Postcode apartheid

Ray Pountney of West Hill Baptist Church in Wandsworth knows about SW London’s emerging gang culture.

In the distance I could hear the police sirens rushing into the area. I saw confusion on the street outside the local sports ground as a number of our Friday night youth lads were screaming and shouting. A brave lady stood between the players of the other church team who were being violently pushed to the ground by our West Hill teenagers.

It was a sad end to what had been a sad game of football. Too many lads had arrived at the venue, all wanting a game, and as we tried to get them all a chance on the field the game had become a nightmare. Where had all these young men come from and why were they so desperate to play? Why are they behaving like this? The questions were rushing in on me. I felt as if I was on a train out of control.

Deep realisation

That game in some ways marked the beginning of a deep realisation that our young people were more than just challenging authority, as young people do, but were in a desperate place needing life-changing help.

We believe strongly that through our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we have those answers. We have also come to realise that these young people will not respond to the old-fashioned Sunday school model of listening politely to the Bible being read and taught to them.

Relationships

Another way has to be found. I believe it is the way of building relationships and trust. It sounds simple, but it is not. The truth is, it is heart-breaking, and it is a marathon, not a sprint. It has also become the front line of urban mission.

In our outreach to youngsters in Wandsworth there are times of great joy as opportunities arrive to build friendship and trust. Occasionally momentum can be taken down by some inexplicable act of anti-social behaviour.

The very same lads demonstrating open friendliness one week suddenly threw ice at church volunteers and broke a window, but as understanding and communication grow, so these incidents have almost dwindled to nothing.

Whole church

To reach out to both the boys and girls takes a huge commitment by the whole church. There have been scars all around the chapel building: broken windows, destroyed basketball hoops and graffiti, but, once trust and respect develop, so incidents of anti-social behaviour fall away. Almost all ‘incidents’ only occur if someone new, who doesn’t understand the growing culture of trust and friendship between the church team and local young people, visits the youth programme. Even then, youngsters show genuine respect for the church workers who seem to follow the example of the long-standing leaders.

We have grown to really appreciate our young people who all have so much potential. I wonder if they have not taught us more about seeing through hypocrisy and how to take on the challenges of life than we realise.

Streets of fear

They live in an extremely difficult and challenging world. Some of them have made huge mistakes. They all are wonderful young people, but they cannot walk freely without fear through the streets of their city.

All this reminds us that our society is broken and needs the healing hand of God through the gospel proclaimed, and we need lives radically redeemed by grace.

West Hill Baptist Church is, by the providence of God, in the epicentre of the emerging violent gang culture in South West London. One of our local schools, which is situated between ourselves, Clapham and Streatham Baptist churches, has since December 2006 lost four young men to gang violence outside school hours. The school itself has a firm hand on discipline and whenever I have visited I have been encouraged by the behaviour of the pupils. It is outside school where the problems begin.

Turf wars

One boy was stabbed to death in a gang fight near Mitcham. One was attacked outside Streatham Ice Rink and the other two were killed in their own homes — all were liked pupils, some studying for their exams. One of the players of our church team had a friend who was gunned down in a nightclub, some say for speaking to the wrong girls on the wrong ‘turf’ on a birthday celebration.

The local gangs have effectively secured a gang ‘postcode’ apartheid in our area of London.

We would be placing some of our local youth in danger if we attended a fireworks display or some other event in a park outside our immediate area. Some of our church football players were attacked outside the Chelsea training grounds where they play. Their supportive mother had to drive them to safety as the car windows were smashed with baseball bats.

We see our young men beaten and bruised if they wander into the wrong area or postcode. The groups seem to have a highly organised network of surveillance. They are becoming increasingly violent. How wonderful it would be to see just one of these youngsters saved through Christ.

Prayer please

So we ask that you pray with us. Please pray for persistence — that our south-west London churches may find the spiritual strength to keep our Friday night youth outreach programmes on target and our doors open to the young people. Please pray for West Hill, that our Hosanna Concert vision to bring young people together across the post codes to hear the gospel clearly proclaimed would grow in momentum.

Pray for the workers in the harvest field. We would like to have a streetwise student pastor playing football with the local estate children and establishing a Bible study. Our young people need a teacher who speaks their language. This is important, as it is a language which can be heard on the estates.

There is something in me that strongly believes that unless we are able to break through to our young people in this part of London our churches will be facing severe pressure in the future. Pressure on church attendance, and continuation of the church itself in some places depends on our reaching the current generation. The last time we asked for EN readers’ prayers we noticed a visible breakthrough with our youth work and we are asking again.