Challenged to plant on the East side

"Partnerships bringing together people whose great desire is to embrace the poor, plant churches and love this fantastic city"

I can remember vividly one of my early conversations with a church leader as we moved in to Manchester with a dream to plant many churches.

He at the time was leading one of the larger congregations in the city and challenged me to plant on the East side of the city where there were few churches and the greatest needs. At the time I was very dismissive thinking (none too kindly), why are you not planting there with all your resources?
Over time and as we began to build our first church in South Manchester, I began to get stirred about taking up this challenge of planting a thriving, well-resourced church on the East side of the city.

Fifteen years later we are beginning to see the first fruits of that conversation: Christ Church Manchester, Eden and Oasis the start of many partnerships bringing together people whose great desire is to embrace the poor, plant churches and love this fantastic city.

This week I read again the fantastic promise that God gave through Isaiah:

‘Now it will come about that In the last days, The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.’ 

What a great promise of a glorious church. I am so motivated to see the outworking of this on the East side of the city.

God’s provision for a church in the East of the city

"Over the past two years we have been greatly encouraged by many new people attending CCM from Gorton."

This last two months has been an amazing and exhausting time (my poor excuse for not blogging). It started with a phone call with The Message, opening up the opportunity for Christ Church Manchester to host an Eden project in Gorton.

Eden is an award-winning and influential approach to urban youth work and community transformation. It originated in Manchester in 1997 flowing out of the innovative schools work and music of ‘The Tribe’. In a nutshell, Eden’s mandate is to go to the most challenging urban areas and share God’s life-changing love in word and action. The really unique thing about Eden is the way the teams choose to live in these communities, sharing the problems of those growing up there and ministering to their needs.

Although historically prosperous, today Gorton is one of the most deprived communities in the UK. The statistics are shocking, showing nationally household incomes are in the bottom 5%. The health of the local population is in the bottom 1%. Educational provision has been poor and school results are in the bottom 5%. Crime is endemic, with statistics placing Gorton in the bottom 2%.

Over the past two years we have been greatly encouraged by many new people attending CCM from Gorton. This is in no small measure due to the fantastic work Victoria Armstrong and her team are accomplishing in the Oasis Centre project. This amazing work of mercy serves around 100 people each week. Many struggle with serious debt, addiction and mental health problems. We are so excited to be able to link these two exciting initiatives together as we reach out to the whole community in Gorton.