Flow Magazine – Issue 18 by The Message Trust

THE MAGAZINE OF THE

MESS AGE | ISS

015 UE I8 SUMMER 2

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE | HIGHER TOUR LATEST | DANIELLE STRICKLAND | AND MUCH MORE

ASH BARKER ON BRINGING EDEN TO 'BENEFITS STREET'

N HEROES MEET OUR 2015 URLBINASI DE 6-PAGE SPECIA

EDITOR: Alistair Metcalfe ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian Rowbottom SENIOR ART DIRECTOR & GRAPHIC DESIGN: Dan Hasler – Message:Creative PICTURE EDITOR: Hannah Beatrice Prittie GRAPHIC DESIGN: Hannah Beatrice Prittie Matt Varah Wilson Bethan Wilson Sam Bloomfield CONTRIBUTORS: Andy Hawthorne Danielle Strickland Ben Jack SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORTER ENQUIRIES: E: info@message.org.uk T: 0161 946 2300 GIVING: E: giving@message.org.uk T: Timothy Emerton 0161 946 2328 PHOTOGRAPHER Hannah Beatrice Prittie CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS INTERNALS: Sam Hawthorne Chelsea Shoesmith Gavin Tickle ILLUSTRATIONS: Bethan Wilson CONTACT: E: flow@message.org.uk T: 0161 946 2300 flow – The Message Magazine Lancaster House Lancaster Campus Harper Road Sharston Manchester M22 4RG www.message.org.uk/flow

ABOUT THE COVER Ash Barker on the streets around Winson Green, Birmingham, July 2015. With wife Anji and their family, they’re bringing Eden to the location of ‘Benefits Street’ as part of the next stage of their amazing journey. Read more in our lead feature, starting on page 18.

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HEROES: Full coverage of our 2016 Urban Hero Awards

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NEWS: Message Wales, KineticIV and more

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HIGHER TOUR: The road to the Apollo

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www.message.org.uk

WAKE UP! Danielle Strickland on love that awakens our hearts LEGENDS: Interview with Paul and Vicky Lloyd The Message Trust is a registered data user and only uses personal data in connection with its charitable purposes. Registered Office: Lancaster House, Lancaster Campus, Harper Road, Sharston, Manchester, M22 4RG

EXPECTANCY AND URGENCY: New teaching from Andy Hawthorne

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ANDY'S RANT

Dear friend,

United by passion

One weekend in the middle of May this year captured for me everything that The Message is about.

starting place of thousands of new journeys of faith when we kick off The Higher Tour next March. Read more starting on page 14.

On Friday 15 and Saturday 16 May, we gathered over 300 urban missionaries together for our Proximity conference, packing out the Venue in our Manchester HQ and taking over the MEC as delegates came to listen, learn and contribute to what I think is the most exciting conversation about urban mission in the UK. Ash and Anj Barker and Danielle Strickland (all featured in this issue of Flow) spurred us on to hear the word of the Lord for our urban neighbourhoods, to look for what we haven’t yet seen, and to go all-out to see the Kingdom of God coming in our streets. It was a massive encouragement to our Eden workers who have been pouring out their lives in some of this nation’s toughest neighbourhoods for coming up for two decades, and a challenge to trust God for more.

But it was another, less public, moment that weekend that moved me the most. A few minutes before the first act took to the stage on Sunday night, we gathered around 100 church leaders in the bowels of the Apollo for a special prayer meeting. There were leaders from churches of many different streams and denominations who I guess had very different views on doctrine and practice, but they joined together in what I can only describe as a holy roar for the young people of our nation. I literally couldn’t stop them.

Then on Sunday 17 we gathered again, this time with over 2,000 Christians from churches from across Manchester and beyond for the Higher Tour launch at the 02 Manchester Apollo. It was so significant to be returning to the place where it all began for us – and the place we believe will be the

For me it was a picture of what I dreamed of in that same venue over a quarter of a century ago at the very first Message event – a united church rising up that is bold in its mission, full of faith and incredibly passionate for young people who don’t know Christ. How exciting is that! Thanks for all you're doing to play your part.

www.message.org.uk/flow

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Our 2015 Urban Hero Award winners (left to right), Abdul Koroma, Sarah Newburn, Jack Mattocks, Michael Ward and Andrea Shahlavi with Andy Hawthorne straight after the Awards ceremony. Lancashire County Cricket Club, Old Trafford, Manchester; June 6 2015. Turn over to read their powerful stories. www.message.org.uk/flow

MICHAEL WARD Received the Overcomer Award and the overall Urban Hero of the Year June 6, 2015 was a remarkable day for Michael Ward, for more than one reason. Not only was he a guest of honour at the 2015 Urban Hero Awards, it was also two years to the day since his release from prison. What Michael has achieved in those two years makes him a worthy winner of the two trophies he took away that night.

‘I felt a lot of hatred for the people who did it. I just wanted to get one of them back. I didn’t care which one of them it was – it didn’t have to be the fella who did it, it could be his brother or his cousins.

Raised in a travelling community, for Michael Ward, crime was a way of life. And by his teenage years, so was prison.

Michael’s life became a cycle of revenge and reoffending. Until, on his last prison sentence, a fellow prisoner told Michael that peace could be found another way – through Jesus.

‘We were travellers, always travelling around in caravans,’ says Michael. ‘We’d stay in a place for a week, I’d get into criminal activity around that area, and then we’d move on to the next part and do the same thing. We’d get away with a lot of it and then we’d get caught. We’d have to do a little while in prison and then we’d get out and carry on again. It was a normal thing.’ It suddenly got very serious for Michael when, attending the funeral of a family member in Ireland, Michael witnessed the murder of his own father.

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As long as they had the same surname as him, I thought in my heart that’s what I needed to do to get peace about it.’

