Articles Number Five

LIVING AS AMBASSADORS
Perhaps the biggest challenge has been finding ways
of demonstrating that this new vision was a credible
alternative. In other words, showing what it actually looks
like in daily life. Just like putting on a new school uniform
doesn’t instantly transform a child, so being told that you
are made in the image of God does not instantly change
a child either.
We found that we could engagingly communicate a new
purpose during our two hours together during the week,
but as soon as they walked out the door they reverted
to street psychology. The fact was that some would walk
through the doors of their homes and be confronted with
scenarios that they found tough to reconcile with the neat
and tidy teaching that they’d just heard. Even for those
under the influence of Christ, old patterns of behaviour
could be difficult to shake. I remember one boy giving his
life to Christ on a weekend away, only to be arrested a few
days later for armed robbery.
This is not a new problem. Despite being under the
influence of Jesus for three years, Peter’s first instinct
in the Garden of Gethsemane was to wield a blade
inappropriately under pressure (John 18:10-11). To meet
violence with violence.
In school, how people behave around you begins to teach
you what it means to wear the uniform. In the same way,
we tried as a church to show what it means to live as
one of God’s children. We set up something called “RISE
Sunday” where every term, children and parents would
join our normal Sunday service to experience God’s new
community. More recently we have replaced this with
a termly dinner, where some of our congregation and
RISE parents meet and chat more informally, as well as
celebrating their children’s work and the work of Christ
that they have been hearing about.
We hope ideally to get the after-school element of
RISE running on more days during the week too. All
of this is about providing space for young people to
see this way of life as a credible alternative to the
sense of belonging and culture they get elsewhere.
To learn new ways to deal with images sent to their phones to
ridicule others in their class. A place where being a man doesn’t
simply mean being macho or a woman being a sex symbol. A
community where they can be honest and vulnerable without
being mocked. A community that embodies a new purpose.
WHAT COULD THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
• What are the hopes and fears of young people in your
community? Where are the places that they feel fear?
• How could you find out and support them?
• How could you tell stories that show them how a Christian
worldview works out at street level?
• What could your Church do to demonstrate to young
people that it is a credible alternative community?
WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP
We realised pretty quickly that we couldn’t do this alone. As
wonderful as this vision of purpose sounds, it was difficult to
put into practice as consistently or coherently as we would
like. It was resource intensive. Many young people were not
yet professing faith and there were few others their age that
they could connect with. There were also few older black
Christians who could mentor them. So we enrolled partners
from across our town and city.
I visited other churches, within our network and beyond, to
recruit mentors. I used my contacts in Westminster to organise
tours and audiences with MPs. I collared friends who were
teachers and consultants from anywhere I could. We worked
with another local youth club to facilitate trips to the country. In
other words, we realised that if we were serious about making
a difference, then we needed to explore how we could work
in partnership with other groups. We needed to harness the
resources of the whole city. Perhaps an advantage of being
a small church was that our inadequacy was obvious. But
whatever our church context, the challenge we face in our
city is too big for any one group to transform alone.
What could this mean for you?
• How could you support other churches or local groups in
envisioning young people?
• Is there someone you know who could train as an
Ascension Trust Schools Pastor?
• Could you arrange work experience or a tour of your
place of work to give some young people in London a
taste of different opportunities available to them?
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