Hadleigh Farm: Doing church organically

Major Lynne Shaw finds out how Hadleigh Farm is building relationships with the community.

Hadleigh Farm is a commercial farm, with a rare breeds centre, a tearoom and a hub. It’s a place of natural beauty, and of environmental and social progress. It’s where people come to receive training and develop the skills they need to succeed in whatever they want to do. It’s also an organic expression of church.

The dynamic team includes Emerging Mission Officer Captain Wendy Watkins, Chaplain Captain Claire Whybrow, and community outreach workers Zena Österberg, Tara Dye and Sheena Booth, as well as Bitbop, an African Pygmy Hedgehog who lives in the staff office.

They respond organically to the community around them with the resources they have at hand. There is much for the farm’s team to give thanks for, and much is given back to the community.

Zena says: ‘We engage with people in new and different ways that builds relationships. We have the mission to build those relationships how we feel led, doing church the way Jesus would have done church. We’re going to where the people are.’

This year, summer activities have run alongside Walking Church – a chance to explore faith, while getting some exercise and fresh air – and Tree Tots – activities for toddlers and their carers – with an emphasis on getting outside in all weathers, collaborative events and Muddy Church.

Across 10 summer events the team talked to many families and invited them to a special Muddy Church, held on a part of the farm not normally seen by visitors. It was based around the Olympics and the theme of Kindness to Your Neighbours. 

An Olympics trail, crafts and a campfire were part of the fun, with s’mores and popcorn. Captain Wendy then shared a thought on Jesus’ teaching about what it is to love your neighbour, with kindness, and they sang ‘Shine from the Inside Out’.

Once the gates were opened for Muddy Church, it took a long time for the queue to work its way through. The previous year they had 170 people attend and this year they planned for a few more, producing 200 stickers. In the end, 352 people attended, the whole event being covered in prayer.

The huge number of people led to what has been nicknamed the ‘potato miracle’: only 105 large potatoes had been put in the oven but, with the addition of a lot of cheese and beans, only two people missed out on potato.

It would be easy to focus on this as the high point of Muddy Church, but the most important result was the relationships they were building with the many families who come time and again to different events and activities.

That same relationship-building is seen in the wider team, as corps officers, pioneer leaders and volunteers from the local community have come on board – literally, in the case of the Stuff on the Bus fresh expression that came from nearby Canvey Island for Muddy Church.

A different kind of collaboration happened after Castle Point Climate Action group approached the farm. Together they ran some environment- based activities. They considered healthy snacking, the environment, planting seeds, identifying the droppings of different creatures, and the vital work of bees.

The farm team put together a bee trail, talking about being kind, being humble, being patient. The Climate Action group spoke about the importance of bees to the environment.

The children who attended each made a bee and planted seeds to take home with them. When Tara spoke to the appreciative parents, they said how much they’d enjoyed the afternoons, how much they’d learnt and what a lovely time they’d had.

Castle Point Clean Up Crew, a local litter-picking group, also collaborated with the farm, and both groups were very appreciative of the contacts they were able to make with local families through the farm. 

This kind of joined-up working across the community allows for the territory’s mission priority of caring for creation to be embedded in the activities of the farm. For example, the farm recently joined forces with environmental regulator Natural England for an ambitious rewilding scheme that will transform nine parcels of land on the estate.

Looking over all that has happened this summer, there has been much to be joyful and thankful for. That joy is being shared through the farm’s film nights and music afternoons and evenings – including the visit of Swift Beats, a young group who play a lot of 1960s music, and DJs who play hits from the 1980s or sets evoking the Ibiza club scene.

The farm and its café, where ample parking is available, allow for good fun, great conversations and for families and friends to relax.

The team all wear bright red T-shirts, making themselves visible to the thousands of visitors, always available to help, support and chat. These conversations often lead to invitations to other farm activities and build a stronger sense of community.

Being where the people are, engaging with the community rather than separating off from it, has led to the growth of Walking Church. Information about each walking session is shared on social media, spreading the message of Jesus further and wider than the estate’s boundaries.

It continues the cycle of giving back what they’ve received, sowing seeds of love and hope that have been planted over time, watered faithfully by God.