‘He said, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” When I heard those words, it touched me in my heart. That’s what I needed to hear – that someone loves me no matter what I’ve done.’ Michael gave his life to Christ and knew he was a new man. But around 70 percent of people leaving prison reoffend within 12 months – even those who find faith behind bars. It was thanks to a regular job with the MEC’s Building Services team, a safe place to live, and regular support from dedicated mentors that Michael was able to overcome the odds.

NEWS

JAKE MATTOCKS Received the Outstanding Volunteer Award We featured Jake’s amazing testimony in the last edition of Flow. You can watch his nomination clip – and videos featuring all our winners – on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/messagetrust

‘God’s been doing some really amazing stuff in my life since then. It’s been really positive. I’ve had a job every day for the last 18 months. I got married to my girlfriend – we’re nearly a year married now. God’s just done amazing stuff in our life.’ Simon Sullivan, one of Michael’s mentors over the last two years, paid tribute to Michael’s achievements: ‘Jesus has met with Mike and that’s really changed the direction of his life. It’s changed his destiny. ‘Mike could have ended up in a lot of trouble, could have ended up doing life in jail because of what happened to him. But he’s not – Michael’s life has gone a totally different way. Now he’s not a trouble maker, he’s a peace maker.’

HELP US RAISE MORE URBAN HEROES

Go to page 30 to find out how. www.message.org.uk/flow

NEWS

ABDUL KOROMA Disowned as a young child by his mother, Abdul was raised by his grandparents in strict Islam in Sierra Leone, and later, by his father in the ghettos of Banjul, Gambia. As a teenager, Abdul’s family seized an opportunity to send him to England, and Abdul was placed in a foster family. But he found it impossible to accept their love. ‘I was so hardened to the point I didn’t know how to hug,’ Abdul remembers. ‘I didn’t know how to show affection because nobody showed me affection for 12 years of my life. I didn’t know how to be a son to a mum or a dad. I wasn’t raised with that love.’ Abdul was haunted by terrifying dreams from his past which drove him to dark, suicidal thoughts. Little did he know that his foster mother was a Christian, and was praying for him every day – prayers that soon were answered in a dramatic way. ‘One time I was just going up and down Piccadilly literally out of my mind walking up and down,’ recalls Abdul. ‘This voice came to me and said, “The only way out of your situation is Jesus.”’ It was a big step of courage for Abdul to leave behind his past and embrace the potential of a new future. But as Jesus met with him in a powerful way, things began to change fast. Mat Walls from Message Academy spotted potential in him as a youth worker and evangelist, and offered him a place training on our programme.

THE URBAN HERO AWARDS ARE PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY:

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Received the Courage Award ‘Abdul is a really gifted evangelist,’ says Mat. ‘He’s not going to let his past hold him back or be ashamed. He’s been in schools, assemblies, youth clubs, here and on a mission trip to South Africa. Everywhere he goes, he’s happy to share: “This was my story, now I’m a totally different person…”’ Abdul is now committed to telling his story of freedom and transformation to other young people: ‘I believe there’s a calling on my life to share the gospel because I know where I came from – it was a dark place and I’d love to show them the light that I’m in today by God’s grace.’ The Urban Hero Awards night was particularly special for Abdul, who – having rebuilt their relationship – was able to bring his mother to the event.

SARAH NEWBURN

Received the Achiever Award

Customers at the MEC’s Mess Café are usually greeted by Sarah, a confident young woman with a big smile and a sunny disposition. But Sarah’s journey to where she is today has not been easy. Growing up with moderate learning difficulties and a strained home life, Sarah became very withdrawn in her teens. She struggled to make friends and felt unwanted by those around her. Thanks to input and mentoring from the Eden Openshaw team, Sarah was able to grow in confidence and learn to speak to people about her problems. She also met with Jesus through praying and reading the Bible with the Eden team. ‘I guess Sarah found a place where she felt safe and she was able to be herself,’ says Lizzie Bassford, who has known and mentored Sarah since the age of 12. ‘We were able to take her along to weekends away, camping, loads of fun new experiences that she would probably not have had without Eden.’ As Sarah left school, it became clear that finding a job was going to be especially challenging. But after a few months volunteering at the Message Enterprise Centre, her attitude and determination had impressed the team so much that the Café offered her a full-time job working alongside The Message team and ex-offenders. Today she is flourishing and continues to impress everyone around her.

ANDREA SHAHLAVI

Received the Inspiration Award

When Andrea left school, she never imagined she’d one day be part of changing children’s lives in Africa. During her teens she was in and out of trouble with the police – fighting, drinking and using drugs. Behind it all was a young girl who craved a relationship with a father she never really knew. Things began to change for Andrea when her boyfriend Nick (now a member of our mission team Vital Signs) became a Christian and began telling her about Jesus. Though sceptical at first, Andrea agreed to visit The Message with Nick. There she met Jane Sullivan, who led her to Christ that same day. Jane also spoke to her about a charity she ran helps to change the lives of orphans in desperately poor Ugandan communities, CRMI Children of Hope. That was over three years ago. This year, Jane handed on overall leadership of the UK office to Andrea. Her work to improve the lives of over 300 sponsored children through food, health and education activities is inspiring everyone she comes into contact with. Speaking at the Awards ceremony, Andrea expressed her gratitude to God: ‘I never thought I’d be here now, standing on this stage. The Message is an amazing family to be in and I can’t see myself without it. I want to thank God for bringing The Message into my life.’ www.message.org.uk/flow

LEGEND AWARD FOR DAVE AND COLETTE The Urban Hero Awards night saw a surprise ‘Legend’ award for Dave and Colette Nuttall, the couple who led the very first Eden team in Benchill, a council estate in Wythenshawe and, at that time, officially the most deprived neighbourhood in the UK. Now, almost twenty years on, the couple are still living in Wythenshawe, still committed to the welfare of the place they have come to call home. They have inspired countless others to do the same – including Eden National Director Sam Ward (pictured with Colette and Dave below), who paid tribute to the couple on the night: ‘I remember being sat in a Planet Life youth event as Dave and Colette Nuttall were introduced just weeks before they moved in. My heart was stirred in that moment and I knew that this was what God was calling me to. I finished college, got established in a job and applied to join the latest team being planted in Manchester, in Openshaw.’

