Love wins

A recent Channel 4 programme charted the extraordinary rise and development of Pentecostal West African churches, around London’s Old Kent Road.

Notes to Growing Christians David Jackman

Across the capital there are now well over a hundred recently planted churches, meeting in warehouses and office blocks, empty shops and reclaimed cinemas, involving thousands of mainly Afro-Caribbean young people. The common thread running through the stories of these young adults, aged 18 to 30, was the practical love shown to them by the members of the church. Sometimes this began with food and a place to sleep. Often it was a virtual parenting, especially of young males who had no father figure, giving firm Christian ethical teaching alongside gospel compassion.