Rockin' Mike Nite

Rockin’ at the Mission

By David Vaughan

During a walk along Eastbourne seafront with friends I learnt that among them was a member of a local church music group Mike Howell, who was also a professional singer. His musical repertoire was rock-n-roll music from the `1950’s and 60’s. He gives regular performances at nursing homes, care homes, and local community centres performing under the stage name of Rockin’ Mike.

I had been thinking of ways in which our local Connexions church ‘The Hailsham Gospel Mission’ could extend its programme of outreach events in the town. I decided to discuss the idea of asking Mike to come along and give an evening performance at the church with the church elders Martin Brown and Dave Sweetman. My initial thought was that they might not consider this an appropriate setting. On the contrary my idea was met with enthusiasm by Martin and Dave and a majority of the regular congregation.

The mission already has a number of ways to extend a welcome to local groups and members of the public, the most popular being regular weekly ‘Tea and Toast’ mornings where the building is open to anybody wishing to come in and share some friendly company, plus a warm drink and a snack.

I got in touch with Mike and he readily agreed to come along and sing for us. He has a wide variety of material from such artists as Buddy Holly Eddy Cochran, Cliff Richard and, of course, Elvis! The songs are all sung to original backing tracks and his stage outfits and presentation reflects the period.

Rockin Mike So it was that, on April 19^th this year The church was decorated with musical notes and old album covers, a team of volunteers worked hard to cook and serve a simple hot meal, soft drinks and even a pudding! we laid out tables and chairs and had asked church members to bring along a friend or family member who would preferably not be a regular church attendee, or indeed anyone who shared our faith. I am sure I shared my trepidation with our elders, as the hall filled with people, as to whether the evening would go down well. I need not have worried because as soon as Mike got into his performance I could tell from the smiles on the faces of our audience that we had a winner on our hands, indeed such was the success of the evening that, at a later church meeting, members gave it a vote of thanks and asked for a repeat performance.

So, in October, as part of our Harvest Festival celebrations Mike was asked to come back again. Once again our team went to a lot of trouble to decorate the building appropriately and help make it a place of welcome, as well as a place of worship.

Mike performed to an audience of around 50 people, over half of which were not regular members of our church. The evening being unseasonably warm, we opened our doors and invited in some passers by. Soon tables were pushed back and there was some energetic jiving, even our oldest church member, Len 96, joined in!

Now, you may be thinking “What has all this got to do with our love of Jesus and His teaching?” Well The Gospel is full of stories where Jesus went into towns where he made it his mission to talk to ordinary folk, publicans, fishermen and beggars among them.

He invited all of us to knock on His door and enter His Kingdom. Our mission, as part of the Connexion family, is to do the very same. We welcomed all comers with a prayer, and I read from Psalm 150 where David urged his people to Praise God with singing and all manner of musical instruments.

Mike also incorporated some well-known Gospel songs of the period which we could all join in with singing. including “How Great Thou Art, as recorded by Elvis. If you are thinking of reaching out to people in your town don’t be afraid to “Think outside the box” of everyday church activities.