Cirsticn

Horizons
Mission Services
P.O. Box 2427
Knoxville, TN 37901
Dear Editor,
U.S.A.
Editor
S.J.Dahlman,
A, Ruskin Crescent
Abram, Wigan WN2 5PX
Phone;Wigan(0942)864280
News Editor
Mrs.C.Schade,
2, Alberta Avenue
Selston, Nott$.NG16 6GN
Subscriptions
Miss Y. Attrey,
176 Alexander Road
Acocks Green, Birmingham B27
18 December 1985
Bob Wetzel of Springdale College suggested that I submit a fresh report
about the work in Great Britain after your European and British feature
reports in May and June last year. I believe you were in contact with him
about the possibility. The manuscript is enclosed; I hope it is adequate.
I also enclose a complimentary copy of Christian Fellowship, the na
tional magazine for our fellowship of churches here. It appears ten times
yearly, and not only are American subscriptions available, they are de
sired. The magazine is used both as a tool for teaching and for general
information about the churches in Britain. I hope you enjoy this issue,
and I also hope that your organisation might take out a subscription to
help keep you informed about the overall work here. I enclose our North
American subscription form. Would it also be possible to print the sub
scription information about Christian Fellowship in your journal, perhaps
in correlation with the enclosed article? It might be of interest to note
that in 1986. Christian Fellowship will be focusing on various aspects of
how church growth can work in Britain.
Thank you for considering my manuscript. I would like to see it should
it go into print; I will be happy to pay for a copy and its postage.
Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions. I am afraid
that to be more detailed would have meant an article too long for your
purposes. Finally, you may notice that I have usually used the British
spellings where they differ from American (e.g., "centre").
May God bless you in your work, and thanks once again for this
opportunity. May you and yours have a Happy Christmas.
Peace,
Jim Dahlman
A Magaz/ne of Churches of Christ
8? ^
THE MISSION SCENE IN BRITAIN
by Jim Dahlman
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 correc
tions and additions are in order to clarify the mission scene in Britain
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 minis
try - named in Horizons's June article (p. 6) - took up residence in Coven
try. Coventry was the focus of American help in England for most of the
1970s, 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 extinc-
b
tion in Britian; a growing church, no matter how small it started, ^t 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 minis
try'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 Renewal Trust (CRT), a small organisation 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 Over-
dale College. After this contact with the CRT, the British-American Fel
lowship 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 Selly Oak Federation of Col
leges. Harold and Rosayln Merritt, who had been ministering at the Burs-
lem, 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
spare bedroom. It soon grew into rented 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 Cass 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 stu
dent 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 Chris
tians. 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 contin
ues 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 Gail 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 Daily came to Birken-
head, 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 Yarnell arrived to work with a new church in
Redditch, Worcestershire, a fast-growing town near Birmingham. Dale and
LeeAnn Winters went north to the Scottish fishing village of Buckie. They
were later joined by Sam and Alatheia 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 Burslem, a
historical section of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Dick and Yvonne Stitt
from Phoenix, Arizona, worked with the new Tamworth Christian Fellowship
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 Britian in 1986. They will then be joining the Hartmans,
Yarnells, Dahlmans, Bowens, tsi Nordhielms, Rita Ide, Gail Burns and
Janet Baines in producing The Epistle from England, a co-operative newslet
ter which originated in the days of the 197Cfs team ministries.
Several churches have benefitted through short-term ministries lasting
from one month to one year. Bill and Judy Norris followed Grace and Milton
Johnstone at Burnley, Lancashire. Burton and Katherine Doyle worked for a
year at Liversedge and Mapplewell in Yorkshire. Ron and Sheila Kelley
served in 1985*s summer at Kirkby-in-Furness in the Lake District of Cum
bria. 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 Fellow
ship, 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 on 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 seculari/ed 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 minis
tries in Tampa, Toronto, Ohio, and Erwin, Tennessee before moving to Eng
land, where he ministers with the Platt Bridge (Wigan) Church of Christ and
edits Christian Fellowship magazine.