Rebecca Duffett chatted with James Galloway

James Galloway

In summer 2007 James Galloway and his family spent three weeks in a beach hut in Somerset. They were broken, confused, disappointed and desperate. After 13 years of effort in ministry, they had to walk away into the unknown. During those three weeks, however, a miracle happened. They received a 'heavenly download', the blueprint of a church God was asking them to build, back in James' home town of Stoke on Trent - consistently described as one of the UK's worst cities. So began a three year rollercoaster ride that has seen Breathe City Church explode in growth, expanding its membership by a factor of 10 with 70% of its growth coming from first time conversions. Having released his first book Beach Hut To Palace Rebecca Duffett caught up with him to find out more.

Rebecca: So what are the beach hut and the palace?

James: The beach hut is somewhere that my wife and I and the kids were staying in for three weeks in the summer of 2007. The beach hut was a glorified shed where we stayed for a holiday on the Somerset coast. The palace is a temple, a house of God, that we never knew would be a reality three and a half years later from staying in the beach hut. So the story is from the beach hut to the palace. We honestly believe that God did something in the beach hut that we received a revelation, a vision, an understanding of what church could be.

We inherited what some would describe as a failing church with dwindling numbers. Things weren't going how they should. The first thing that we did was begin to realise where we were, what we received and what we were privileged to inherit. Then we began a cultural revolution. We began to work on and articulate a design to put in place a culture that would help us become a kingdom type church that would effect change in our city and community.

Rebecca: And you did that through seven cultural pillars. Was that significant with the number seven?

James: Yes, everybody talks about that and people have correlated it to different parts of scripture. All I know is we received something; we kind of had a revelation of what church could be, looking at the passage in Genesis 28, about what happened with Jacob when he went to sleep in a certain place but woke up in what he describes as an awesome place. It's the same place but something happened; something had changed; something had changed in him. He'd had an encounter with God and from that place he was clean and he began to live differently. He began to see God differently. He was generous and he began to give. He was secure in who he was. He wasn't on the run anymore. He was healthy; he began to put God first in his life. He was true to that which was going on and he had a positive disposition from thereon in.

Rebecca: Was there any opposition to bringing in these cultural pillars? They sound very good in theory, but I'm sure when it actually comes to putting them into practice it's not always quite as easy.

James: We'll talk about change anywhere, but the process of bringing change means that it's not the structure that's got to change and it's not necessarily the vision or purpose that's got to change, it's actually us as people that we have to change, because we as an organization are only the product of us corporately. Therefore we have to change; we have to change our thinking; we have to change our mindset; so obviously there's going to be difficulties' in that change.

Rebecca: Is this a model that other churches are using as well?

James: Yeah. We've been blown away by the response, because people are beginning to understand like I've just said that it's not structure, but we have to change. Very often people look at change in an organisation regarding what we do, but it's not about what we do, it's about who we are. People are beginning to use themselves as inspiration, not necessarily as a model, but an inspiration to bring change in regard to the cultural issues of the organisation or church.

Rebecca: What's the response from individuals been like and what really is the cost for individuals in taking part in this?

James: There were 62 people there on our first Sunday. I know that because I counted them. I was stood there and obviously as a church leader you want to know where you are and you want to know who's in the building. I counted there were 62 people and out of that only 15 people were left. That means that the other people for whatever reason, didn't make the transition.

One of the people that did make the transition is a wonderful lady called Mandy. Her husband got saved and this lady Mandy, we were talking to her the other day and she said, 'I have gone from a certain place to an awesome place'. It's not about the church she goes too, she understands that that transition has happened to her, which affects relationships; it affects how we behave; it affects mindsets; it changes where we're going in life.

Rebecca: You've come this far in three and a half years, where are you looking next?

James: We've repurposed the church, now we've got to lead this repurposed church, which is a whole journey we've got to learn. As a young leader I've got to learn how to do that best and be the best that I can and serve in the best way I can and learn as much as I can from people ahead of us. The next phase for us is breaking that 1,000 barrier, that's what we're looking at. We're doubling services; we're looking at new facilities, new auditoriums. We're looking at a huge building project that we're about to undertake. Everything is creating space for what God can do. It's all about capacity and we want to create the capacity in our operation to serve the purposes of God so that God can land what he wants to land in our lap. We're very excited about the future. The book is chapter one.

We've been asked to write again, and we're looking into that. It's very exciting, but we know that we've got to keep our head firmly fixed on what God is calling us to do. We've got to keep our eyes firmly connected to the floor and keep going step by step and just try and keep obeying what God is saying and just keep following him. Every week we're still seeing lives changed, every week we're still seeing homes healed. It's just such a privilege to be involved in it. I've always dreamed that this could happen and the reality of it is that we're now living the dream and we're very very very privileged.

You can buy From Beach Hut To Palace from Cross Rhythms Direct for only £7.59.