2024 was the seventh year of the StoryHouse project! It has been a year of remembering and giving thanks for what has been, enduring the challenge of sustaining a coffee shop, business, mission and church, celebrating the new as well as prayerfully discerning God's voice for a renewed and bigger vision for the future of StoryHouse.

Over the August Bank Holiday we completely refurbished the downstairs of the cafe. This was a HUGE job that was only made possible by the financial gifts of our StoryHouse supporters in Crosby and across the UK and an incredible team of volunteers from StoryHouse Church alongside some faithful supporters from St Luke’s Church. Check out the grand reveal video below to get a better look at the transformation!

The refurb has brought with it an increase in trade, more conversations about Jesus, we've given away more gospels and shared books about the Christian life and questions about faith. The staff continue to regularly pray with customers as well as serve the vulnerable and homeless. 

I feel that it’s the beginning of a new season and I’m so excited that people are showing interest already in the books! A customer said he has tried believing in other religions and just never felt fulfilled so now he’s reading the Bible we gave him which is what we’re here for!! My heart was so full after having that conversation, I’m so so excited!! Love talking about Gods goodness, especially to those who haven’t found it yet.

Fern, StoryHouse Barista

Our Barista Evangelists are doing the job they were recruited to do, offering a deeply significant and a powerful witness in the centre of our community. They regularly pray with customers, talk about faith and life and meaning and care for the vulnerable and the homeless in our community. Here are a few stories from the past year:

Pete

Pete is a 28 year old dentist who lives and works locally and used to come into StoryHouse to do some admin, or to have his lunch break. He’d often be sat down reading a book, so it became custom for staff to ask him what he’s reading at the moment. One time, Pete was reading “12 Rules for Life” by Jordan Peterson (a secular psychologist who has taken an interest in the Bible). After asking about the book, Pete opened up about recent difficulties that had left him struggling with his mental health, which lead to a conversation about how Jesus deals gently with his people, guiding them and shepherding them. This was radically different from the solutions offered by his book and he started chatting about Jesus whenever he came into the shop. Pete then attended a couple of sessions of the Alpha Course ran by StoryHouse, and got to know some people from church. On the course, Pete said how Jesus was attractive to him, but he had intellectual difficulties accepting the resurrection. However, meeting Christians got Pete thinking about faith, and so when he started to think about dating, he decided that he’d like to date a Christian. He met a Christian, went along to her church, and started praying. Since then, Pete has openly started working through his intellectual difficulties with Christianity. He recently popped into the shop and borrowed one of our Christian books to take home and read as he continues explore the life that Jesus offers.

Freddie

Freddie is part of the furniture at StoryHouse!! He’s in every single day, and is regularly seen sitting with staff on their lunch breaks! Freddie is 5 years sober, but first came into the cafe when he was struggling with homelessness and addiction. He was offered free food and drink for a time, but then he entered rehab and overcame his addiction. He now lives locally, and has become something of a consultant for us at StoryHouse. Whenever someone who struggles with addiction comes into the cafe, Freddie is first over to talk to them, and will share his wisdom with us so that we can best help people as they come in. We give away around 10 free drinks each day, and we really love the fact that our cafe is a place where people of all different backgrounds rub shoulders and enjoy each other’s company. However, we’re by no means specialists when it comes to homelessness and addiction, so Freddie’s insights have been really useful to us. Frieddie turned 70 this year, and Jo (one of our longest-serving staff) had a banner made to display outside the coffee shop. Freddie also knows when the staff birthdays are too and celebrates with us. We’ve often chatted about Jesus with Freddie. When we refurbished the shop, we made a space for books that introduce people to Christianity; Freddie was one of the first customers to raid that space and take books home. One afternoon when the cafe had to close early for some maintenance work- all the customers had left apart from Freddie, who joined us for a chippy lunch as we discussed what he thought of the book that he’d borrowed! Over the year our work with the vulnerable and homeless in the area has deepened and continues to have a significant and meaningful impact on the lives of those we're connected with and in the new year, our Barista Evangelists will have training on how to work with and minister to the most vulnerable in our community as part of their team day.

Rach

Rach is a local mum who used to come along to our weekly Storytime. Storytime is a free group for toddlers, where we try our best to integrate everyone who comes into our community. Regularly, you’ll see Christian mums mixing with the community and making friendships that will hopefully lead to sharing Jesus as relationships grow! When she had an unexpected hospital visit, members of StoryHouse church took meals round for her family as she recovered at home. Rach’s daughter has now graduated from StoryTime, but our friendship with her has continued. Recently, Rach came in to ask advice about a difficult situation that she was facing. It was amazing to see staff sit with Rach and pray for her.

A message from Matt, our cafe manager….
We’ve shared some stories that give a picture of what the cafe looks like on an average day, but there are many more stories to share!  Recently, one lady came in and shared that she’d had a migraine for the last couple of days.  We prayed with her, and the day after she came in to thank us, because her migraines had stopped!  We’ve also had lots of conversations with people as we ask them what they believe.  One lady shared how she’d never considered any religions, but had started praying to the universe recently- this lead to a great conversation about how Christians believe in a Father who cares personally and intimately for them.  At the end of the chat, she showed an interest in coming to church!  Furthermore, we’ve given lifts to hospital appointments for customers who live alone, and prayed with people who work in Crosby village while they try and find housing, or share stresses from home.   We’re really grateful for what the Lord is doing at StoryHouse, and would love you to consider partnering with us by praying for us, and giving financially.

