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Church Supports 'Care for the Family' Initiative
Church
leaders have come out in support of Care for the Family's initiative to
encourage churches to use family issues as opportunities to engage with
their communities. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, General
Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Jonathan Edwards, The
Salvation Army's Major Paul Main, and the Bishop of Sherwood, the Rt
Rev Tony Porter, have all given their backing to the new initiative.
Engage, a new
project, wants church leaders and congregations across the UK to think
about their community, its needs and how to effectively meet them. The
aim is to make the church more relevant to its locality by engaging
with families.
Dr Sentamu said: “As carriers of God’s message of hope and
transformation our Churches can in turn transform the lives and
communities of our nation. I welcome the ‘Engage’
Conference and its equipping to better serve our communities.”
Engage, which takes place in Nottingham in October and Cheltenham in
November, promises to provide churches with simple and effective ways
to reach out into local communities and engage those who usually have
little or no contact with church.
The programme intends to inspire everyone interested in meeting
community needs when it comes to family issues. Headline speakers
include Care for the Family's Rob Parsons and Ian Coffey who, alongside
other keynote speakers, will be sharing their expertise on different
elements of family life.
Care for the Family's Head of Church Relations, Richard Hardy is
passionate about seeing churches get to grips with community issues.
"For too long we have failed to engage with our neighbourhoods by
talking about the things that really matter to people. After spending
many years in local ministry myself, I'm convinced our failure to
address real life issues is the root cause of the Church's
marginalisation in our society," he said.
"The attitude of many people who are struggling today is why would they
look to the Church for support? How could the Church possibly help
them?"
Seminars at Engage will include:
• The need to engage
• Leading your church to engage
• Transitioning your church to engage
• Engaging in the workplace
• Money Matters
• Drugs and your community
• Engaging 21st century families
• Engaging 20s and 30s: Building Relationships
• Building teams
Engage takes place in:
NOTTINGHAM, East Midlands Conference Centre, University Park, NG7 2RJ Saturday 4 October 2008, 9.30 am- 5 pm
CHELTENHAM, The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse, GL50 4SH
Saturday 8 November 2008, 9.30 am- 5 pm
On the web: www.engagetoday.org.uk
Source: Christian Today
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