Sunita Selvarajan tells us what’s been happening as churches have reached out
Months of prayer and preparation has seen Christians across the country share the good of Jesus with neighbours, colleagues, friends and family.
Tim Hanson, co-chair of A Passion for Life 2014 said: ‘We are so thankful to God. It is great to see what churches have been doing in the run up to Easter. I am so excited to see the innovative ways being used to share the gospel personally or through events in their communities. There are bake offs, curry nights, beer and butties, quizzes, real life testimonies, plays, guest services, French speaking events, etc. What all these have in common is a singular focus – to share Jesus’ passion, his salvation for the lost. I would encourage anyone to take a look at what is going on in their area and use some of the evangelistic materials which can be found on the website at www.apas sionforlife.org.uk’.
Here’s a small flavour of what’s been going on around the country…
North Staffordshire
A church in Chell has been working through Six Steps to Talking about Jesus to encourage personal evangelism and to make better use of opportunities at Easter. Kidsgrove heard Dr Allan Chapman (FRAS) give a fascinating talk about the logic of believing in a creator God. Stafford had a ‘cake and craft night’ with a talk for the young mums that led to some signing up for Christianity Explored.
In Stone, the men heard from an urologist, under the title ‘Doc, have I got cancer?’, on the resurrection hope. The ladies meal, ‘Love actually?’, heard about how, like a romantic novel, the gospel has a great outcome for the bride! A series ‘What sort of God….?’ has been running in a local coffee shop tackling objections to faith.
A larger one-off event was held at Stoke City Football Club on ‘Is forgiveness possible?’ where Robin Oake (former police Chief Constable) gave his testimony and talked about forgiving his son’s killer. Roger Carswell then spoke about the forgiveness made possible through the cross of Christ. Lots of people took time to talk to the speakers. It was a great evening and many were encouraged to plan similar events in the future.
Surrey
Chertsey Street Baptist Church had an exciting mission week in March. The ladies’ coffee morning became a hub of chatting, crafts, live piano music and cake, an ideal setting for bringing along friends. A short talk was given on exploring the gospel from a journalist’s perspective by Victoria Hazael and a follow-up coffee morning will be taking place to provide an opportunity for any questions to be answered by a small panel of ladies from the church.
Two evenings in the week were reserved for separate men’s and ladies’ events, both taking place at an Italian restaurant in town with a dynamic husband-wife duo, Mike and Kathryn Hitchings, taking on the talks for each evening respectively. Those who attended each evening commented on the great atmosphere, good company, opportunities to chat about the gospel and, of course, fantastic food!
The kids also got involved in the outreach, with a bring-a-friend event at the 11-14s group, involving Easter-themed games and a talk about the meaning of Easter.
A guest service on Sunday morning focused on Luke 7, ‘Jesus anointed by a sinful woman’, with a meal afterwards for the students and their friends to sit down together and chat about their thoughts on the message. They are hoping to start up studies using Uncover as well as a Christianity Explored course after Easter.
Isle of Wight
In Ryde, St James’s Church and Grace Church held their mission in February with a team from the Cornhill Training Course. ‘We all felt it was a tremendous privilege to work together’, said James Leggett, minister at St James’s.
‘We wanted to organize outreach opportunities that would be easy to invite our non-Christian friends to and introduce them to the Christian faith. This we did through five events – ‘Chocolate Heaven’, a quiz at Costa, ‘holiday at home’ (an opportunity to come together, have fellowship and be creative in lots of different ways), a men’s breakfast, and ‘Dine Global’ (a whole selection of international main courses served, expressing the different cultures in the two churches).
‘People came! Where we had restrictions on numbers, we were full – which was such an answer to prayer. There were several things that caused us to really rejoice:
1. The talks given by the Cornhill team were just brilliant, weaving the truth of the gospel with personal testimony proved to be very powerful with the non-Christians who came.
2. Many non-Christians were bowled over by the number of people coming along to events – over 40 to the men’s breakfast, more than 60 to the quiz at Costa and nearly 50 for the ‘Dine Global’ evening.
3. Christians encouraged – many Christians brought friends for the first time, and it was thrilling to see at the quiz night a table of six people with one Christian who had invited five friends – fantastic! The week after the mission, one lady said: ‘I just had to ring you. I was talking to a friend who wants to know more about Jesus following the quiz night’.
We have been really heartened with the week’s mission and praise God for the gospel going out so clearly, many people hearing for the first time. We pray for the Lord to bring in the harvest!
All Souls, Langham Place, London
A Passion for Life 2014 got underway with live entertainment and interviews at their Real Lives week at the beginning of March. The week of outreach kicked off in spectacular style with a live house band, performances from football freestyler Daniel Cutting and an interview with BBC Football Focus presenter Dan Walker. Other guests throughout the week included paralympian, soldier and bomb survivor Derek Derenalagi, award-winning bereavement manager Rachel Cooke, former terrorist Billy McCurrie, and former correspondence secretary for HM the Queen, Deborah Bean – all followed by a clear gospel talk from evangelist Roger Carswell.
Live entertainment from concert pianist Grace Yeo, singer Allyson Ava-Brown and spoken-word poet Dai Woolridge entertained the guests during what was a popular and encouraging week.
Each night the waiting crowds gathered before the doors opened and were entertained by musicians on the steps of the church, attracting attention and drawing in more guests from Regent Street. The most popular nights saw many invited guests and others who had rarely stepped inside a church building. Stories of encouragement included numerous professions of faith, an interested tourist who made the evenings his week’s entertainment, and guest Billy McCurrie’s interview with BBC World Service coming off the back of Real Lives.
Since the week ended a number of invited guests have attended the church’s Christianity Explored course with others exploring the Christian faith by reading through a Gospel with their friends.
