Chorley and Leyland Methodists

Dear friends,

This month we are exploring transformation. Conversations, experiments, risks, small acts of hope that lean toward God's kingdom. A future in which everyone has equal access to healthcare. A future in which the LGBT+ community experience love and acceptance from all. A future in which justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, and the earth is as full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. In this newsletter, you'll hear inspiring stories, receive fresh ideas, be challenged to respond to injustice and find out about opportunities for training and networking so that we might all be best equipped to travel into a future with hope.

–The Evangelism and Growth Team

This month’s story of hope

Following Jesus is all about transformation: people and churches experiencing transformation and communities being transformed. Nine teams from Methodist churches and circuits came together in January for our Transformational Leadership Learning Community residential. We set aside two days away from our local contexts to explore ideas, share experiences, dream and plan together. Our overarching question was: ‘What transformation is God calling you into?’ One delegate spoke of ‘taking people with us on a journey that transforms their understanding of where Church is and where God may be found’; another sensed a call to ‘build a team that God will equip to join in with mission to our community’ and ‘listen more intently to the still small voice and trust the words.’ If you’d like to explore joining this community of transformation, email the Evangelism and Growth team.

01

Read.

Did you know that life expectancy for some British women experiencing deep poverty actually went down between 2010 and 2020? And that wealthy Londoners live significantly longer than marginalised people in the north east of England? Some people are living shorter lives, and they’re spending a greater proportion of their lifetimes in poor health. The report Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On examines these scandalous inequalities and asks what we should be doing to address them because - with the right policies - they can be reduced.  You can download the full report here. Former Chair of the British Medical Association and former Vice-President of the Methodist Conference, Dr Richard Vautrey, will be joining us on 7th February at 7pm (register here). He will help us consider God’s invitation to us as individuals and as churches to respond to this profound injustice.

02

Begin.

Grace Place began when a group of Christians in South Shields decided to rent a retail space for six weeks over Easter, offering tea, coffee and hot cross buns. This went so well that they decided to open again at Christmas. And again the following Easter. And again the following Christmas... until they sensed the call to open on a permanent basis. They offer hospitality and friendship, getting to know their regulars well, and providing opportunities for prayer in the chapel corner. As one regular was overheard saying, “it’s God’s shop.” Recovery Church began online during the first covid lockdown as a stopgap for people who couldn’t access a 12 step group, but has now developed into a flourishing community, looking to each other and to the Higher Power (whom Christians would call God) for help to overcome addiction. In this short video, Deacon Tracey Hume tells the story of how it began. If you’re actively exploring a nudge from God to reach unaffiliated people by starting a New Place for New People, or even if you’ve started already and are looking for support, consider attending the next Church Planting Intensive course which begins on the weekend of 17th-19th March 2023.

03

Communicate.

“I truly feel that one of the biggest things, if not THE biggest thing, that effective communication requires is the following: humility.” In this TEDx talk, hip hop artist and actor, Marcus Alexander Velazquez, shares what he’s learned about communication, both as a performer and as a Christian sharing his faith. He explains: “Number one is that you can always be wrong... The second key to humility is this: it is not about you. It’s about your audience.” Velazquez argues that when we accept that we might be wrong, and we’re prepared to listen to alternative viewpoints, our communication becomes more effective. Likewise, if we understand that it’s about the audience, we say what we have to say, not in the way we would like to say it, but in the way our audience would like to hear it. If you’re aged 18-30 and you’d like to develop confidence in talking about your faith with others, consider signing up for the Faith at the Frontline weekend. (If you don’t fit the age bracket, but you know someone who does, please pass on the details!).

04

Organise.

The story of Rosa Parks is well known: a Black woman who courageously refused to give up her seat for a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. What is less well known is that Rosa Parks was trained in the practice of community organising. She wasn’t simply a lone hero who took a brave stand: she was a savvy community activist who had the passion, training, relationships and commitment to see through a lengthy bus boycott and legal challenge which ultimately led to the Supreme Court ordering Montgomery to abandon a racist policy. Faith Rooted Community Organising brings together the principles of community organising and God’s dream of a world reconciled and transformed. There is funding available to join the next Faith Rooted Community Organising course at Cliff College: you can find out more here.

05

Share.

What plans do you have for the Spring and Summer bank holidays: an Easter egg hunt? A BBQ with friends? How might you have fun alongside your community and sensitively share your faith? Unaffiliated people may be unfamiliar with the great Easter themes of redemption and resurrection, but they have a four-day Easter weekend too. And we all have a bonus bank holiday on Monday 8th May to mark the coronation of King Charles III. We'll be sharing some really practical ideas for spreading bank holiday hope at a short livestream on 23rd February. Register here or watch the recording afterwards on the Methodist Church Resources YouTube Channel.

06

Laugh.

February is LGBT+ History Month, so we’re sharing a clip from a movie we love: Pride (2014), directed by Matthew Warchus. Set in the mid-1980s, it tells the story of a small group of LGBT+ activists who realise that, in showing solidarity with the striking miners, they can help the two oppressed groups to empower one another. Here’s the moment when Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners arrive in a small Welsh mining village with the money they’ve raised.

If you’re planning to share God’s love in Christ with the LGBT+ community at a Pride event this summer, register here for the Methodists at Pride networking event. You’ll hear fresh ideas, find out about a pack of Pride resources and preview a new video for LGBT+ History Month.

The Methodist Church  |   Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5JR 020 7486 5502 (Reception) www.methodist.org.uk

Registered charity no. 1132208