History of the Church
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You might think 'Steve's Get Stuffed Ministry' is an unusual name for a work run by an Elim pastor. You'd be right; it's a joke. But it's a joke with a serious edge, and comes from the heart of Steve Sheppard: Elim pastor, steel construction worker, biker, and a man with a passion for the lost.
"My value is we do it like a banquet on the streets: my vision statement is to 'get them stuffed'," he explains. "We've been involved with the homeless from the beginning, and these people know that when they come to our shift they will be cared for, valued and ultimately they're gonna get stuffed." This slightly unorthodox approach runs like a thread through Steve's ministry. The proud owner of a Harley Davidson motorbike, he is also a proud member of the Harley Riders, a group of bikers with whom he meets regularly for rides and rallies. "They know me as the Rev," he says. "They meet once a month at the Shoulder of Mutton pub, we do rallies, the whole thing is just about getting alongside them. Initially they were suspicious, but ultimately the unchurched ain't coming to church, we've got to work out how we get them here, so what we're doing is bringing the church to them. Reaching out to the lost is in my life blood. All my life I've worked with hard men, that was my parish. I was involved in steel construction work and now I'm involved in God's construction work." 45-year-old Steve is pastor of Water's Edge Elim Church, based in Poole. Raised in Poole, in a non-Christian home, his energies were focused on martial arts, competition fighting – and motorbikes. But he became a Christian in 1982 after a former girlfriend's attitude of forgiveness towards a violent rapist who had ruined her life "really spoke to me". "One day I drove up to this church service on my 750cc Norton Commando thinking I don't want anyone talking to me, I just want to go in there and listen to the preacher, and God spoke to me and said "Son, why are you running from me?" I just broke down and wept. "That week I walked into a midweek prayer meeting at an AOG church where they had an hour's pre-prayer. When they started off, young and old, lying on the floor praying, I stood and said "I don't understand, but I want you Jesus in my life." I was immediately baptised in the Holy Spirit, and He lit a fire in my heart which has never gone out." Within a couple of months of his conversion Steve felt the call of God on his life. He hitch hiked down to Plymouth for an interview at the Methodist Cliff College, where a "very gracious guy" suggested he needed to get involved with a local church for a while first. In the years that followed he went back to his work in the steel construction industry, travelling around the country putting up enormous buildings, including multi-storey tower blocks and football stadia. He got involved with YWAM, met his wife-to-be, Lizzie, in 1983, and married in 1984. But that sense of calling never went away, and in 1996 he found himself studying for an undergraduate degree in theology at Elim's Regents College in Nantwich, despite the fact that he didn't have an O'level or A'level to his name. "I didn't do the access course, I left the building site and went straight into the honours degree. For the first two weeks I wondered what on earth I was doing there, and I know some of the lecturers wondered that too! But I was always a grafter, and had the principle and value of hard work in my life." He successfully completed the degree – and went straight back into construction work, whilst wondering what else God had in store. He began meeting with a group of folk in his home, to seek God and pray. Two years later, in December 2001, Water's Edge Elim church was born. Most church plants develop out of an existing larger church, but this was not the case with Water's Edge. Perhaps unsurprisingly, with Steve at the helm, theirs is the conventional church plant story – in reverse. They started meeting five years ago with a congregation of seven adults and three children, and a passion for the lost. From the beginning they worked with the homeless, and they prayed. "Prayer is so important," says Steve. "Right from the start we always had a prayer meeting, praying for us and praying for the nation is one of our core values." Meeting in a hired hall on Sundays, and borrowing the local URC for their midweek prayer meeting, gradually they grew to a core of around 50 adults.
"The significant thing is that this old church was birthed in an apostolic way, with a miracle of healing, and it was a church that planted churches in the local area," reflects Steve. "This little old building has had moments in its history where God's presence has shaken the building. It's interesting that God is bringing life back into a work that was facing closure, and it will bring the church to the next level, which ultimately is in reaching the community with the love of the gospel. So for Douglas Road it's a new start. For Water's Edge, it's an exciting move. "What this move is doing is consolidating the work – before we were just hiring a hall on Sunday and after we'd packed away no one knew we were there. Now we have a parish! "God has done this, because we have taken steps forward and God will always bless movement. It's only down to Him that we have the success, even though there have been times when there have been tears." "Because Jesus has made a difference in each of our lives we are able to make a difference in other peoples lives in our home places, in our school places, in our community places and in our church places. That is why we need to reach the unchurched because someone has to. If we don't, how are they going to know?" For further information contact Rev Steve Sheppard on steve@waters-edge.net
Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance. Registered Charity 251549 (England & Wales) SC037754 (Scotland) |
The work in question is with the homeless. On Monday nights you'll find Steve and his team down under a flyover in Poole, Dorset, handing out soup, sandwiches, crisps, fruit and coffee to the 'down and outs' huddled there.
Water's Edge were then approached by an established Elim church, based in a chapel in Douglas Road, Parkstone, Poole. The struggling congregation of around 12 people were facing the closure of their building. How would Water's Edge feel about joining them? On October 1st 2006, the new congregation met for their first service in their new building – the old Elim chapel is coming alive again. Steve sees great symmetry in this turn of events. The old Douglas Road church started out in the aftermath of the First World War, following a Pentecostal evangelistic outreach in the area. During the outreach a great miracle of healing occurred, where a paralysed man in leg callipers walked again. The former paralytic joined the evangelist, and as Pastors Best and Blackman they birthed the Douglas Road church. In the following years the church went on to plant a number of other churches in the area. "Most church plants come from a mother church, in our situation it has not. Our church plant has gone into an existing church that's been there since 1919.