LoveBristol

A spirit-led network of urban community houses

I started off this month of June by spending 2 nights with the LoveBristol community in Stokes Croft, Bristol. I can’t emphasise how inspired and encouraged I was by them!

Stokes Croft is a funky part of town! Tapestries of graffiti layer most walls, and it certainly has a buzz about it, though sadly it is also an area which suffers greatly from drug abuse.

Although a brief visit from the 1st-3rd June, I had such a richly filled time with LoveBristol including: visiting their charity shop, spending time with their weekly women’s art group, attending a church home group, sitting in on a team meeting, joining a community house dinner, joining the community leaders’ breakfast, and spending much time in fascinating and generous conversation in between!

An especially big thanks and shout-out goes to Gwynneth for passionately and loveling ensuring I sampled LoveBristol to the max, and providing me with such encouragement too!

(And during this month of June, please forgive me for perhaps slightly less well-written accounts; it’s an especially packed month with little time to write!)

Overview
Founded in 2006, LoveBristol is both a church and charity, with a hope to “try to love, care and support communities across Bristol” and with a commitment “to creating a resource that will bring about positive change for the city of Bristol and the surrounding areas.” A concise yet beautiful summary of who they are can be read about on their website here.

Below I will summarise some practical components of LoveBristol, with an emphasis on their community work. A deeper sense of LoveBristol can also be listed to via this podcast with community member, Sophie.

• Church: LoveBristol is a small, intimate charismatic church with a core congregation of ~ 30-40+. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows one another in familial ways!

• Charity: LoveBristol is also a charity with a staff team of ~ 8 who help coordinate the various local/community projects which stem out of LoveBristol. These include various social enterprises and a network of community houses.

• Social Enterprises: These include a charity shop, barbershop (the second combing!), second-hand furniture store and a community cafe.

  

  LoveBristol helps coordinate a variety of social enterprises inc. a charity shop (top left), cafe (top right) and a second-hand furniture store and barber (bottom).

  Through these social enterprise:

  • volunteer, employment and training opportunities are provided to those who are otherwise often excluded from work (e.g. asylum seekers, those with learning disabilities, those experiencing acute social deprivation);

  • money is raised to support LoveBristol and other local charities (with an emphasis on homelessness and addiction);

  • tight-knit local community, and consequently an attentiveness to the needs of others and the area, is fostered.

  More inspiring details here!

• School of Ministry: Historically¹, LoveBristol also ran a 9-month School of Ministry/discipleship program. From what I heard, this was an incredibly inspiring and life-transforming program, spiritually nurturing and empowering its participants to be disciples of Christ, following in the example of the apostles and early Church.

• Community Houses: Super excitingly LoveBristol has a network of 10+ community houses!!!

  

  The community house I was staying in.

  • The houses are all within ~1 mile of each other, and range in size from ~ 6-20 bedrooms/people. Some of the houses are owned by LoveBristol or its members, some have been ‘lent’ to LoveBristol to manage (e.g. by the Muller Foundation, or individuals with second homes) and some are rented.

  • Community members range in age from 0 to 60+, and include people from all walks and stages of life (single, married, families … the lot!). Some houses are more young adult houses, others more family houses, and yet others have a mix of all generations.

  • Applications to the community houses are diligently and prayerfully managed by LoveBristol’s community pastor. Applicants who seem promising in their desire for community are invited to interview where questions of community, conflict, mental health and relationship (amongst other things) are explored and considered to assess suitability for community living, and/or to discern which of the LoveBristol houses may be the best fit.

  • Community commitments involve eating together every weekday², intentionally living as a community. Community members are also encouraged to pray together, attend LoveBristol church at least once a month, and are placed on the church “Hospitality” rota.

    

    The best community blackboard ever!!!???

  • Leaders, who have previous experience of community living, are appointed in each community house to help facilitate peaceful and nourishing community. They also serve as the primary link between the community house and LoveBristol.

  • Pastoral support is readily and proactively available to the community houses and is considered of utmost importance to the successful running of the community houses. This is lovingly and passionately provided by two LoveBristol staff/pastors who:

    • host monthly ‘Leaders Breakfast’s, bringing together community leaders for an informal chat over breakfast where encouragement, prayers, concerns, questions, notices… can be shared

    • once a week have dinner with one of the community houses (on rotation)

    • organise 1-1s with each community member (across all houses)
      

    all with the intention of maintaining a caring and nurturing eye on each community and its members, and building up loving and trusting relationship.

  • Long-term guests/people in desperate need of housing are also welcomed, with community houses having previously housed asylum seekers, Ukranian refugees, and some homeless and individuals recovering from drug addiction³.

Reflections
Wow - the reflections from my time with LoveBristol are great! I’ll try my best to summarise them below, and as ever, I’m always up to chat around any points which pique your interest!

Overarching reflections on LoveBristol and its community

• Fluency in the Spirit

  One of the things which touched and inspired me most about LoveBristol is the humble space it holds for the power of the Spirit to move through them. The image I have is of a gently coloured breath or breeze, weaving freely and gaily between its members, gifting inspiration, healing, prophetic images, prompts … which are gratefully received, shared and channelled towards bringing God’s kingdom to this earth.

  Free from all the razzmatazz of other charismatic spaces, LoveBristol exists in harmony with the Spirit in a natural and everyday way, always expectant, trusting, and grateful of the ways God reveals himself and sharing His presence and works generously.

• Diversity

  LoveBristol really stood out in the diversity of its membership across age (0 - 60+ years), marital status (single, married, families) and personality. Due to the number of community houses (10+) and variety of members, different community environments have been able to be created, making it easier to accommodate a diversity of people and needs.

