Displaying items by tag: Hope Together

The UK and Commonwealth will celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a four-day holiday weekend (2 to 5 June). HOPE Together is working to help churches around the Commonwealth to mark this special occasion and, in particular, to celebrate the Queen’s seventy years of faith and service. It has produced a web-page resource (see link below) with information to assist churches and organisations as they plan their celebrations. HOPE have commissioned a new anthem, ‘Rise Up and Serve’, written by Graham Kendrick and Rend Collective for choirs to sing as part of the celebrations. The highlight for many will be on Pentecost Sunday, where services in churches around the Commonwealth will give thanks for the Queen’s life of service and witness to her Christian faith.

For the jubilee celebrations, the Church of England has produced a range of liturgical resources for churches to use. The resources produced by HOPE Together include ‘Our Faithful Queen’, a gift book using rarely-seen prayers the Queen prayed as she prepared for the Coronation; a Happylands book ‘The Girl Who Grew Up To Be Queen’ for under-5s;' a YouTube video, from the team that brought together ‘The UK Blessing’ during lockdown, featuring choirs from around the Commonwealth singing the new anthem; and ‘70 Acts of Service’, an invitation to communities to celebrate by serving others.

The Bishop-designate of Doncaster hosted a Wall of Hope in the cathedral over a three day period last year and was ‘overwhelmed’ by people’s response when over 10,000 people visited the wall to post a prayer. This year, Churches in Portsmouth Diocese are planning to host Hope Spaces in schools, village greens and shopping centres across the diocese during and after Thy Kingdom Come (21-31 May 2020), giving thousands of people who don’t know Jesus a chance to experience his love and hope for themselves. 41% of practising Christians say that a spiritual experience or an experience of the love of Jesus was a key influence in their coming to faith – so if we help more people to experience God’s love and presence, more of them will come to know him for themselves. To find out more about Hope Spaces click the ‘More’ button.

Hope Youth (formally Hope Revolution), the youth arm of Hope Together, seeks to engage young people from across the church in mission and evangelism. Hope Youth has numerous partners including but not limited to the Church of England, Alpha, Limitless, Youth for Christ, Scripture Union, Message Trust and the Pais Movement. Collectively this group has facilitated the creation of various initiatives and resources including Mission Academy, Mission Academy Live, and Amplify, part of Advance 2020, an evangelistic movement to promote and stir up the gift of the evangelist building towards a cross-country outreach in 2020. Alongside this they are praying and planning together for what an intentional, strategic, and spirit-filled year of mission will look like in the UK in 2020, taking the gospel to the nation on an unprecedented scale. See

HOPE Together don’t do politics, but they do pray- and prayer for our country is a priority right now. In particular, they are looking ahead to 2020 and what many believe will be an unprecedented year of harvest from the gospel seeds sown over the past decade and more. Many denominations and ministries across the UK are also sensing this and preparing for opportunities to invite people to respond to Jesus’ offer of life in all its fullness. With this in mind HOPE together are launching 2020 as a year of covering prayer for all that is done in the year - personal witness; church outreach plans in villages, towns and cities; stadium events - evangelism in all its many forms. They are inviting believers to join them in praying for 20 minutes at 20:20hrs (8.20pm) on the 20th of each month throughout 2020. There will be twelve suggested themes to focus on - asking God to heal our land.

Roy Crowne, the Executive director of HOPE Together, writes, ‘Mission was on the Apostle Paul’s agenda when he said there is “one who plants… one who waters… but only God makes things grow… We are fellow workers in God’s service.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-9) Since 2008 HOPE Together and churches across the country have been sowing and watering seeds of the gospel, and we believe that God will produce a harvest. We are praying, preparing and trusting God for a harvest in 2020. Use the great opportunities that we have this summer to bring local people together, to sow seeds and to build community with fun days, fetes and festivals. Plan to water those seeds this autumn and winter as you help people to discover more about Jesus. Pray with us that we will reap a harvest in 2020 as churches all over the country invite people to respond to the message of hope that Jesus gives.’

HOPE is inviting Christians to make a journey this Christmas; a journey that will lead people to Jesus.

HOPE has published a glossy, give-away, evangelistic magazine called Christmas HOPE. The magazine is designed to attract attention. It features interviews with celebrities who are Christians, a feature on churches who give away Christmas hampers to residents who can’t afford the festive meal, a focus on the Response Pastors involved in some of the heart-breaking stories which left the UK reeling as tragedies unfolded in Manchester and Grenfell Tower, plus a children’s cartoon story linked to Bible Society’s Bethlehem Journey resources, a Christmas quiz, and a competition, plus prizes worth more than £2,300.

The Journey to Bethlehem is also the theme of a souvenir carols booklet which churches can use for community carol events, door-to-door carol singing, Karaoke carols in pubs and full-scale carol services in churches and cathedrals.

In the three weeks since Christmas HOPE first became available, more than 690 churches have ordered more than 300,000 copies to give away to homes in their areas. Orders are coming in at 20,000 a day with a second print run in taking copies available to half a million.

Local churches in HOPE’s extensive network across the spectrum of Christian denominations are being invited to:

• Deliver Christmas HOPE door-to-door with an invitation to your Christmas services
• Give Christmas HOPE to clients at your local Foodbank with an invitation to a festive meal
• Invite Street Pastors and other community chaplains to give away copies
• Give copies to local schools to give to families

In one village, church members will deliver copies to 3,000 local homes together with the church magazine with details of Christmas events at the church and an invitation to an Alpha course in the New Year. In another area Christmas hampers are being delivered to homes for needy families, together with a copy of Christmas HOPE. In a third area 2,100 homes will be visited over three nights. Each home will be given a goodie bag with chocolates, a Christmas invitation and the Christmas HOPE magazine. The church will also give away copies of the magazine at their Christmas Spectacular and to all those who those who attend the church’s community groups: a luncheon club, an English Language School, a toddlers’ group, and a Foodbank.

‘Many people are searching for meaning in life. They want more than the commercialism that a secular Christmas offers. The magazine Christmas HOPE gives Christians an amazing opening to talk about Jesus, and to invite friends and family to discover the hope he gives,’ says Roy Crowne, HOPE’s executive director

Work has already started on a follow-up magazine for Easter 2018. Churches will be invited to re-visit the homes reached at Christmas and to extend their deliveries to new areas. Regular updates from HOPE encourage churches to make sure that each person in the congregation is equipped to tell their story and to make Jesus known to their friends, family and work colleagues. As well as being ready with something to say, they are encouraged to give the magazine away to every home in their neighbourhood and to be intentional in inviting the people they meet to local church events, services and courses like Alpha and Christianity Explored.

To keep in touch with plans, sign up for regular updates from HOPE at www.hopetogether.org.uk/signup.