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Sheffield "Arise"
Prayer ignites Sheffield as churches unite to share hope and faith.
For the past 5 years we have used a national Prayer Walk App to map our collective drive to pray for every single street of Sheffield during the month of March. Prayer walking has been such an effective way of helping to make our prayers missional as we look at where God is already at work, listen to what He is saying about our neighbourhoods and learn to love as He loves the people we live alongside.
From this foundation we began 4 seasonal Gospel give away projects so that churches always have a high quality, low cost, seasonally sensitive way to share good news with their communities. Favourites thus far have included Gospel Easter Eggs, Trust ‘n’ Treat Bags, and Candy Canes. As we have distributed 1000s of these, they have created a culture of sharing. To help believers become more confident and competent in sharing Jesus simply we launched a training - Equip 1000 - focussing on hearing other people’s story, telling your story and sharing the Jesus story. This culminated in distributing 15,000 4-points prayer tracts during an Easter campaign that was supported by 35 bus banners and church banners bearing the Gospel message proudly. This effort was twinned with equivalent campaigns in Widnes, Wigan and Liverpool.
Stories have emerged which bring human drama to the exciting statistics seen in the Finding Jesus research. Stories of people sharing their faith on the street leading to baptisms at local churches a few months later; stories of churches using their weekends to send their congregations onto the streets and welcoming newcomers to coordinated Alpha Courses, and stories of budding groups of evangelists and young bands of high school enthusiasts witnessing to their peers.
With the growing encouragement of young people turning to Jesus and the upsurge of interest in the Bible, we are now planning a bold new venture called the Gospel Delivery Project, aiming to train up local Christians from churches across the city to hand deliver a Gospel of Mark to all 250,000 homes in Sheffield. We will offer opportunities for follow-up and use the app to record receptivity and needs. We would love to see similar innovations flourish across the UK as we seize the moment of opportunity that God has given us.
View the Arise Sheffield webpage to find out more.
Stories & Resources
