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West Bromwich Network Church is a pioneer ministry within the Church of England's Diocese of Lichfield. Its full-time minister, Evan Cockshaw, began working in January 2007 to establish a network of different styles of church around the West Bromwich Deanery.

Evan is one of four new pioneer ministers appointed by the Lichfield Diocese. Evan  has been given a stipend and a house for seven years. 'It's very encouraging to work in a place which values this ministry so highly,' he says.

West Bromwich was chosen as an area in which to establish a pioneer ministry, Evan explains, because it is the UK's 13th most deprived borough. Its Anglican churches tend to have small, ageing congregations, making them less attractive to young families.

The area boasts Europe's largest redevelopment programme, which aims to make West Bromwich a home for professionals, something that Evan describes as 'a factor for future thinking'.

The current population, however, is young, ethnic and working class. With 11,000 16- to 30-year-olds living within the deanery, Evan's job brief was to create church for young people. To this end, he is employed for one day a week as chaplain at the local YMCA centre.

Getting together began before Evan moved into the area. A tenancy problem in the house chosen by the diocese for Evan's family meant that the Cockshaws were living outside the deanery for the first few months.

They attended the local church, where Andy was worship leader. While there Evan asked Andy for advice on finding a worship leader for West Bromwich Network Church.

'I'd recognised that this was an area where I'd need some help,' says Evan. Meanwhile, he was praying for 'someone like Andy', whose work overseeing five bands of young people had impressed Evan. Andy is a qualified youth mentor and has had training in leading worship.

When Andy offered to help, Evan concealed his excitement and suggested that Andy think and pray some more. After a couple of weeks, Andy and his wife Claire confirmed their decision to join Evan and Hilary and become the West Bromwich Network Church core team.

'It is clear that I couldn't have done this without all three of the team, as I see us playing an equal part each – that's Andy, his wife Claire and my wife, Hilary,' Evan is keen to stress. 'All of them in their own ways have contributed an enormous amount.'

The four meet every week as a cell. 'We used to meet to plan, but we don't now,' Evan explains. 'We trust each other to sort out our own areas of work. Less meetings, more ministry,' he cites as a purpose-driven church principle.

Exploring the possibilities was Evan's first task. 'It was for me to establish what the vision would be,' Evan says, describing his work as 'a blank piece of paper'. He was greatly helped, however, by a detailed background paper put together by the team who created the post. The paper described the area and the reasons for the job.

In the first few months, Evan:

• talked to as many of the local pastors as he could;
• arranged a drive round West Bromwich with a local policeman, 'which was hugely insightful';
• studied the demographics via online census data;
• plotted church information on Google Earth, using area overlays to show parish and deanery boundaries;
• investigated the town's regeneration plans for the next ten years;
• met with one of the head teachers (they have two) in the school his children attended to explain his work, as a result of which he was invited to lead assemblies and was offered use of the school buildings for church activities;
• spent much time in prayer and reflection.

Evan says this research confirmed his gut instinct that his vision should be 'to establish a network of gathering places, of different styles of church, around the West Bromwich Deanery'.

The first church in the new network began meeting monthly in 2007 and is due to meet weekly in 2008. It takes place on a Sunday teatime in the school attended by the Cockshaws' children. The church meeting is specifically aimed at young families, and Evan describes it as a 'seeker' event, and 'a hybrid café/all age' event.

'We are starting a church with non-Christians who are attracted by something to do on a Sunday afternoon with the kids,' he says.

This church developed as a result of the families Evan met through his children's school and through thinking about the needs of these young families, who comprise most of the estate. 'But,' Evan adds, 'this is not going to tickle at all the teens and singles.'

Evan's role at the YMCA, however, enables him to work with teenagers. Plans are in place for a church planted at the YMCA centre, 'Yeshua Junction'.

'Yeshua is Jesus' real name, and we want the young people to know the real Jesus,' Evan explains. The church will be café style, a place to pass through, or a place where young people can change the direction of their lives. Either way, these 'broken young people', as Evan says, will find a welcome.