• Sustainability of Membership

  I was positively surprised, and encouraged, by how long people chose to live as part of the community houses, pointing to a certain sustainability. (This is in contrast with other communities who expect transient membership e.g. Iona, Scargill, communities of formation such as Craig Lodge or the ESC.)

  I wondered whether this was in part due to the absence of a ‘common demanding task’ (e.g. prescribed volunteer commitment) which enables for a more sustainable community-work life balance. This is interesting to consider as other communities will highlight the importance of a common demanding task for community cohesion and a sense of united outward-facing mission.

• Responsiveness to Need

  Although there is no formal ‘common demanding task’ in LoveBristol community houses, community members often unite around local social causes and collaborate on projects (e.g. soup runs, prayer walks, clearing up a local green space, extending hospitality to those in critical need of it). I believe this is facilitated by LoveBristol being so rooted and invested in the local area, enabling it to react responsively and appropriately to the needs which arise.
  Does the absence of a ‘common demanding task’ facilitate ministering to a local area, its people and needs in a more personalised, responsive, creative, sustainable way?

• Recruitment

  Compared to other communities, LoveBristol fair very well when it comes to recruitment. Its ability to have a sustainably large enough community to cover 10+ houses is really rather impressive, and indicative of a certain need and desire around community living.

• City-Wide Church & Charity Collaboration

  It was fascinating and deeply encouraging to hear the extent of church and charity collaborations in Bristol. For example, LoveBristol invites community leaders from other church community houses to join their ‘leaders’ breakfast’ from time to time, as well as donates some of their social enterprise profits to other local charities. From conversation, it was evident that there was a generous collaborative spirit between churches and charities within Bristol.
  

  In contrast, a formerly Cambridge-based community member helpfully highlighted how in Cambridge there are networks of incredibly connected individuals, yet tragically, this does not translate into institutional collaborations. Imagine what would be possible if all cities were as generously collaborative as Bristol?

More specifically on community leadership/nurturing

• Highly Relational

  I greatly appreciated seeing relationship being placed forefront and centre, especially by the community pastors. Though managing a really rather large network of community houses and members, they never compromise on relationship, recognising how fundamental it is to the well-being and flourishing of both individuals and the community.

  “High relationship also enables high trust”, I heard them say, enabling a much more pastoral, nurturing approach to community leadership (rather than top-down and authoritative which can end up being constrictive and consequently ‘messy’).

• Empowerment
  Building on the above, I was touched by LoveBristol’s gift and desire for empowerment of individuals, and community as an environment for growth and flourishing. It was evident to me that they are people who truly see people, their beauty, their potential … and also have the remarkable gift of nurturing, encouraging and bringing forth what they see (which may still be hidden to the individual in question or others!). Speaking just for myself, I felt incredibly seen, encouraged and empowered - thank you!

• Complimentary Leadership

  The two community pastors complimented each other beautifully well in their differences. It emphasised to me the benefit of leadership teams, and the benefits of sharing pastoral responsibilities.

• Strong Application Process
  The discernment around community membership was highlighted as a critical component for the success of the community houses. Investing heavily in the application process (time to interview, get to know people a bit…) was strongly advised when considering the nurturing of community.

• Spirit of Learning

  The community pastors carry a hungry spirit to keep on learning about community and how others ‘do’ community. They are in the habit of inviting fascinating speakers (inc. Shane Claiborne!), have organised a conference on community (look out for a potential other one in 2024!), and relish the opportunity to welcome outside guests (like myself) to expand their thinking.

Some interesting conversations

• I had a fascinating conversation around the question - how can we make community living even more sustainable, helping the community embed itself even more deeply in the local area? In this conversation, the idea of partial property ownership was raised, how it can contribute to long-term community living, and the associated advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

• I was interested by the use of the term “community leader” and asked community members whether they felt it changed the nature of relationships within the house. Most people seemed pretty unfussed by the term, though there was curiosity when I raised this point, and some interest in potentially renaming this responsibility (e.g. anchor resident, as inspired by Hodge Hill).

• During home group, we shared in a touching conversation around the gift, but also the hardship, of feeling others’ and rooms’ emotions acutely. It led us to explore emotional sensitivity as a gift which has the power to shift atmospheres for good. At other points during my time

• At various points during my stay, I heard people reference the ability to shift atmospheres, whether it be through the yielding of emotional perceptiveness to counter ‘negative’ emotions in a room, or praying for and in a spiritually dark area. I liked the term and got me thinking about how as Christians we can shift atmospheres through prayer and works. I was also recommended these books - Shifting Atmospheres and Atlas of the Heart - as further explorations into this concept.

Conclusion
I continue to be deeply moved by the power of community for spiritual and social transformation, and LoveBristol is an extremely inspiring example of such power, as truly enabled by an attentiveness to the Spirit. If so much can come out of one small congregation in under 20 years, imagine what can be birthed across all our churches and cities!!??

I should really stop writing now (!), and so to close I leave you with this blessing (which I came across during my time with LoveBristol) which beautifully conveys the ways in which community can bless:

May you know the security of connection
May you know the safety of home
May you know the warmth of companionship
May you know the embrace of friendship
May you know the fulfilment of longing
May you know the gift of being
May you know the joy of belonging
May you know the calling of deep to deep
May you know what it is to love and be loved
May you know the presence of I am
May you know the home of your heart
May you know Hiraeth

~ M Bayton

Until next time!
Lakshmi 😊🌻

1. The program experienced some financing issues (people had to pay to participate) and took a blow over lockdown.

2. Each house/community decides what they want their food budget to be, and pay a weekly/monthly contribution to cover the community’s shared food shop.

3. This is done with care, and only if the community house has the experience required to effectively welcome and manage the specific needs of a long-term guest.