Christchurch Baptist inducted a new minister last weekend. Rev Chris Brockway joins Rev Sandra Prudom in leading the growing Bargates congregation.

Rev Brockway is no stranger to readers of Faith Matters, having previously served as a pastor with West Cliff Baptist Church in Westbourne.

In an interview for this page, Chris shared some of his passions for the local church and says he’s keen to see Baptists become a real, relevant, radical and relational community.

“I am really excited about joining the story of Christchurch Baptist and also joining the story of Christchurch as a town,” Chris said. “I want the local church to recapture its historic role at the core of everything, as the hub of the local community.

“If churches deliver programmes really well, for children, families, older people and everyone in between, and you get a reputation for doing that, people will come to you.”

“I am passionate about seeing people come to faith and grow in their faith,” he added. “I want us to follow the kind of lifestyle that Christ would have us live and live in a real relationship with God, not just a religious one.

“I hate the idea of a local church being a kind of religious box-ticking exercise.

Joining from West Cliff means he may not have had so much of an upheaval to begin this new phase of ministry but Chris says, “God has used my time at West Cliff to shape the next season of ministry, the next chapter that we’re about to go into for us as a family.”