To prepare for the new church, Evan has been meeting weekly with around quarter of the residents at the YMCA, bringing food and drink and showing NOOMA DVDs.

The reaction to these has been muted, but nevertheless the act of watching a DVD has been attractive and has provoked big discussions about God.

Evan has been  listening by doing. He has offered young people in the YMCA something attractive. They have gathered round him and he has got to know them. Knowing the young people will enable him to work with them to establish a form of church that will be authentic to them.

'The staff at the YMCA said when I arrived that they were pleased I was here, but they knew the young people wouldn't come to anything I did,' recalls Evan. 'They crashed in their rooms and didn't even go on the cinema trips the staff organised. But within a few months over a quarter of the residents started coming to my stuff.

'I think God was busy before I came and I got the privilege of picking up the fruit. Being there is really exciting, with residents asking me for Bibles and prayer.'

Thinking ahead is part of Evan's work as a pioneer minister. His big picture is influenced by Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church (Zondervan, 1995), which outlines a clear process of involvement and growth on the part of new church members.

Evan's idea for each church (or 'gathering place'), such as the Sunday teatime young families church and Yeshua Junction, is that they will 'facilitate connections between people'.

'When people are in the network, we can invite them to join cells,' Evan explains. 'In the cells they can encounter Jesus personally, learn to commit to their church, and grow as disciples.'

The way he hopes to build this network of churches and cells is by focusing on individuals rather than on services.

'We want to invite the individuals to take part and run something,' he says. 'So when people have come to something three times, I'm going to meet with them personally and invite them to participate further by getting involved. We're going to let everyone have the chance to be involved and trained.

'I see Jesus as someone who comes up to people and says, "Come on, get involved now," and trains them on the job. We haven't got the luxury of waiting years until they're mature Christians to get them involved. We want to build them up and release them into ministry either in cells, or in the big services, or in the community.

'This is an area which needs people caring about the local environment, so we hope the church can release people to love it.'

Evan's vision centres on connecting individuals up, cells, involving and training people for leadership, and enabling people to serve the local community. These are his implicit values.

Organising support began even before Evan arrived. In order to fund the new pioneer ministers, including Evan, Lichfield Diocese worked in partnership with other agencies and trusts.

Evan's work in the West Bromwich Deanery is supported by the Walter Stanley Trust, which will also (with the diocese) pay for Andy to work full time from January 2008.

One of Evan's first tasks was to follow up on the diocese's message to existing churches in the deanery that his work was to take place 'alongside usual church', not to override it.

On arriving in the deanery from his second curacy, he rang every church and offered to preach. Despite some initial reluctance, he has now preached at least once in most churches in the deanery and in his first months delivered a session on his new role at deanery synod.

'I've tried to build friendly and good relations with other clergy,' he says. 'In the first year, it's been important to establish myself as part of the deanery team. So I always go to deanery synod, clergy chapter and I pick up the phone and chat to other clergy.' He has also offered himself as a back-up support for services.

In this way, Evan has been cementing support among deanery permission givers. He has also created a network of prayer and practical support.

'I've tried to establish myself as part of the wider network of churches. They appreciate the support. I pray with a local Pentecostal pastor. Other churches pray for our work, ask for our prayer needs and ring up and offer prophetic words. We've had huge support and encouragement.

'We have also been blessed with the service of some older folk from other churches who have been faithful in supporting our services at the school in all sorts of practical ways.'

To gain wider public support, he has distributed publicity leaflets about the Sunday afternoon 'gathering place' through the school, encouraged local media interest (including two newspaper articles), used MySpace, Facebook and his own website, and kept in touch with contacts via email. One couple got involved through one of the newspaper articles.

Nurturing the team has occurred naturally as the four members have met regularly together. There has been no explicit training so far, since three of the team members already have skills and experience in children's and youth work. But Evan is keeping an open mind about training as the ministry develops and widens.

A blank page and a clear vision are leading to the growth of a church which will meet the needs of different groups whilst seeking to connect people with one another.

www.wbnc.org.uk

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