CR spoke with Phil Barber from the Potter's House

I would say primarily our church in a 21st century church and by that I mean what we've tried to do is to create a church that connects with today's culture. Half of our church is under the age of 30. That kind of statistic is unusual I think, sadly unusual in our society.

I've written in this book a list of the DNA of the church. We tried to build a large church, which is the Lord's house; guided, inspired and filled with the Holy Spirit; a house of prayer and a place for the development of media, arts and creativity. We've created a church that's young at heart, friendly and welcoming, having high standards in all its activities; inclusive and compassionate and culturally relevant in the style of its activities, reaching the lost relationally. We focus on resourcing, mentoring and training people so that they can fulfil their potential and working in partnership and unity with other members of the body of Christ in Stoke-on-Trent.

I've written about a lot of those things in the book. I've tried to compact all of my thoughts and ideas that I've learnt over 20 odd years in the book. Obviously, each of the issues you could write many books about and many books have been written about them, but I've just tried to distil my wisdom into the book and describe the culture of the church, which we believe is a successful culture. It is reaching the lost and reaching the young.

Heather: What have been the highs and lows in developing the church?

Phil: Well in 1992 we planted out of Swan Bank, Burslem which is a large Methodist Church and we only planted with 17 people and a few children and I've written here that church planting is not for the faint hearted. That was a very costly experience; to leave most of your friends behind and to go into what was then just a school, to meet in a classroom and start with just a little, tiny group of people. It is a very costly experience, so don't do it unless you really feel called to do it. I think that's one thing I would say.

When we purchased what is now the Bridge Centre at the end of 2005, that building was in a wrecked state and we spent two and a half years doing it up; refitting and refurbishing it and that was also a massively costly experience. It was costly literally in terms of finance; I mean the people of the church gave £200,000 out of their own pocket just in two Gift Days to purchase the building. Then a lot of us spent many evenings a week and at weekends crawling over the building knocking all of the rubbish out and filling skips and then painting it, decorating it, laying carpets, all the things you can imagine that we did. People committed themselves in a very costly way to do that and the church eventually experienced project fatigue. Also, our dear friend Phil Price died suddenly right in the middle of the project and he was our administrator.

That's just a few examples of what's involved and the commitment to the people to create a place where the Lord's work can be done.

The highs have been seeing people come to faith and lives changed; seeing the church grow from 17 to 500+ and seeing the younger generation step up and take their place.

Heather: When people come in, they won't necessarily know the cost and history when they see a beautiful building, a great group of people that they can come and belong to.

Phil: Yes that's right. I mean, interestingly we did a survey in September of the church and we discovered an amazing statistic, which is that 45% of the people have only been with us for three years or less, which is great because it means that the church is growing, but of course the Bridge Centre was done more than three years ago. While it's very vivid in my mind, all these new people have no idea. To them they've arrived and the whole thing is finished and it seems like we've been there forever. The book helps all of them to realise the journey we've been on, so it's a very good resource for us in that sense.

Heather: A big part of your heart is succession in leadership, isn't it?

Phil: That's right. I've written a chapter in here called, 'Timothy'. One of my passions is to mentor, release and empower the younger generation. We've been mentoring and releasing people in their twenties and thirties very intentionally over the last five or six years and that's really culminated in the fact that I'm stepping down from Senior Leadership, though I'm not retiring, this summer. I'm handing over the senior leadership of the church to a guy called Paul Nixon. He's 30 this year and he's been my Timothy for the last four years. He's been my apprentice and he becomes the Senior Leader and I'm so excited and delighted about that. He's going to be a fantastic leader and he'll take the Potters House on to the next stage.

I was called and gifted to build the foundations of the house; he is gifted to build the walls. It is a different skill set that is required. I have tried to create a circumstance where the work will not falter as I move out of primary leadership but will go forward even more quickly. I am not retiring by the way but will continue to work at The Potter's House as one of the Associate Pastors. I want to model 'servant leadership' (as well, of course as earning a living!)

Heather: Investing into young people is important to you, why is that?