The couple who turned a disused church into a community hub

SIX years ago, the historic, red-brick church building, rising high on a side street in a deprived part of the North East, was mothballed amid talk of it being sold.

Today, Darlington Baptist Church, built in Corporation Road at the turn of the 20th century as a place for the town’s army of railway workers to worship, is on track to provide something very special.

The church, which has already grown into a hub for a range of vital local services, is about to become home to ‘The Community Grocery Store’, where families can buy fresh food and other supplies at a fraction of the normal cost.

The church’s remarkable transformation is due to husband and wife, Barry and Vicky Thompson, whose faith and drive have conspired to breathe new life into the building and the local community.

If there is a question about how to make churches more relevant, they are answering it as joint ministers.

“Children are going hungry, it’s getting worse, and The Community Grocery Store will be a lifeline for lots of families,” declares Vicky.

(Image: Peter Barron)

Under the Community Grocery Store model, families pay £5 a year to be members, then shop three times a week, spending £4 to fill a basket with goods, valued at £25-£30, that would otherwise go to waste.

“There’s a lot of shame attached to foodbanks, and this is a more sustainable model, allowing greater dignity and choice,” explains Barry.

Bringing the idea to Darlington has had its challenges, but the couple are convinced it’s a case of their prayers being answered after they left behind a comfortable life in a far more affluent part of the country.

Barry was born and raised in Darlington, while Vicky is from Oswaldtwistle, in Lancashire, and they met while working at the New Life Baptist Church, in Northallerton, before marrying in 2003.

After studying together for a theology master’s degree, they became ministers at a church in prosperous Farnham Common, in Buckinghamshire.

(Image: Peter Barron)

“We had an idyllic life in a beautiful part of the world with our two boys,” says Vicky.

However, the couple arrived at a crossroads on a trip back to Darlington to visit Barry’s parents, when they discovered that the minister of Darlington Baptist Church – comprising amalgamated churches in Grange Road and Corporation Road – was due to retire.

“I felt God say to me that he needed  me to take this church,” recalls Vicky.

With Barry agreeing that “This is what God wants us to do”, the couple swapped the relative riches of Buckinghamshire for Darlington, where Corporation Road is within the UK’s top five per cent of multiple areas of deprivation.

The church buildings had merged in 2017, with Grange Road attracting just 60 people to its services, and Corporation Road shut and lifeless.

“The church was on its knees but we changed the style of worship, making it more accessible and modern,” says Barry.

The Covid-19 pandemic proved to be an unlikely turning point, with the Corporation Road building having to be reopened on Sundays, so members of the congregation could be more spread out.

The building has been open ever since, with 250 people, including 60 children, now worshipping across the two sites, as well as an online congregation. Twenty-four nationalities are represented, reflecting the diversity of the area.

In 2020, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, run by Tony Cotterill, opened in Corporation Road, while Grange Road hosts a soup kitchen – 'The Basement' – supplying hot food three days a week, and also serving as a foodbank.

Links were developed with Corporation Road Primary School, with a parent and toddler group started, along with a babybank. Employment training courses are also planned, while free toast, tea and coffee, table tennis and darts are all part of the mix.

The church also employs two outreach workers, Pete and Dawn Johnstone, with all services paid for through church donations, but Barry and Vicky saw the need for the community support to go even deeper.

“One of the biggest struggles families face here is the rising cost of food and gas, even when both partners work full-time,” explains Vicky.

The answer was The Community Grocery Store model, launched in Manchester by Christian charity, The Message Trust. The initiative has spread to several North East towns, and Darlington was identified as the next location.

Darlington Baptist Church was given a licence to run a store in March 2021, but a week before an agreement was due to be signed, Government funding for The Message Trust ran out.

“We were heartbroken and we’ve been praying for solutions since then,” says Barry.

Those prayers were answered in July this year through a call from The Message Trust to say a Christian businessman wanted to donate £30,000 to set up the next store, with Darlington topping the list.

The challenge for the church was to raise the £1,500-£2,000 monthly running costs, and a conversation with a friend of Barry and Vicky that evening led to a pledge of a further £15,000.

The couple then sent texts to contacts, asking them to become ‘community champions’ by donating between £25 and £100 a month for two years. The response was “incredible” with another £15,000 committed.

That was enough to open the store part-time but, within a couple of weeks, another £13,000 had come in, including nearly £2,000 raised through a 26km sponsored walk by staff at Corporation Road Primary School.

It means the store will open full-time at the church next month or November, depending on how well the recruitment of a full-time manager and part-time assistant manager progresses.

“We have enough for two years, but we need to continue to raise funds to make it sustainable,” says Vicky.

And the couple’s work doesn’t stop there. Barry – a lifelong Quakers fan – is also chief executive of the Darlington Football Club Foundation, while Vicky chairs Churches Together in Darlington.

On September 23, she’s organised a ‘Redeeming Our Communities’ meeting at the Dolphin Centre, with a range of faith and community groups discussing a more strategic approach to grass roots support.

“We have to serve Darlington better by working together,” she insists.

The railway workers who came to pray at Corporation Road back in 1904 have long gone, but it’s a joy to see old red-brick building with a new sense of direction in strong, caring hands.