|PIC1|This year, churches up and down the country are heading out into their local communities to bring hope by practically demonstrating the love of Jesus as part of Hope08.

At a time of economic doom and gloom, and numerous social ills like gang violence and a growing binge drinking problem, the 1,500 churches and Christian groups taking part in Hope08 are reinvigorating grassroots mission and re-presenting love inspired and hope bringing Christianity to wider society.

"Hope is a Gospel word that we would love to redeem as our word," says Roy Crowne, head of Youth for Christ UK. He, along with Mike Pilavachi and Andy Hawthorne, is a founder of Hope08. Roy continues, "Hope is such a great, strong word for the Gospel but also for the culture. It's a word that people are looking for."

Last Monday bank holiday, Christians led activities and events in their local communities including graffiti cleaning, litter picking and painting community murals. The day of outreach was in response to the Hope08 challenge to donate one million hours of kindness to the UK by the end of this year.

Hawthorne adds, "There is a lovely verse in Colossians where Paul says that faith and love spring from hope. Hope is something everyone is looking for. We just need to share and demonstrate hope, and faith and love will spring up."

Hope08 is made up of five 'high points', which represent different seasons of activity centred on a hope-related theme. The current season is 'Hope Where You Live', and later in the year, churches will invite the community to explore the Christian faith as part of 'Hope Explored', whilst at Christmas, Christians will give 'A Gift of Hope' to the nation.

The founders believe that by demonstrating hope, churches can help build communities of hope.

Roy Crowne continues, "If you feel like your situation is hopeless, being within a community of hope can help you find something of that back and realise that no, your situation isn't hopeless.

"Our churches should be communities of hope and as such, they need to articulate and present a message of hope. By demonstrating the values of hope, word and deed we can create communities of hope, life and the Gospel."

Andy Hawthorne has a threefold message to Christians taking part in Hope08: include a faith element in efforts to reach others for Christ; socially engage in words and actions; do community engagement together.

For Hawthorne, demonstrating hope is key to bringing people to Christ: "There would be more Christians in this country if we as Christians did more to demonstrate hope. I think as a church we've lost some confidence. But the Gospel works and we've actually got all the resources we need to reach every man, woman and child in the nation."

At a time when secularists are finding their voice, Hope08 is discovering people across the UK who want to experience Gospel-inspired hope.

"Some Christians develop a siege mentality and then they just pull up the draw bridge and think that no one else is interested in their story and that Sharia law is going to kick in any minute and everybody is against us, and it is just not true," says Crowne. "There is a stack of people who are really interested in our story and what we are about."

He believes that Hope08 is helping to break down some of that siege mentality.

"The churches taking part are discovering that there are people out there who want to hear what we've got to say and seeing that, they are having confidence in the Gospel again. Their faith is actually being built up through their involvement and their engagement."

Hawthorne agrees. "There's a real openness to the Gospel side of it, particularly when people see our good deeds. If they just hear us preaching it lacks a lot of power, but if they see our good deeds and then on the back of that we share the hope of the Gospel, it seems to be a tremendous opener. That seems to be part of the exciting movement going on at the moment."

Moreover, some of the challenges in society provide the perfect opportunity to put faith into practice and reveal the transforming power of the Gospel.

"I think as people of faith we can't just live in denial," says Crowne. "The guns and gangs thing is massive in some inner city urban areas. But what I have to bring into that situation is faith and a sense that this situation could change - the Gospel does have the power to do that. Even with the prevalence of gangs and guns, the Gospel does have the ability to transform and work through that."

Hawthorne is unflinching in the power of the Gospel to change even the most wayward: "When He is entered relevantly, Jesus works. The Gospel works. It's lost absolutely none of its power. It still is the power of God for the salvation of anyone who believes and when hardened criminals and drug addicts really get the Gospel, hope comes into their lives and they are transformed. We see it again and again in our work. So it feels like an exciting season for us."

Part of transforming lives and the culture means, however, that Christians should not be the same as that culture.

"You can't just go into those challenging areas being the same as the culture you are living in because if you do then you are not going to cause transformation. We have to be counter-cultural," says Crowne.

"What we have to do is acknowledge that it may be tough and it could be difficult but there is another way. Being part of a community of hope builds me and enables me to believe that the Gospel can change these situations."

It may seem like Hope08 only applies to 2008, but its founders hope that the churches catch the vision and build up a culture of year-round mission beyond this year.

"For me this was always a catalyst," concludes Crowne. "There are churches working together that have never worked together before. Why stop that? It's amazing that people have found unity in the context of the cause of the Gospel. If that remains the focus, then churches again should be able to find a way to work together that transforms their communities."

Hawthorne adds: "The idea isn't that come midnight on December 31st we all stop doing mission and go back into our churches. The idea is that churches will catch the boat and become missional churches. There is a rhythm of mission. It's not just two weeks in the summer when we all charge around letting our light shine! We want churches to realise that they really can make an impact on their community. Even if only a few get really serious and pray and serve in the community and share their faith, then on the back of that things happen.

Hawthorne senses that things are already on the up for Christianity in Britain: "I am an optimist by nature but I do sense a turning of the tide. I can see it in London and Manchester. I really believe things are bottoming out and we are starting to see the curve turn now, and I think Hope is going to be part of that in the long run."



Hope08 co-founder and head of Soul Survivor, Mike Pilavachi, was invited to contribute his views to this article but was unavailable for comment due to a busy conference schedule.