-pagan Britain ~ but one which is growing in intensity and size every day. Jim Dahlman is from Tampa, Florida, and graduated from Milligan College in 1980. He married Melissa Roy from Paxton, Illinois that same year. Their only child, Sarah, was born in Wigan in 1983. Jim worked in youth ministries in Tampa, Toronto, Ohio, and Erwin, Tennessee before moving to England, where he ministers with the Platt Bridge (Wigan) Church of Christ and edits Christian Fellowship magazine. I O N 0 z 0) 1 > "O