LAUNCHING MESSAGE WALES Following the successful launch of Message Scotland in 2013, we’re excited to say that this September The Message is launching in Wales. Message Wales is a new partnership with the team behind youth ministry Ignite, led by Gary Smith. Over the last 20 years Ignite (formerly Big Ideas) has brought thousands of young people together to hear the gospel, and pioneered new initiatives to impact a generation for Jesus. At the end of last year it became clear to Gary and Andy Hawthorne that God was leading the two organisations into a closer partnership. The idea for Message Wales was born. Starting this autumn, plans begin for exciting new missions teams for schools and prisons; new innovative Christ-centred enterprise to tackle youth unemployment and reoffending; Wales’ first Eden team in Cardiff’s Tremorfa neighbourhood and an Eden Bus to reach other tough urban communities. Andy commented: ‘We’ve worked alongside Ignite since the earliest days of the World Wide Message Tribe. It’s been great to watch what God has done in Wales as they’ve served faithfully over two decades. And more importantly than that, we’re mates – friends on a mission together. To start working together feels like a real ‘God thing’.

NEWS

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NEWS

THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE For the first Thursday of each month The Message Enterprise Centre is transformed into a lounge setting and plays host to Thursday Night Live – a night of live acoustic music from some of the north’s best Christian and mainstream artists. Each TNL our Mess Café team also serve up a variety of home-cooked dishes and open their licensed bar to accompany the live music. The vision for the event is to create a relaxed environment for

friends of The Message (i.e. you) to socialise and feel comfortable to invite their non-church-going friends. So far this year, we’ve had the likes of Philippa Hanna, Solomon Olds, LZ7 and Twelve24 all performing exclusive acoustic sets on our TNL stage. Our next event is September 3rd with Homelight, Pieces of a Man and LilyJo already confirmed.

Tickets are available each month at www.themec.org.uk/tnl for just £3

READY TO GO

Meet KineticIV, Message South Africa’s first missions team. Recruited from across Cape Town through a tough audition process, Meryl, Justin, Jabulani and Gilead have been training alongside our Message Academy students for the last six months, while writing and recording their first collection of original songs. They returned to Cape Town to begin missions in school, prisons and community outreach projects in July. www.message.org.uk/flow

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LEAD FEATURE HIGHER TOUR

GETTING READY TO GO

In March 2016, we’re kicking off the most ambitious mission to young peo Over five years we dream of reaching 2 million young people with the g seeing 200,000 choosing to become his disciples. The team of evangelis already seeing God doing amazing things, week in and week out. Here a

At the ItsJesus.com outreach tonight 18 adults stood to publicly commit their lives to Jesus. Many more filled in response cards but weren't ready to take the public step… So grateful for those precious souls saved but hungry for so so many more and to see full blown revival!

– TIM COOKE, MAKE JESUS KNOWN

We went into prison with In Yer Face’s new ‘Binge Thinking’ tour. At the end of the show I got the honour of preaching the gospel message. 17 out of 41 inmates stood up in response to the message and accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. I am so honoured to get to do this and see this all happen. It was so sweet.

– SOLA, SQUARE1

We had two schools in Doncaster this week. Around 500 turned up to the show and literally the whole crowd responded to the gospel – apart from the church youth group who brought them! I stepped out of my comfort zone and saw healings, suicide notes handed in, and dozens of handwritten letters from young people saying how God has changed their lives this week.

– LINDZ WEST, LIGHT

BrightLine has been in Cheadle Hulme high school this week. We just finished a gig. 29 people responded to the gospel. Jesus is LORD!

– DANIEL EDUARDO,

BRIGHTLINE

It all starts in Manchester in March 2016. Turn over to see how we’re planning on getting there – and how you can get involved. 1 4

flow18AUG-NOV 2015

WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE… AN EVANGELIST by Ben Jack

ople in the UK for a generation. gospel of Jesus and dream of sts behind Higher Manchester is are just a few of the highlights.

Praise God, another 16, all men, made a decision at a small local church in Moss Side, Manchester – ex-gang leaders, dealers, ex-convicts all got saved as I shared my testimony today in the church… One guy literally got released from prison on Friday got a leaflet and turned up, heard the gospel and responded! What a glorious weekend!

– MO TIMBO, POTTERS HOUSE HULL

Hey guys – it’s been a crazy morning here in Cape Town! Did three gigs in two schools to hundreds of kids. Overall we saw 130 responses. God was moving!

– NICK SHAHLAVI, VITAL SIGNS

(ON TOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA)

