BRITAIN’s coastal poverty is acute. Once thriving seaside resorts are now home to some of the most extreme pockets of deprivation in the country. In 2004, the Revd Patrick Ellisdon and his wife, Debbie, moved to the Cliftonville area of Margate, one of the poorest parishes in Britain.

Guest houses that once accommodated affluent Victorian holidaymakers were packed with people living in acute poverty and struggling with complex needs. The Ellisdons began with listening and relationship-building. They and other church members walked around the parish in twos, meeting local residents and finding out about their lives — in particular, their physical needs. These conversations led to new contacts and friendships, and invitations to drinks and snacks in church.

One of the new contacts was a local drug dealer. Before long, church members were regularly sharing bags of chips with the dealer and his customers, and listening without judgement to their life stories. Something remarkable was stirring. A Wednesday Alpha course was started, and a hundred people turned up. When the course ended, around 80 wanted to continue meeting — but few had any experience of traditional church.

The leap in format from an informal, chatty Wednesday evening to formal, structured Sunday morning in church felt daunting. The Ellisdons had visions of losing most of the momentum that they had built up. On impulse, they invited people to come back the next Wednesday evening, for food and friendship. They had to think quickly: what might authentic church feel like for these people, in this community, with these complex needs?

In other words, they had to ask questions about contextual mission and ecclesiology. The result was a service in an informal, café-church style, “Ignite”, which continued meeting on Wednesday evenings. The Ignite model was later rolled out across other areas of deprivation in Canterbury diocese, and received funding from the Church Commissioners as a pioneering model of mission.

This practical and chatty handbook explains and illustrates the rationale for Ignite. The first half of the book explores core principles: helping people to respect and value themselves, showing that they are loved and valued by others, and providing a safe space to explore faith. Belonging precedes believing. The second half outlines nearly 30 sample Ignite events, each with its own theme.

Ignite clearly comes from a broadly Evangelical stable, not least in the informality of its worship. But churches of all traditions struggling to connect with their local community could find inspiration in the Ignite model — particularly its rigorously incarnational and relational starting-points.

The Revd Mike Starkey is a London-based writer and former Head of Church Growth for the diocese of Manchester.

Ignite: How to share faith, build community and do church, differently
Debbie Ellisdon and Patrick Ellisdon
BRF £12.99
(978-1-80039-301-1)
Church Times Bookshop £11.69