B1 began back in January 2001 as an experiment in re-designing church to suit the cultural preferences of people between the ages of 20 and 40. We started with a core group of 27 adults and 16 children. None of us really knew what B1 would come to look like, but we knew that there were large sections of the population and many sub-cultures completely switched off institutional church. We couldn’t go on doing church as it had been done before.
We decided on the name B1, partly because it’s the postcode of central Birmingham, but also because it speaks of the value we place on being community. We wanted to create a church in which people felt comfortable belonging before they were required to behave or believe the “right things”. Early days were spent in Walkabout Inn and Edward’s Bar on Broad Street.. Meeting people on neutral cultural space was important to us.
We called ourselves a network church, because parish boundaries seemed anachronistic in a large city like Birmingham. In an increasingly mobile society, people live work, relax, socialise and worship in a variety of different communities or locations. The idea of a network church was that people who tried us out would have interests and friendships in common, rather a common identity derived from geographical place. We’re currently a community of 58 adults and 26 children.
B1 belongs to the Church of England, though we recognise that denominational labels no longer matter to most people. We have good relations with other city churches, because we recognise that we don’t have all the answers. |