In the heyday of Billy Graham’s ministry, Christian young people were inspired to follow the example of the great evangelist and become preachers of the good news. But over the last twenty years I think we have seen a real shift in the aspirations of Christian young people. Where once the role of evangelist was the pinnacle of Christian service, a much more common ambition among Christian young people these days is to become a worship leader. Singing songs about, and for, Jesus in a room full of believers may feel like a safer task than heading out to the frontline to declare, in no uncertain terms, that Christ died, Christ has risen, Christ is coming again. In a relativistic culture, this declaration of absolute truth goes against the grain, will bring scorn and mockery, and in some cultures may even result in physical harm or death. But if God has called you to be an evangelist, he has called you to a life of great adventure, and he will surely equip you and strengthen you for the task. That’s the reason behind the new evangelist development group established by Andy Hawthorne in the build-up to the Higher Tour, and adopted by Christian leaders around the UK. Through monthly meetings and an annual retreat, the gathered evangelists receive teaching, sharpen each other through discussion, and share openly about their personal walk with Jesus. The evangelists in the groups send email updates about the opportunities and engagements they have to preach the gospel, and encourage each other with the fruit from these opportunities. The really exciting part of this initiative is that after one year in the group, each evangelist then finds another twelve evangelists who they then mentor in the same way. Imagine the initial groups of twelve expanding over the coming years to become a mighty and numerous collective of evangelists who take the good news to the nations… Something about that sounds familiar! This is an extract from an article by Ben currently on the Higher Tour blog. Read the whole thing – and lots more great content – at

highertour.com/blog

www.message.org.uk/flow

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THE ROAD TO

HIGHER MANCHESTER THUR SEP 17 MONTHLY PRAYER BEGINS

Every month between September 2015 and February 2016 special prayer events will draw together church leaders, youth leaders and others to pray for the mission. Keep an eye on our website highertour.com for latest date and venue information.

SUN MAY 17

LAUNCH NIGHT AT O2 APOLLO MANCHESTER

We prayed, we worshipped, we heard the vision, we got on board. Plus we got a feel for the venue where we hope to see thousands of new decisions for Jesus in March next year.

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SAT JAN 30

YOUTH CONFERENCE AT MESSAGE HQ

A special training and equipping day for youth workers and teams, explaining the mission in detail and how churches can work in partnership to follow-up every decision made during Higher Manchester.

FRI NOV 20

YOUTH EVENT AT AUDACIOUS MANCHESTER

Christian young people from across Manchester will gather to hear the latest plans for February and March, and to be challenged and inspired to pray for their friends in the build-up to the mission.

THUR FEB 4 PRAYER EVENT

Everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s welcome to join us for a night of passionate prayer (central venue tbc) to lift up to God the next few months. Keep an eye on our website highertour.com for latest date and venue information.

HIGHER TOUR

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HIGHER TOUR, BLOG POSTS BY MEMBERS OF THE TEAM AND LINKS TO RESOURCES CAN BE FOUND AT HIGHERTOUR.COM

MAR 16-20 HIGHER: APOLLO

MON MAR 14

PRAYER DAY/EVENING

We’re piggy-backing on Message Prayer Day – and praying on into the evening – right at the start of the Higher: Apollo week. Keep this date free if you can!

Wednesday through to Saturday are four nights of high-energy live shows with a clear gospel message and an opportunity to make a response. All shows will feature special sets from bands like Twelve24 and BrightLine who many young people will have already met during the schools weeks. Sunday is an extra night to help those who have made a decision for Christ get started following Jesus, introducing a range of discipleship tools to help young people explore and deepen their new faith.

APRIL-MAY ONWARDS FOLLOW UP

Follow-up work begins across Manchester through local church partners, aiming to build every new disciple of Jesus into a local church fellowship or youth group.

FEB-MAR

HIGHER:SCHOOLS

Over a three-and-a-half week period, 60 schools across Greater Manchester will be visited by a schools team from The Message or one of our Higher Tour partners. Every school will be ‘adopted’ by a partner church who will give prayer cover, practical support and plan followup activities. In all, we expect 60,000 young people to be in contact with one of our teams, to hear the good news relevantly explained and to receive an invitation to one of four Apollo live shows. If you belong to a church in Manchester, check with your youth leader or pastor which schools you’re connected with.

SUN MAR 27 EASTER SUNDAY

Churches will be equipped and ready to welcome new disciples from the Higher Manchester events into their churches. Imagine the celebration!

www.message.org.uk/flow

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EDEN

Eden is coming to Winson Green, Birmingham – famously the location of Channel 4’s controversial Benefits Street. Bringing 25 years of experience in tough urban communities are Ash and Anji Barker. We met up with them shortly after they moved in to their new home…

alfway down a long street of identical terrace houses, a door stands wide open. It is a hot summer’s day and people are out and about. The street is vibrant with colour, and echoes with the unfamiliar sounds of different languages. Mums with pushchairs weave between the wheelie-bins. The occasional passer-by ducks into the doorway to say ‘hi’. Inside, Ash and Anji Barker are telling stories of the people they’ve met since moving in, just two weeks ago. Next door is the immigrant family whose loud Pentecostal worship came through the walls the night before. There’s one of the Romanian guys who helped clear rubble out of their cellar. Across the road is the ‘gangster dude’ who keeps tarantulas.

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They may be relative newcomers to the Birmingham neighbourhood of Winson Green, but Ash and Anji are already characters in the drama that unfolds here day by day. And while the area may be deprived, overcrowded and vilified in the press, for Ash and Anji, it’s simply home.

– Grit –

Winson Green is the third gritty urban neighbourhood the Barker family have chosen to call home over the last 23 years. After responding to a challenge to ‘go anywhere for the cause of Christ’ at a Tony Campolo meeting, Ash and Anji began reaching out to young offenders in juvenile detention in their home city of Melbourne, Australia. Eager to do something to help young people before they ended up in custody, they began outreach projects in tough, inner-city neighbourhoods. But they soon realised that you can only get so far working from the outside in.

‘A lot of helping a community comes down to identifying the problems correctly,’ says Ash. ‘If you’re an outsider coming in, you don’t see things the way they really are. And if you identify the problems wrongly, your solutions aren’t going to be right either.’ So, inspired by a New Zealand couple who had moved their whole lives into a slum in Manila, Philippines, Ash and Anji chose to immerse themselves in the multicultural neighbourhood of Springvale in 1992. Ten years of working among migrants, refugees, drug users and dealers transformed the way they understood helping the poor – and sharing the gospel.

