Hope 08 – South West Zone
Red Carpet Events
“I can see a red carpet rolled out all the way down the High Street… and some long flowing flags flying high above the ground...”
Each part of Bath has a 'Churches Together' group - a group of leaders and representatives who meet regularly to see how they can work togehter as a united church. There is one group for each 'Zone' of the city. From a time of corporate prayer, listening and sharing together, the following idea emerged among the leaders and representatives of the churches that make up the 'South West Zone (Twerton, Whiteway, Oldfield Park, Southdown):
The idea is that over the next year Christians from the South West Zone, under the Hope08 banner, would join together with others to lay on a whole number of ‘red carpet events’ marked by celebration, joy and hope and which draw people to Jesus.
Although variable in scale, location, and cost, each ‘red carpet event’ would have three components:
- Transformation – painting walls, cleaning pathways, cutting back hedges, providing skips for local people, taking away rubbish and litter, lightning up dark spaces, cleaning play areas, cutting grass, killing off the weeds, injecting hope, including anyone who wants to join in, raising self esteem, telling people that their worth it, making a difference to the environment…
- Celebration – meals, barbeques, street parties, music, open homes, balloons, giving something away…we want them to be marked by joy – a real party atmosphere…
- Prayer – praying around the areas that we are working on, blessing the people who live there, praying against the enemy, praying for protection and wholeness, praying for individuals we meet along the way, asking God to bring his healing, asking God for the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven…
The impetus for such action comes from two related thoughts that God reminded us of:
- That the church is called to love our neighbours with the same love that we have for Him.
- That the church is called to represent and witness to the reign of God coming into the world.
Both these thoughts became real for us as we responded to a picture of a red carpet running down the high street and long flags flying in the sky up high. This immediately led us to consider what it would look like and how we would get our area ready for a visit from the King. Undoubtedly, we agreed, we would scrub the streets, paint the walls, pull out the weeds, pick up the litter, tidy up the ugly eyesores, throw a party, roll out the red carpet, and let the flags fly high.
Then as we talked we asked ourselves what it would look like if we rolled out the red carpet, not for the king, but for the community itself. What could we do to dignify the people who live here, serving and loving them as we might serve and love our king? What could we do that would let people know that God loved them more than all the riches of heaven (2 Corinthians 8:9)?
As we prayed and talked there was a strong call for us to embody something as a church, not simply to announce something. We want to be a visible church, a community that is seen, a community that has a certain flavour and a community that has a communicates a certain quality of life fleshed out in reality. There was a strong desire for our actions and mission to flow out of our true nature, out of our identity, and not to be something we simply ‘put on’ for a while but which was not sustainable. We understood this as being possible to extent that we all individually and together lived under the ‘reign of God’.
We gave thanks that God is drawing us together as one church, to demonstrate signs of his kingdom, and we remembered how blessing falls upon those who dwell in unity. We noted how Jesus drew people to himself and never seemed to push himself on them and wondered together how our lives might become attractive to our neighbours. Supremely we remembered how it is as Jesus was lifted up on the cross and giving away his life for us, that he did this. Instinctively we wanted to distance ourselves from any kind of mission that imposed itself on people. Instead, we wanted to serve, we wanted to be contagious.
And so we began to imagine…
We began to imagine a church committed to loving the people in their community to the same extent that they loved Jesus. We began to imagine them treating them like royalty, honouring them with service and consideration and respect. We began to Imagine a whole series of ‘red carpet events’ where individuals, housegroups, or whole churches joined together to make the local high street, or the notorious back street, or the local open space, fit for a king. We began to imagine this church clearing ugly dumped furniture or rubbish from the side of the road and the back alleys of an estate. We began to imagine each other painting walls and clearing the ground. We began to imagine small groups hiring a skip and inviting their neighbours to fill it up for free, and joining them for a barbeque. We began to imagine street parties and music events outdoors.
We began to imagine people praying around the streets, asking God to bring light into the darkness, and to lift people out of oppression (This was linked to the image of the flags flying high). We began to imagine us joining together for prayer walks, asking God to bless our neighbourhoods with grace, flying flags of celebration and prayer and joy, high in the sky – prayers that lifted the spirit of the area.
We began to imagine everyone being involved, every church and every Christian, and neighbours and friends joining in too. We began to imagine people asking us why we were doing such things and asking questions about our way of seeing things. We began to imagine us being a community of hope, wearing T-shirts of ‘hope’, and tabards of ‘hope’, impacting our neighbourhood one mustard seed at a time. We began to see a picture of the church alive and awake and powerful – a church full of life and love and light – a church of normal people doing incredible things…
We began to see a vision for what Hope 08 might look like in our areas…
God speaking
Some verses that were came out of our time of listening:
Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Leviticus 19:15-19 Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbour’s life. I am the LORD. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so you will not share in his guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
John 12:32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.
John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
1 Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified
Some of the very practical ideas already shared for how we might roll out the red carpet
- Offering help clearing gardens
- Painting over graffiti
- Brightening up Tunnels
- Working with the council to fix up an eye sore
- Refurbish/decorate/clean a play area
- Buy in some skips and invite people to fill them free of charge
- Help shops repaint their frontage
- Plant flowers
- Put up hanging baskets
- Praying and litter picking at the same time
- Pulling out weeds along the pavement
- Offer people help with their front gardens
- Clear away dumped furniture
- Put up some new fencing
- Hold a street party
- Do something out on the street
- Give out balloons one Saturday on the high street
What we thought we need to do next:
- We need to communicate the vision of ‘Red Carpet Events’ and ‘Hope08’ to everyone in our churches and make them a priority for 2008.
- We need to discern from God which parts of our locality needs the ‘red carpet treatment’ the most, involving others in this task through prayer walks, brainstorming, sharing ideas, talking with local residents.
- We need to share these ideas with others in the Zone to see if there is any cross over and common themes – especially with other church closest to us geographically. (Email is great for this)
- We need to fix up some red carpet events – big and small – inviting others to join you – setting out the time and place of the event and working out if there are any costs.
- We need to get together with other Christians locally to pray around the streets, ‘flying the flags’, and asking God to bless the people. (We could even take a black bin liner with us as we go and litter pick at the same time!)
- We need to resource the events appropriately and budget for them in our church planning.
- We need to encourage house groups, church groups, and individuals to consider putting on their own Red Carpet Event at various times of the year.
- We need to make sure each event, or activity includes each of the three main elements – transformation, celebration, and prayer.
If you would like to get involved, to set up your own 'Red Carpet Event', or just find out more, talk to your church leader about it or call Richard Wilson on 01225 421438
