The local church taking its place at the wellbeing table

By Ruth Rice

Several years ago as a result of a breakdown I found myself opening a café style space in Nottingham along with the lovely New Life Baptist Church that I was leading at the time. This was a place to share hobbies for wellbeing, to offer a quiet space to join in the rhythms of prayer that had brought me back to health and to work alongside overburdened mental health services. This place, Renew 37, looks like a café but feels more like a shared front room. Open four days a week this little space is a safe place to belong. The place of prayer attached to a space for community to bring a hobby, share a hobby, brought me life and peace and so I was delighted when other churches wanted to try something similar and in 2017 Renew Wellbeing, the charity I now lead, was born.

We developed simple ways to train, support and encourage churches to set up quiet shared spaces where its ok not to be ok, where we can be present, be prayerful and be in partnership with local mental health services.

By March 2020 there were 50 Renew centres nationally and it was wonderful to see churches interpreting the values of presence, partnership and prayer in outdoor spaces, cafes and local church buildings. Many churches wanted to use their buildings even though I had thought this needed a café style space and I began to see how you could very simply adapt a space, any space to be open to the community to improve wellbeing and prioritise prayer.

Then we hit the global pandemic. All the cafes closed overnight and I thought it was all over.

However it had only just begun.

Since then we have learnt how to do our training online as well as in person. The church has begun to really understand the need for such spaces. At the time of writing this we have 280 centres open nationally and many more in training.

You can read the full story in Slow Down, Show Up and Pray.