‘TO STAY IS THE NEW GO. IT’S A COURAGEOUS THING TO STAY PUT’

www.message.org.uk/flow

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EDEN ‘Live in the community – that’s the start. Then ask God every day to show you with new eyes what’s around you. It’s amazing where that takes you,’ says Ash. During their time in Melbourne, they began Urban Neighbours Of Hope (UNOH), allowing others to join them in an incarnational mission ministry similar to Eden. As teams began to spread across the region, the Barkers chose to become downwardly mobile again: between 2002 and 2014 they raised their family among some of the world’s very poorest people in the slums of Klong Toey in Bangkok, Thailand. Stories from their 12 years there can be found in Ash’s book, Risky Compassion.

– winson green –

‘THE KINDEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR A MARGINALISED PERSON IS TO LET THEM HELP YOU’

The Barkers have lived with the sights, sounds and smells of poverty for the sake of the gospel for over two decades. So it is not surprising that they should have sought to make their UK home in one of the nation’s least desirable postcodes. Winson Green achieved notoriety last year as the location of the first series of the controversial Channel 4 documentary series Benefits Street. James Turner Street, a stone’s throw from Ash and Anji’s new home, was derided by the tabloids after the

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series depicted benefit fraud, shoplifting and drug use. The TV series was grossly unfair, says Ash, but the poverty here is real: ‘Honestly, we were shocked. Coming from the slums of Bangkok, we were expecting to be making jokes about first world problems. But the reality is, this is an area which has a deeper level of need than we thought was possible in a country like the UK. ‘The streets around Winson Green were ground zero for urbanisation. This is the area where Matthew Boulton,

business partner of James Watt, was raised and where their first steam engines were designed and built in the Industrial Revolution. But now the area is known for two things: a big prison and poverty.’ At the end of James Turner Street, is the Oasis Academy Foundry school where Anji works as a school chaplain and community hub leader. Her first few weeks in the job provided an eye-opening introduction to the area: ‘My orientation to the job was listening into the phone calls that were coming into the office,’ she says. ‘We are a 98% ethnic minority school, with 230 kids speaking 44 languages. It’s a very mobile population because of a high degree of Home Office housing. ‘The stories I heard were harrowing. One kid I heard about discovered his dad hanging from the ceiling and had only one counselling session because there was no funding for more. Another kid who was a child soldier in Somalia eight months ago is now struggling to get along in Year 6 of mainstream education, with no psychological support. Kids are getting permanently excluded from school in Year 7 and 8 but the pupil referral units are full so we can’t do anything with them. We come across kids aged 12, 13, 14 who are actually malnourished. ‘The issues are extreme, but all the services have been privatised out so there is a lack of coordinated support. And everything is being cut. ‘Social capital – the ability of people to work together and support each other – has been whittled away here,’ adds Ash. ‘I compare it to the amazing resilience of my Thai neighbours when they worked together. They couldn’t afford not to – they would have starved to death if they didn’t. Here there is still a sense that “the state should sort it out”, when of course it can’t.’

- assets - everywhere -

Behind Ash and Anji’s approach to ministry like Eden, a fundamental belief that poverty is not firstly about money, but relationships between people. They have seen first-hand how a gospel-transformed community can powerfully demonstrate the love of Christ. And crucially, this is not about only providing services, but involving those who are poor in creating better places to live. ‘What we’ve learned over years is that the kindest thing you can do for a poor and marginalised person is to let them help you,’ says Anji. ‘You come in as a learner, or a co-learner, experiencing the same things. And you give the poor a chance to give. ‘We call this ABCD – AssetBased Community Development. Our assets are our people – their cultural diversity, their food, their experiences and their stories. So we run a cooking group for mums and daughters and we concentrate on passing on skills at the same time as passing on our stories – what it’s like to live as a Bengali in the UK? We can do that really low-cost using our own pots and pans and stuff, or if we access a bit of funding, we can do it a bit more snazzy.’ Anji is something of a serial kingdom entrepreneur, spotting opportunities to build community and seizing them. When we met in July, she was researching the viability of a mobile petting zoo, giving community kids opportunities to care for alpacas and lizards: ‘You need something a little bit weird to attract rough teenagers, a bit edgy,’ she says.

They also have plans to quickly establish a new Eden team in Winson Green, having already gratefully received help from volunteers with neighbouring Midlands team, Eden Weoley Castle. ‘There are so many opportunities – but you’ve got to have workers who are willing to come,’ says Ash. Ash is excited about the missional culture Eden is helping to grow in the UK and is keen to be an ambassador for the movement: ‘Part of the issue with areas like Winson Green is that the folks who could get out, have got out. That includes the church. The people who can get themselves together move out. But we need people to stay. It’s a courageous thing to do. To stay is the new go.’ ‘Everything in our culture wants to look beyond the horizon. To choose to be rooted is so counter-cultural. If people have a reason, a mission to stay, if they feel placed by God there, they will sacrifice opportunities to go elsewhere. That’s the power of something like Eden. ‘That’s what we’ve done too – we’ve bought a house. And by that we’ve said, “This is where we want to be long term. This is where we will put our roots down.” We’re willing to say no to other things to say yes to what God’s doing here in Winson Green. ‘In the end you hope that there can be a tipping point. That if you’re not taking place seriously, it feels a bit awkward to be a Christian. If you’re really seriously about Jesus you’ll take seriously God, people and place. That would be a great day.’

www.message.org.uk/flow

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COVER STORY

‘WE’RE WILLING TO SAY NO TO OTHER THINGS TO SAY YES TO WHAT GOD’S DOING HERE IN WINSON GREEN’ That’s also the vision behind the Newbigin Centre, a training centre for urban missionaries which will be based in Winson Green in a refurbished manse. They are calling Christians to join them to be ‘incubated into mission’ for urban communities in the UK and elsewhere: ‘We’re looking for people who are in a learning posture.They’re looking to grow and try new things with support. To get their foundations right so that they can be replanted somewhere else, which means theory but also good habits and disciplines, a rhythm of life. Two or three years here with us, they could almost go anywhere in the world and be ready.’ The Centre is named for famous missiologist Lesslie Newbigin who made Winson Green his home after returning from missionary life in India. Newbigin wrote two of his most influential books, Foolishness to the Greeks and The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, while living and pastoring a church here. ‘It’s a complete coincidence, but a nice one, that we should have moved here. A lot of Lesslie’s stuff is about coming back from the majority world and realising that people in the West have lost their confidence in Jesus because they are just overwhelmed by the secular and other religions. But the gospel is public truth. If Jesus rose from the dead, then that changes everything.

