Ipswich church tackles student loneliness and isolation
The River Church was set up by Amy and Matt Key, 7 months ago, with the intention to help students and young people feel less isolated
A new church in Ipswich is tackling student loneliness after noticing an increase in mental health issues after the pandemic.
The River Church was set up by Amy and Matt Key, 7 months ago, with the intention to help students and young people feel less isolated and as though they have a safe space they can visit.
We spoke to Amy and Matt and asked them why they decided to set up this church: "We have this dream as a church that we want to see Ipswich overflowing with life. And part of that dream is being specifically placed to reach out to students and young adults."
We asked why they wanted to reach out to students and young adults: "They're a huge missing generation in the church. The church is made up of, generally, much older people, and we as fairly young church leaders, felt like it was a great opportunity to connect with that generation, to share the kind of the good news that we believe about Jesus.
"But also just to serve anyone in that generation, which is a really informative and challenging time of life, when often people need a lot of extra support and a loving community to be there for them.
"We believe there's a better story for them than poor mental health and isolation and loneliness. We want to see flourishing young adults because these are the people who are gonna change the world after the pandemic.
"We believe that the church is for everyone. It doesn't matter what faith you've got. If you've got no faith, the church is here to serve everyone.
"If you just wanted to see what our community was like and you're not a Christian, you'd be so welcome to just come along on a Sunday and and sort of experience the service.
"And if nothing else, we head to the pub afterwards as well. So it'd be great to great if you to come and join us at the pub too."
We asked how they are providing support for that generation and getting them involved in the church?
"It's a really tough time and for lots of students, (for some) that's the first time away from home and the first time they're away from family.
"And you suddenly don't have this community that you've gone through your whole life with.
"So we're trying to be that community and that family, we want church to be family, like a home away from home.
"And we're doing that by starting to just sort of build relationships with the students and making sure they know that this church is a safe place that they can come.
"And it doesn't matter what baggage they've got loads none. It doesn't matter what they're going through, who they are, what they've done, what they haven't done.
"This is a safe place that they can come and know that they'll find family and they'll find people that love and care for them.
"I think that there's different challenges that people in different situations face.
"And for a lot of people, university is hugely exciting and liberating time when you get to find out a lot about who you are, and whether that's a real challenge for some people.
"Obviously mental health challenges are higher and more prevalent than they've ever been, especially coming out of the pandemic.
"And so whether people are kind of struggling with that side of it or whether they're living it up.
"I think that we all need people around us who love us, who genuinely care, who can say it as it is and care enough to do that.
"That's kind of a passion that we've got for for that generation. It doesn't matter who you are.
"We've all got different needs and we don't necessarily have all of the answers but we get on better looking for them together than we do trying to tackle these things on our own."
Amy and Matt Key
Amy and Matt Key
They put on a range of activities: "But one thing that we have at the moment is a student study space and during the week.
"So we have on Thursdays, we just open with some desks out, free Wi-Fi, free tea and coffee. And we found that to be a place where students like this sort of change of scenery to sort of get their head down and study.
"But actually out of that comes some conversations where some of the students feel they can start to open up. And it's a good opportunity to sign posts towards maybe different needs that they might have.
"For example, you know there might be an opportunity to sign post someone towards their GP or councillor if they need sort of help with their mental health or you know, might be struggling with how to manage a student finances.
"And that's somewhere we can sign post as well. So we're finding that just having that safe space is opening up conversations, but as well as that we're seeing that happen sort of intergenerationally within the church.
"We've got some, some older people's older couples who are really enjoying up having the students over for lunch before church or you know."
What's the impact?
"It's been amazing that we've we've seen, we've seen lives totally transformed some some young adults, which we've had the privilege of meeting through alpha and through coming along to the six who have had various struggles with things from mental health to finances and housing.
"And we've just been able to see as a community. And we're praying into these things as well. We've seen practical.
"Visible changes in people's lives, which is what we're all about, but we're also trying to, we want to see this as something that multiplies and we're really passionate about raising up young leaders and investing in people who have the potential to be leaders so that these students who are working with another young adults and young people in the church have the ability and get equipped to lead in whatever sphere it is that they're going into."