From Sunday school to church's leader

The kids team on Steve Reilly’s estate would never have imagined the wriggling seven-year-old in front of them would one day be their pastor. Yet Steve has spent 38 years leading the church that planted his childhood Sunday school.

As the parents of five young children on the Gipton estate in the 1960s, Steve Reilly’s parents had it tough.

Poverty blighted their Leeds council estate. His dad was in and out of work, and money was tight.

So when Bridge Street Church planted a Sunday school there in 1968 the couple seized the chance for some peace and free childcare and sent the kids off to it fast.

“I would have said the leaders needed their heads read for starting something on Gipton, but we liked the Sunday school,” says Steve.

“The most striking thing was the love and care they showed week in and week out. The hope and direction they gave us was life-changing.”

Among the team that launched it was Colin Wilson and Louis McGowan. Louis supported Steve and his family each week, having met him when he gathered kids on the grass to share Bible stories.

“It was generous of him because we weren’t always in a sit-down-and-listen mood!” laughs Steve.

For a lad who’d barely left his estate, Louis’s invitation to attend Bridge Street’s youth group in the city was an adventure for Steve. It was a faith-builder too and he came to faith at twelve.

… story continues