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‘If we can be a part of giving people confidence to do mission well, for the long-haul, that’s a good thing.’ Right now Eden is looking to mobilise hundreds of workers to the nation’s poorest neighbourhoods (see map overleaf). Ash is eager to play a role in calling and developing leaders for Eden teams around the country, and contributing his own experience in raising leaders from within urban communities themselves. ‘With Eden we really feel we have found soul mates. We love this movement – and this nation needs this movement. We are so excited about what Eden is doing and we want to help mobilise as many people for urban mission and help to train them up however we can.’ Find out more about the plans for the Newbegin Centre for Urban Hope at newbigincentre.org Ash also teaches a new MA programme in Urban Mission at ForMission College. More at formission.org.uk

Ash will also host The New Parish Conference from October 2-3 in Birmingham, featuring keynote speakers Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens and Jean Vanier.

MOVE IN, LIVE The Eden Network is becoming one of the most effective missionary sending movements to deprived urban neighbourhoods in the UK.

DEEP AD PARKHE

T CURREN

We are approaching two decades of pioneering and innovating youth-focussed community transformation, inspired by Jesus’ call to ‘move into the neighbourhood’ (John 1:14) long term and often sacrificially. We urgently want to grow the number of Eden team members active in blessing marginalised communities, making disciples and raising leaders as we go. We’re currently seeking team members in all of the areas marked on this map.

To find out more and to begin the process of applying to join Eden, please visit eden-network. org/join

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TEACHING

By Danielle Strickland 24 6 flow18AUG-NOV 2015

n his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes, ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.’ I remember when I woke up for the very first time. I was in prison for being a car thief and a drug addict – I was really messing up my life. A Salvation Army lady came to visit me, refusing to give up on me. She put her arms around me and whispered, ‘I love you.’ I was so dead on the inside, so asleep to real life, I didn’t even hug her back. As she left my cell, I remember shouting after her, ‘You didn’t even bring me a smoke, man?’ But later, alone in that cell in Toronto, Jesus himself visited me. I can’t fully explain it to this day, but he did exactly the same as the Salvation Army lady did. He put his arms around me and said, ‘I love you.’

LIGHTS ON That moment, it was as if somebody turned on a light and I woke up. Suddenly I realised I was in jail and that I should never have been there. I understood the mess I was in. It was a long journey after that – detox, probation, getting out of jail. But Jesus had woken me up to his dream for my life. Love wakes people up on the inside. That’s exactly what he intends for everyone – to awaken everyone to the reality of where they’re at and the reality of where they should be. There’s a plan God has for you – a purpose he has for you. He dreams of what you could do in the world. And it’s bigger than you. He longs to wake up the church, a generation, whole nations to his presence.

SPIDERS I never really wanted to serve God in a Western nation because what I’ve come to understand is how hard it is to serve Jesus in wealth. Wealth is so sleepy, so comfortable. One night I had a dream where I was bitten by a spider. Suddenly I got so tired. I lay down, and my body became paralysed. Then from out of all four corners of the room, thousands of tiny spiders came and began to devour my entire body. At first I wanted to rebuke this dream, but as I prayed about it, God gave me this interpretation: I’d been bitten by this culture of spiritual sleepiness – paralysis, even. It’s a death-like state. If you give in to this spirit, you will die. But you won’t die a glorious death. You won’t die for the gospel, for the lost, for anything meaningful. You’ll die of meaningless things. Tiny little spider bites, one at a time. You’ll die from

things that don’t even matter – what size your house is. Where you live. Who likes you. Who thinks you’re cool. What salary you’re going make. You’re going to die from things which do not matter in the light of eternity. You’ll be consumed by a death of smallness. I don’t want to die like that – do you?

Love wakes people up on the inside WHATEVER IT TAKES What we need is to be woken up. I remember a time I was working a night shift at a women’s hostel, meaning I had to drive home at night through freezing Canada, sometimes minus-35 degrees. Once I felt myself starting to fall asleep at the wheel. Trying to keep myself awake, I blasted the radio really loud. Then I pinched myself and gave myself a couple of slaps. Eventually, I resorted to something you should never do – I opened the window and stuck my head out! Finally, I was awake! Do that. Do whatever it takes. Pinch yourself. Turn up the music. Rage against the spirit of sleepiness that would cause you to die an insignificant death. Begin to stir yourself up. Embrace some discomfort. Witness to someone who makes you uncomfortable. Go without some food for a bit. If you can stir yourself awake, you don’t have to die an insignificant death. We wake up so that Christ can shine on us. And if Christ shines on you, you’d better believe he will draw everyone to himself! He can save to the uttermost. We serve a God who can who can raise the dead. He raised me. And we serve a God who can wake up sleepers: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.’ This feature is based on Danielle’s amazing talk at the launch of The Higher Tour at the o2 Manchester Apollo on May 17, 2015. Listen to the original talk on our website, www.message.org.uk/higher

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VICTORY OUTREACH MANCHESTER

MESSAGE LEGENDS:

