Thursday 13 February 2014

Growing Hope






Help spread the HOPE vision

A number of HOPE practitioners gathered in London recently to pray, plan and pass on inspiration and ideas about making HOPE happen in local areas. Many of the 500 HOPE practitioners around the country are volunteers: Pastor Morola Hayden of the RCCG Harvest Fellowship in Rugby is the new volunteer HOPE practitioner for her town. A few areas have appointed a salaried staff-worker: Manchester is the latest city to allocate funds to support a HOPE practitioner following an offering taken at a Manchester church leaders’ event. Practitioners help to connect churches in mission, spreading the HOPE vision in their area. We need more! The dream is 5,000 areas taking part in Hope14. It’s not too late to sign up here to be a volunteer HOPE practitioner in your area. 

Young people taking a lead in mission

The Big Weekender from 3rd-5th May 2014 is a Bank Holiday weekend to focus on mission. Hundreds of youth groups up and down the country are making creative mission plans. Sign up at hope-revolution.com/bigweekender and post Big Weekender videos at hoperev2014.com


Telling the story and sharing the faith!

This excellent resource  'Sharing Jesus' offers many ideas in how we can witness to our faith in both words and actions but more particularly in words. That is how we can move on from our actions to speaking a word of witness. Recognizing that to win some we have to be winsome!




   
 Doing more, together, in word and action
Students, young people and churches are working together as part of Hope14. In Norfolk, 6,000 young people at the Newday festival will support churches in their Hope14 mission plans. Churches in the New Forest are to get the help of 170 Moorlands College students as they put faith into action during Hope14, and Cliff College students will be supporting mission in Cumbria. We are stronger together than apart! 

Rural Mission Swap Shop

How do rural churches build community and share Jesus? Ludlow Deanery held a mission Swap Shop to share ideas that worked in their area from ‘Faith in the Pub’ and an ‘Off the Street’ youth club to Godly Play and a village hall drop-in coffee morning. Read more here


There are more ideas and 'Stories of Rural Hope' on the Arthur Rank Centre web site - www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk




Kindness and generosity in Lent

This Lent, whether you're a family, church, small group, workplace, school or youth group, 40acts Together provides you with resources to guide and challenge you to live generously, beginning 5th March 2014. Sign up here and you'll receive the daily 40acts challenges when Lent begins, as well as a unique link to download 40acts Together group resources. Also, the #Do1NiceThing Lent Challenge at www.do1nicething.org.uk has loads of creative ideas to equip people with a different #Do1NiceThing activity every day to make our communities nicer places to be.  



World War One




There are a number of excellent resources that are available to help the Church engage with their communities as together we remember the outbreak of World War One. There will be Services to commemorate the announcement of going to war on the 4th August with the suggestion of extinguishing a candle signifying the phrase 'the lights are going out all over Europe.'  At the very least each Church should offer to clean and tidy up their War Memorial. Also the Royal British Legion is encouraging poppy growing with seed distributions.   Much will be made of the carol 'Silent Night' which was one of the carols sung during the famous Christmass 1914 football match. In particular after running some pilots in 2013 there are resources to help organize Carol Singing in the Stadium (Football Stadiums)


 Flooded?

The Arthur Rank Centre is circulating information to support those affected by flooding. Click here to find out how churches in rural areas can help flood victims.