HOPE Nottingham sets out to reach every part of the city

The HOPE movement gained new ground on October 14 with the launch of HOPE Nottingham.

Over 50 church leaders and hundreds of worshippers gathered together to celebrate the new charity, the latest to be set up by HOPE Together, a nationwide initiative founded earlier this year to build on the success of HOPE08.

Roy Crowne, Director of HOPE Together, and Steve Clifford, Director General of the Evangelical Alliance commissioned Nigel Adams as the charity’s director.

He hopes the new Nottingham branch will help different Christians engage in more effective mission through words and deeds.

“The success we had in 2008 got us imagining how much more we could serve people in need and bring people to Christ if we truly worked together throughout the borough.

“There is so much more to do but we could see transformation in Nottingham.”

Although HOPE Nottingham was only formally established this month, it has grown out of the work of volunteers continuing to serve their communities in the spirit of HOPE08.

It already has a network of volunteers from different churches in the area and is developing the HOPE model across the city.

So far this year, the volunteers have expanded a small soup kitchen to reach even more homeless people and Healing on the Streets teams have started to serve members of the public in Beeston, with plans to send teams to more areas.

In another project, an old United Reformed church building was converted into a HOPE café and drop in centre, with space for the HOPE Nottingham office upstairs.

In 2011, there are plans to hold a large prayer celebration at Pentecost and launch a roadshow to take HOPE to every community and unite Christians in serving their neighbourhoods.

Roy Crowne said: “Meeting with Nottingham leaders has been such a privilege. This group of people are really getting to the essence of what God is asking them to do on their patch – to share His message through words and actions.

“It is so exciting to see the churches working together. HOPE Nottingham is putting prayer at the forefront of all they do, seeking God’s heart for their community.

“God is blessing the church when it works together despite differences. We would love to see many more villages, towns and cities doing the same.”