2023 REPORT FROM FORGING MEN
I understand form Gary Bott that the CTB committee of church leaders are looking at the current financial position with regards to recent increased and added costs for the current events that are supported by CTB. I understand that one way to make these savings is a possible proposition to withdraw the current financial support for Forging Men.
In regards to this Gary kindly spoke to me last week and set out the plans to agree, following set criteria for ministries and events that would be supported by CTB funding. In response to this I thought I would share my views on where Forging Men, I believe, fits the criteria and why it should continue to attract support from CTB. I also know that not everyone would be aware of what we are about, as some people have either left or recently joined the CTB committee.
As an intro, Forging Men is a cross denominational group who meet on a regular basis with the vision and aim of bringing the ‘Good News of Jesus’ to men in Billericay through events which include social, personal growth and community elements. We have men attend from all the churches across the town with the exception of the URC and Catholic church, however we do enagage by sharing our publicity and personal conversations have also taken place to try and encourage attendance.
Research shows that if a man comes to faith there is a higher percentage of the rest of the family joining him and in following a proven 4 step model of different levels of engagement, happy to share this further if necessary, we believe our ministry can make a real impact. The ministry has been established for approximately 8 years but for the sake of time will concentrate on more recent events to give you a flavour of what we offer.
Whilst like most outreach activities ours were curtailed by lockdown, we responded by continuing in an online format Forging Men started 2021 with more online Zoom meetings, mostly inspired by the CVM book: “52 Men of the Bible”, including considering Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses & Pharoah and interspersed with guest speakers: Stephen Gaukroger on how the church should respond & adapt to the challenges brought by COVID-19 and Jon Hancock, who grew up in Billericay but now runs a TV Production Company, mostly focused on Children’s TV programmes.
The ‘Gathering Summer Event’ with our own added ‘Car show’ was again online but we were able to meet up at Queens Park Community Church as our first face-to-face meeting in more than a year. We enjoyed home cooked pizza in the church car park engaging with passers- by curios as to what was happening.
Once Covid rules relaxed we returned to more conventional events and enjoyed hearing from Essex-based Brian Howson who shared his testimony and his work with Prison Fellowship in Chelmsford prison. Andy Robb, minister of Revival Church, spoke to us on the subject, “Saying Yes to God”, before finishing the year with a Curry & Quiz Night.
Then in 2022, we kicked off with a film night and followed with more than 50 guys attending to hear Patrick Regan of kintsugi HOPE speak on the subject: “It’s OK not to be OK” including some who hadn’t previously attended nor (to our knowledge) have links to churches (invites given out in High Street, at Billericay Town Football Club & at Parkrun Lake Meadows). More events continued throughout the year with further speakers and social events such as bowling and curry nights and again a large group of guys heading off to a large men’s event organised by Christian Vision for Men.
We also organised an outreach event at Billericay Town Football Club in partnership with Football Pastors ,where we provided a free BBQ for club volunteers and staff. Our most recent event again attracted a group of over 30 guys with representatives from BBC, Revival, Methodist and all the Anglican churches where we heard James Van Cleef give an excellent talk on coping with bereavement.
One outreach that is particularly worth mentioning is the opportunity to Carol sing at both Billericay Railway Station and at 6 pubs in the town, a real opportunity to bring the Christian message to ordinary people whist helping to raise valuable funds for Billericay Foodbank.
Other than the Remembrance Sunday parade and St Mary’s at the Christmas market I don’t know of any other event that engaged with more members of the general public, including those departing trains and enjoying a Christmas drink. We are now very much part of the pubs events leading up to Christmas and seemed to have established ourselves with a regular slot.
Just in summary I hope I have given you a flavour of what we do and hope to achieve. Whilst I recognise that because of lockdown we became more of a ‘Christian Group’ we hope our added community work can restart this year to attract those either on the fringes church or involved in other charitable causes. An example of this being a large number of Foodbank volunteers, non Christians, attending this year’s Christmas Curry Night.
Although we always try to self-fund our events through tickets sales, such as the Curry Nights where the full cost is covered, other events which are mainly held at St Mary’s we simply ask for a donation from attendees to cover the any costs. It is however the larger events that often need to be subsidised if venue and speaker costs, such as the Kintsugi HOPE event, mean the ticket price starts to get prohibitive. All administration costs are kept in house by using church admin teams and all resources are voluntary with no one charging a fee or receiving payment and we currently receive no other funding. With this in mind and the fact that most if us work full time I am proud of what we have achieved so far although experience show us men’s ministry can be a slog, hard work and sometimes with no evident reward but one guy recently wrote.
‘I find the fellowship and connections I make from Forging Men invaluable as I don’t really have any men my age attend my church. I also really value the fellowship with men across different churches and think that this provides a lot of benefits which are probably quite hard to measure in terms of keeping Men motivated and following the narrow path. ‘A member of the Methodist church’.
I realise though you have some difficult decision to make in supporting other equally worthy cases so perhaps a reduction in funding rather than stopping at this stage maybe a possible solution if you feel what I written still deems us eligible. Stay blessed.
Stuart Gibbs
READ REPORTS TO THE 2023 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
2023 AGM Meeting Minutes
Schools Ministry Billericay (SMB)
Billericay Foodbank (BFB)
Street Pastors {SP)
Forging Men (FM)
CTB-Associated Events
Christmas Day Lunch