Listening before doing

Listening matters particularly in a place like Northstowe because the community is still being formed.

New homes and facilities matter, but a town is also made through relationships, stories, traditions, friendships, organisations and the things people choose to create together. We do not want to arrive with a ready-made answer to what Northstowe needs — even a well-intentioned one. Instead, we want to keep discovering what is already here.

That instinct connects closely with Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). Rather than beginning with "What is wrong here, and how can we fix it?", an asset-based approach also asks: What is strong here? What do people care about? What gifts, relationships, experiences and ideas are already present? What might become possible if we connect them?

Listening is important because people are not simply recipients of services. They are neighbours, citizens and potential collaborators with something to contribute.

[Explore Asset-Based Community Development →]

[Asset-Based Community Development in practice → ]

That is one reason the Deckchairs keep going back into the places where Northstowe life is already happening, rather than expecting people to come to us.

Sometimes we listen simply because listening matters

Not every conversation needs to produce a project. There is value in somebody being able to tell the story of their first week in a new town; celebrate something that is going well; say that they are lonely; talk about their children; describe a frustration; remember someone they miss; tell us about their faith or culture; or simply sit down because their feet hurt. Being heard is not merely a means to something else.

At other times, however, patterns begin to emerge. People discover shared interests. An idea is connected with another person who might help. A conversation becomes a relationship. Or we realise that something we are planning needs to change because we have listened more carefully. That is when listening becomes part of placemaking.

Listening that helps shape Northstowe

Over the years the Deckchairs have appeared at community festivals, school fayres, running events, seasonal celebrations and other moments in the life of the town.

Different occasions invite different questions. We have explored rest and wellbeing, music, nature, belonging, community, spirituality and what people hope might grow here. At other times the Deckchairs have simply offered hospitality in the middle of something somebody else is organising.

The conversations have also contributed to specific pieces of work. In developing the Chapel by the Lake and wider faith and community site, for example, Deckchair conversations and creative consultations have helped us hear what residents value about Northstowe and what could help people connect, pause and belong. The resulting plans have been described publicly as growing out of years of neighbourhood-level listening alongside school relationships, youth voice, interfaith friendship and wider community life.

[Explore the Chapel by the Lake →]

But the Deckchairs are bigger than any one consultation. When one project finishes, we keep listening.

Listening as a Christian practice

The Deckchair Listening Project is run by Christians in Northstowe. But the purpose of a Deckchair conversation is not to manoeuvre everybody towards a religious answer.

We believe that listening itself is part of Christian hospitality. Our faith teaches us to pay attention: to God, to our neighbours and to what is happening in the place where we have been called to live. For us, pioneering Christian mission begins not with the assumption that we have arrived carrying God into a place, but with the question of where God might already be at work and how we might join in.

So if you want to talk about cycle paths, parenting, music, work, loneliness or where the best place for a bench might be, that matters.

And if the conversation turns towards faith, spirituality or the deeper questions of life, we are comfortable there too. We are happy to explore with you where your story might intersect with God's Story and the Christian faith. If you would like us to pray with or for you, just ask.

There is no expectation that you share our beliefs before you sit down. Those of all religious and non-religious beliefs are welcome on the Deckchairs.

Praying • Exploring • Sharing

The Deckchair Listening Project is one very practical expression of the rhythm that runs through the Northstowe Church Network.

Praying — paying attention to God and holding the people and place around us in prayer.

Exploring — asking questions rather than assuming we already know the answers.

Sharing — recognising that Northstowe is being made by many people, communities, cultures, faiths, organisations and relationships, and that we have gifts to offer one another.

Listening sits somewhere in the middle of all three.