Heres HOPE

SOUL in the City
B
uilding on the Manchester model, in
2004 11,500 Christians from across the
country headed for London to work
alongside 9,500 local churchgoers in
52 partnerships across 34 London
boroughs. Together these Christians
spent two weeks serving different
communities around London, ending with a prayer
and worship event in Trafalgar Square. We called
it Soul in the City and this time Soul Survivor
was the lead partner.
There were Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists,
Pentecostals, House Churches and New Churches
all working together; a third were from black
majority churches. One thing we learned was that
the small churches grab ideas like this quickly. The
larger churches are more suspicious. It wasn’t until
really late in the day that Holy Trinity Brompton,
Kensington Temple, All Souls Langham Place, and
other big churches came on board because they
saw it had gained momentum and was going to
have an impact as God’s
people came together.
AS IN manchester,
IT WAS A WHOLE MIXTURE
OF SOCIALACTION
AC
PROJECTS,
GOSPEL
PROCLAMATION,
AT
CELEBRATION
AND CHURCH UNITY
Mike
tells the story of a bus driver who came
along to a meeting because he was curious about
the enthusiastic kids on his bus. He gave his life
to Jesus. One council hadn’t allowed a church to
use the community centre for eight years, and
then a group of kids went and redecorated and
renovated the centre, and as a result, the council
said to the church, ‘You can use the community
centre whenever you want. Can we talk about
how we can work together?’
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