Ringstead Baptist Church

 

• Minister Rick Preston is learning about life in a village church

• He was called from city and town centre ministry to this church which has a desire to explore more incarnational and pioneering models of church

 
Ringstead, a small village in Northamptonshire, population about 1700, it’s got a pub, a shop and a post office; Oh and two take-always – a chippy and an Indian!  The village also boasts two churches, St Mary’s CofE and ‘the Shared Church’, and it’s the Shared Church (Ringstead Baptist Church) to which I’ve been called.

Let me introduce myself, I’m Rick Preston, Baptist Minister of 22 years, all of which have been in City centre or Town centre settings. So I know about retail chaplaincies, (two shopping centres, a department store and an ASDA store). I know about evening economy, street angles and working with asylum seekers. In my last post we even ran a community centre which was open from 9 till late most days of the week.  So perfectly equipped then for .. err village life!

So why am I now in such a different setting? No seriously why am I? Despite my saying I wanted another town centre posting I found myself accepting the call and moving last August to rural Ringstead. Why? Well mainly because here was a small church who seemed to know where they were going. They had prepared an imaginative and exciting church profile in which they had stated a desire to do new things, reach out to the various communities represented in their small congregation and a desire to do church in a different way.  They were even wondering about online before Covid!

Ok Covid has changed some things, we are now in a different situation than we were two years ago when the mission plan was written, and some of the assumptions have changed, but there is still a desire to explore more incarnational and pioneering models of church.
Which means now I have to adapt to my new way of life. I must admit it really is different being rural. I’m used to having places, events to focus work on, and here that’s not the case. But with a church who are willing we are aiming to journey together, they will teach me (hopefully) about rural living, and I will work with them on new models of church.  Watch this space and see where God leads us.

Rick Preston
Minister
January 2022

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