PAUL & VICKY LLOYD

LEGENDS

Paul and Vicky have led Victory Outreach in Manchester since 2003, reaching people caught in addiction and walking with them as they become disciples of Christ. Some of our very own MEC team members are examples of the good fruit of their amazing ministry. That’s why we want to honour them as ‘Message Legends’ — Andy F L OW : W h a t i s V i c t o r y Outreach? A rehab? A recovery centre? PAUL: Recovery is one of our ministries that we do consistently and we think we do it pretty well, but we’re not a rehab; we’re a church. We are an inner-city church, dealing with inner-city problems – addiction, homelessness, break up of families, crime. We’re a church with an anointing and a lot of experience at seeing people from those backgrounds transformed. FLOW: And you’re seeing some amazing things… PAUL: We are, praise God. 70% of people who enter Victory Outreach have success at staying clean. Seven members of our core church leadership team of 13 are graduates of our rehab. But we’re not just a church of ex-junkies. We are made up of all kinds of people – you’ll meet doctors, lawyers, car salesmen welcoming on the door. My worship team’s got more degrees than a thermometer!

FLOW: What’s the secret to your success?

coast. For me, it started with a party lifestyle, which everybody else around me was doing too. PAUL: There’s no secret except The problem was when it came for Jesus. We believe in total time to stop – on Monday morning abstinence as part of a programme everyone else went back to work of discipleship which sees people but I wanted to carry on! It wasn’t as new creations, made clean long before I was doing a lot of inside and out. We don’t believe heroin and crack, living on and people are ‘in recovery’ for the rest off the streets. At one point, I was of their lives. given three weeks to live because my liver and kidney were failing. VICKY: And it’s not ‘us and them’, But I just couldn’t stop using. people who were addicts and I didn’t know how to. those who weren’t. We’ve all got a story to tell and nobody’s got a I was in prison for selling drugs bigger testimony than anybody when I first heard about the Lord else. Our testimony is Christ. We through a nurse who visited me have former drug addicts who are and kept telling me that his church blown away by the testimonies of were praying for me. Also I read people who never took drugs. Run, Baby Run by Nicky Cruz which really opened my eyes. One night F L OW : Yo u ’ v e b o t h g o t my cellmate was talking about extraordinary stories of change Victory Outreach: ‘They’re nutters, of your own. Can you share them for people who have lost the plot’ briefly with us? but still that was where I ended up and where I finally got free. PAUL: I was a heroin addict and a gang member in East London from FLOW: What are the keys to 17 to 27. Before that I had been discipling men and women with heading for a career in combat backgrounds in addiction? sports, but I got severely injured and that ended it. All the dejection PAUL: If you can help them get the and depression over that led me focus off themselves, it’s a good into drugs. In 1995 my mate, who start. A lot of addiction stems from was an ex-gangster and a prize self-absorption – it’s the self taken fighter, asked to see me and told to the extreme. I was exposed to me he had become a Christian. mission very early and I was all in When he started telling me about – if I was 100% junkie, I was going Jesus, I told him I was too bad to be to be 100% Christian! So getting saved, but he told me Jesus’ words people in ministry to others helps that it’s not the well that need a in the transformation process. doctor, but the sick. So in July 1995 in the car park of my friend’s gym, Watch MEC team I gave my life to Christ. I went to a member Laura Victory Outreach home where my Nicholson’s addiction was broken and I started amazing story of helping run the recovery homes. how she was helped by Victory That was my way into ministry. Outreach on our website,

message.org.uk/laura VICKY: I was raised in a nice middle class home on the south www.message.org.uk/flow

TEACHING

Are you living with expectant faith – that God’s about to change everything? By Andy Hawthorne t The Message we hold to a number of what I call ‘perfect partnerships’. One of them is fixed on the wall of my office in the form of a pair of scissors – one blade marked ‘Keep mission hot’, the other ‘Keep prayer hot’. Underneath is the phrase, ‘Keep on the cutting edge, Andy!’ We need both prayer and mission working together to stay effective – because prayer on its own becomes pious, and mission on its own becomes powerless. There are a few other ‘perfect partnerships’, or ‘twin tracks’ which the Message runs on. We need to do ministry in word and deed, because only both working together builds a strong enough bridge for the gospel. We need Word and Spirit. As Jim Cymbala used to say, ‘With the Word only, you will dry up; Spirit only, you will blow up. But both together, you will grow up.’ And if Eden’s taught us anything, it’s that we need both proximity and proclamation. It takes both compassion for the lost and hurting and clear gospel preaching to truly change lives. There are two more perfect partners waiting to be discovered in Isaiah 55: expectancy and urgency. Isaiah 55 throbs with excitement because the word of the Lord about the Suffering Servant has come. Now everything’s going to be different for God’s people. But it also issues an urgent challenge.

God has spoken… The word of the Lord changes everything, doesn’t it? In 1987, when you looked around Manchester, it was a pretty barren place spiritually. The then Bishop of Manchester told me that he couldn’t think of a single lively youth work

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in 364 churches. Youth were haemorrhaging from the church. But then Lord spoke to us about ‘rivers in the desert, streams in the wasteland’ (Isaiah 43:19), and faith came. It happened again as we started Eden in Benchill. It was the hardest place in Britain. Why would you choose to do mission there? But then God spoke: ‘The righteousness of the cause will shine like the noonday sun…’ (Psalm 37:6) And again, last year, the Lord spoke to us about The Higher Tour from Isaiah 60. It’s a crazy vision to see 200,000 young disciples reached in five years. But then God spoke: ‘The least of you will become a thousand…’ (v.22) It was great to launch Higher in a big way

EXPECTANCY AND URGENCY

at the Manchester Apollo in May. Matt Redman, Danielle Strickland and our teams all made it an amazingly special night. But in truth the firing pistol was sounded a few moments before the show started as we gathered church leaders and ministry partners for a time of prayer in the green room. I have never heard such fervent, expectant, passionate prayer as that. Something is changing in our city and in our nation. Let’s be expectant!

