Charles Brammall continues his story of the “Enter” ministry to entertainers with a church plant
He tells us how his church plant searched for a new venue when the school hall became unavailable.
With our perfect Artarmon Public School venue gone, we now looked at a total of twenty potential church venues. These included both the old and new Artarmon libraries and the unused churches and halls at both Artarmon and Chatswood South Uniting (where I had grown up and become a Christian). Also, the old “Baby Health Centre”, a retirement village/nursing home complex at Chatswood, the unused Multiple Sclerosis Centre, and Chatswood Bowling Club. In addition, Willoughby and Mowbray Public School halls, Willoughby Girls, and several shops and upstairs businesses in Artarmon. Finally we looked at a little old weatherboard Korean Presbyterian church in a back street in Lane Cove.
The latter was the only place available and even slightly suitable for us to settle, and while it was kind of God, it was by no means an ideal venue. Being in Lane Cove, we were out of the suburb, which made it hard for us to invite local people to church. We couldn’t exactly say “Would you like to come to Artarmon Community Church, in the Korean Presbyterian Church, in ‘Back St’, Lane Cove?” It was also further away from where entertainment people worked, lived and studied. And it was a little old ramshackle building with paint peeling and no signage in an isolated side street with no through traffic. Although we made up sandwich boards, very few people ever drove past. The tiny hall and Sunday School room were in bad condition and needed paint, which we did, but unsurprisingly, we stopped growing, and eventually, our numbers began to decline.
We limped on for just over a year, with decreasing morale, then praise God, the little old Artarmon Bowling Club became available! Also, it was not an ideal venue, but at least it was back in the suburb. But it was also on a little street at the end of a peninsula, with no through traffic. At least there was lots of parking this time. But it was small and ancient, like a parochial country bowls club, in a bushy and mozzie-infested part of Artarmon. It was just one large room, and the lectern was only a couple metres away from the beer taps! It by no means had a slick, sophisticated entertainment style (not that Artarmon School had either- but it had certainly been closer to it). But we stopped shrinking and gradually began to grow again, and the kids loved playing on the one decommissioned bowling green!
We never leased a building for church- just rented it for half a day for church and youth group. So our family home in Artarmon doubled as our “Ministry Centre,” and the dining table was my “office”. It was also our venue for dinners, meetings, 1-1 ministry, and Youth Group “Regressive Dinners”. Also, as a Youth Group, “Amazing Race” checkpoint, marriage preparation with couples, and pastoral meetings with people. And staff meetings, evangelism, hospitality, and many years’ worth of Youth Group kids bouncing on our large tramp!
Although I was an Anglican minister, we had planted an independent mission and church, so the Diocese chose not to give us any financial support. Although Glen Davies, the Bishop, wanted to make us a “Parish Without Property” when we reached eighty people, in God’s wisdom, we never did. We were also offered moral and training support by our friends in FIEC, the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. The Bishop’s other alternative was to make me Rector of Artarmon Anglican, but in the end, that didn’t happen either. We were never a large church, topping out at about fifty-five people, including children, but that was by no means our average, which was more like thirty-five.
We attracted several “refugee” families from Anglican churches because they liked our informality and relational, interactive style in comparison to their own churches but valued our Bible preaching as well. But we also had refugees from Pentecostal churches, as they liked our Biblical preaching in contrast to what they were used to, but also enjoyed our relational, informal style.
So, Artarmon Bowling Club was our home for the rest of our lives. And my wife (who was not around in those days) is astonished at the love, respect and commitment we still receive from some of those ENTER and church people. This is from twenty-five years ago now. I guess we went through a lot of tough and joyful frontline Gospel experiences together, so it bonded us. We were on the cutting Gospel edge of an industry and a region, which was thrilling. We were a happy, outward-looking, Bible-loving little mission and church, which was loyal and committed to sharing Jesus with people. The congregation bent over backwards to reach the industry and Artarmon with caring creativity. For example,
To advertise SPLAT we went round the main shopping street, asking if we could put posters up in their windows. I came to a first-floor business called “Women’s Health Centre”, and went upstairs. It turned out to offer a range of Gynecological services, including abortions (which I think very few people in Artarmon knew about). They were happy to put up our poster, which was kind of them. Back at church I chatted to a lady in our congregation who was a Doctor and interested in ethics. She came up with a lovely idea:
The congregation could donate multiple wheat bags (the kind you heat up in the microwave for sore joints), and we would print “With Love from Artarmon Community Church. x” on them and on our website. A lovely local Christian printer, Jim, would donate the printing. (He donated all of our printing over the ENTER years!) When each lady came out of her procedure, she would be given a wheat bag so that her first experience of local Christians post-procedure would be warm, welcoming, and embracing. We imagined some ladies would have expected the opposite from Christians. The idea never came to fruition, but it would have been lovely.
One of our Music Directors, Dr Jane Phillips, is one of the most talented musicians I have ever met. It almost seemed like she could learn any new instrument she chose just by putting her mind to it. From memory, she learned things like harp, bagpipes, ukulele, drums, and guitar. She and our other Music Director, Fliss Webb, seemed to be able to teach us a new song almost every few months or so. So, over the ten years of church, I believe we would have grown our repertoire by over sixty songs.
We had a puppeteer from Quizworx, Ros Hicks, who constructed her own theatre and puppets, wrote scripts, and was a skilful and hilarious puppeteer. Also, we had several filmmakers, including Tim Webb (The Shopping Channel), Laura Blythe (Channel 9), and our Children’s Worker and an independent filmmaker, Grace Bolt. These craftspeople made our clever support-raising films. Also we had a disproportionate number of fine vocalists, especially Jane Philips, Fliss Deane and Erin Brown. If we didn’t have someone to play a certain instrument, they would sometimes offer to learn. Such is the wont of creative Christian people, in their servant-heartedness. God blessed us.
Church included planning and preparing six sermon series each year- one evangelistic, one NT letter, one gospel, one OT book, one Wisdom Literature, and one topical series. We also ran “Summer Fellowship” with a Bible discussion format instead of church services over the Christmas holidays, as many people were away. Once a term, we combined Bible study group topical nights with guest speakers. For example, Haydn Sennitt from Liberty Ministries, an organisation supporting same-sex attracted believers.
Pastoring the church was a constant but joyful burden. I could relate slightly to Paul’s sentiment in 2 Cor 11:28-
“… Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my concern for all the churches.”
At one stage, we started a youth church on Sunday nights, but it never grew large enough to be sustainable.