STORYHOUSE CHURCH

Youth

This small group of young people began as a Youth Alpha and has grown over the year, with the StoryHouse youth inviting friends to join them on a Thursday evening at the cafe and has continued to grow throughout the year. We had a youth cohort on our Church weekend away led by Liverpool Youth For Christ. We now have more youth attending and serving on Sundays, including performing their own nativity this December! This group is a huge answer to prayer and we're so grateful to God for the work he is doing amongst our young people and for the generous hearts of those who lead and disciple StoryHouse youth.

Sundays

We introduced a third children's group on Sundays for preschool children.- Bible Tots is an informal and creative preschool group incorporating play and activities to help our youngest members of church learn about God in a way that makes sense to them, it’s also a great opportunity for parents and carers of little ones to connect when it’s often hard to have conversations on a Sunday with other congregation members whilst keeping an eye on children. On Sundays we now have StoryHouse kids, for primary aged children, Bible tots, for preschoolers and StoryHouse youth who split their time between staying in the service for the sermon and having their own sessions.

We raised money for our own sound system to bypass the School's half broken sound system. A congregation member and audio tech genius helped source and build a new sound system that has made set up on Sundays a lot easier and smoother and we’re so much closer to starting on time as well as being able to hear what’s going on!

Baptisms

Having my family and friends there, smiling, feeling so welcome and some unexpectedly moved to tears, was something so special for me. Everyone who came has commented on how welcome they felt.

Vic

We celebrated more baptisms this year with Vic and Cathy, sharing stories of how coming to faith has changed their lives for the better. It was a packed house, with lots of guests joining us for the best of celebrations!

Friends of mine who haven't been to a church in years if ever, all said what a lovely warm atmosphere it was and how welcoming and friendly people were. I feel so blessed and thankful for our church family. Thank u for all being there with me and Vic, supporting and loving us.

Cathy

Church Weekend Away

We had our second Church weekend away at Cloverly Hall. We built on last year with a bigger bonfire, a youth stream and a prayer room alongside our programme of great worship, teaching, games, quizzes and a chance to go deeper in our relationship with God and each other. This year we were so privileged to have a team from Jubilee Church, Liverpool. With the founding pastors Graham and Charlotte Webb doing the teaching and Jonny, leading worship. Over the weekend, we explored where we were at, who we are in Christ and what God has called us to as we live out our faith in this world.

Church Life

Alongside the big events over the year, we’ve walked Malham Cove, danced a Ceildh, travelled as a group of ladies and young ladies to Birmingham for the Orchard Conference, eaten pies, had a pizza party, gone mountain biking, studied the Bible together in homes, prayed in a GP surgery, litter-picked Crosby village, sung carols with a brass band and over 100 locals outside the cafe, watched kids grow up, welcomed new people into church, set up rotas, helped fill lorries of clothes and supplies for Armenia ministries, had a lot of fun, but more importantly than all of this we’ve met with Jesus and continue to share, celebrate and pray for what he’s doing in the story of our lives.

The Financial Bit..

We are grateful for the generosity of everyone who has given to the work of StoryHouse, without the financial support we have received we would not have been able to keep going. This year has brought with it financial challenges, especially for StoryHouse Coffee Shop with the cost of goods, wages, NI contributions continuing to rise above inflation levels and with the government's news of the new budget, the challenge to the sustainability of the coffee shop as a mission continues into 2025.

Next year includes a plan to refurbish the upstairs of StoryHouse to make it fit for mission to the next generation. We want to use this space as a hub for mission and prayer, particularly Alpha, youth and twenties and we need further financial support to help make this happen. We also, have plans to increase our missional output through the cafe, with Alpha and to increase the amount of prayer that goes on in the building. For Sundays, we need resources to develop the hospitality but also to invest in the discipleship of every generation and household connected with StoryHouse.

If you would like to read our full annual accounts you can download a copy below…

The Blueprint

We are a growing church, but we want to grow more. We are a congregation of different generations, but our desire is to grow younger. We have shared our faith through the coffee shop and in the places God has placed us but we long to see our church grow through people coming to faith in Jesus.

At the start of 2024 we spent time as a community praying, listening and reflecting on what God was saying to us and we believe he is calling us into a new season of growth. The following document, what we are calling ‘The Blueprint’ lays out the areas that we believe God is calling us to. ‘The Blueprint’ lays out the areas that we believe God is calling us to which include:

• Deepening our life of prayer and discipleship

• Increasing our visibility and community engagement

• Growing younger

• Every member ministry

• Financial growth and sustainability

Our Financial Challenge and Urgent Appeal

At present, thanks to our wonderful supporters, we receive £63,400 every year towards our work. However as our work has grown and costs increased we currently need £80,000 a year in order to keep doing what we are doing but we would like to go beyond that to £94,000 a year which would help us to expand our work especially into the areas of youth and children’s work.

If you feel prompted to give towards the growing ministry of StoryHouse either through a one off donation, monthly giving or increasing your giving you can do so below.