…will you hear? But Isaiah 55 also says: ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon’ (vv.6-7). God’s forgiveness is freely available. But time is short. We’ve got to get to people before time runs out.

Listen to Reinhard Bonnke: ‘The gospel is eternal. But we haven’t eternity to preach it. One would think we had that long when we view the often leisurely operations of the church on the gospel front. We have only as long as we live to reach those who live as long as we live. Today over 7 billion souls are alive in our present world, not in some indefinite future world that needs to be evangelised. This is the last hour.’ We need to be a people like salt, who flavour the church with an urgency for evangelism. People are dying without Christ. We’ve got to get urgent. All the evidence shows reaching young people is critical business. Research suggests that the average age of conversion is 14. What I’ve seen is that if you don’t get young people before they’re twenty, their hearts have often become hard and calloused to the things of God. We’ve got to get to these young people before they’re lost forever. Lord, give us a fresh measure of excitement in our salvation. And a fresh level of urgency alongside it!

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The Higher Tour will be the biggest

youth mission for a generation. Starting in March 2016, we will visit around 50 schools in the Greater Manchester area followed by large-scale outreach events in partnership with local churches. In all, Higher will cost around:

At this year’s Urban Hero Awards we heard and saw how, by getting alongside young people and sharing God’s love with them, lives can be changed in ways that go far beyond our expectations. Time and time again we were reminded that Jesus can redeem even the most difficult situations. Read our winners’ stories (starting on p4) or watch their video testimonies at: youtube.com/messagetrust As we heard on the night, mission to the lost and broken means getting alongside them and really sharing our lives. That’s why, through our Eden teams and prisons ministry, we invest in young lives – often over years and years. It takes love, and it takes time. As one young person put it, ‘If Eden hadn’t moved in, I don’t know where I’d be.’ Not only are we called to be in proximity, we are also called to share the good news of Jesus Christ. At the Awards, Andy quoted his hero William Booth who said, ‘Salvation is the shortest and surest cut to civilisation.’ Only with clear proclamation of the gospel are lives truly changed from the inside out. It is through both proximity and proclamation that we have seen God change thousands of lives. And in the coming year, we want to multiply our ministry in both directions. We are planning on getting alongside more people than ever before, to share the life-changing truth of Jesus Christ in schools, prisons and estates.

Completing these new projects comes to a total of around £900,000 – and that’s on top of our existing budgets. The good news is, on the night of the Urban Hero Awards we raised over £100,000 towards this figure. But that still leaves a long way to go. So we’re looking for new, visionary regular givers to partner with us with a monthly gift. Whatever you choose to give will make a real difference. As Andy said on the night, it’s not about equal amounts but about equal faith.

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£250,000

The Oaks

is our residential discipleship house based in Wythenshawe. This will become a home for team members from our Message Enterprise Centre, providing a safe place for them to grow in their faith. In total, refurbishing the house ready for use will cost approximately:

£100,000

New Eden Teams

We want to plant in ten of this country’s most deprived communities. Working alongside the local church, these teams will share Jesus through their daily lives, drawing their neighbours into relationships with him. The cost is roughly:

£500,000

Eden Bus

Completing a new , our mobile centre for community transformation, will allow us to roll out our already successful Bus programme to more communities in Glasgow and Merseyside, increasing the number of lives that will be reached. This will cost:

£50,000 To thank you for your new regular gift (or increased regular gift amount) we’ll send you a copy of Andy’s latest book, HERE I AM, SEND ME.

MOSSEL BAY HERMANUS

FINISH WN CAPE TO

KNYSNA

STORMSRIVER JEFFEREYS BAY

WITSAND

BREDASDORB

In late February 2016, a team of 30 brave amateur cyclists will embark on an eight-day, 900km epic journey along the southern coast of Africa – the Cross South Africa Cycle Challenge in aid of The Message Trust. Included in their number will be our very own Andy Hawthorne, several members of the Message team, and maybe YOU! The purpose of this ride is to raise £200,000 to support the work of The Message as we look to continue our work oversees showing God’s love to the hardest to reach young people from across the globe,’ says Challenge organiser Sam Hawthorne. ‘If you think you’re up to the challenge – and it is a serious challenge – we’d like to hear from you.’

The riders will start in Port Elizabeth on the coastline of the Indian Ocean and finish with a hero’s welcome at Message South Africa’s latest Eden project in the Nyanga township on the Atl ant ic coas t in Cape Town . The journey will involve navigating some of t he count r ies leg endar y mountain passes, remote savannahs and breath-taking coastlines en route to Cape Town. Although most of the route is flat and by road, this is a ser ious challenge requiring significant training and stamina. Par t icipant s will each be asked to raise at least £5,000 in sponsorship.

Come join me and the Cape Crusaders on the Cross South Afica Cycle Challenge, raising funds for our great work in the UK and South Africa.

To find out more and to apply for a place, contact samh@message.org.uk or call 0161 946 2318.

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sent to the

stAGe? sent to the streets?

www.message.org.uk/academy

VISION NIGHT INCLUDING THE LAUNCH OF

THE BRAND-NEW

MESSAGE WORSHIP ALBUM

FEATURING: JAMIE HILL, ‘RIVERS & ROBOTS,

ALISTAIR METCALFE AND THE MESSAGE BANDS

21ST NOV 2O15 WITH TALKS FROM THE EVER EXPANDING VISION

OF THE MESSAGE FROM ANDY HAWTHORNE

AND PERFORMANCES FROM

BRIGHTLINE, VITAL SIGNS, IN YER FACE

VENUE: AUDACIOUS CITY CHURCH