Interview: Soul in the City CEO Patrick Regan on Soul Week 2006

|PIC1|Soul Week 2006 launched last Saturday with a dynamic opening at KICC, where special guest evangelist Nicky Cruz and his hip-hop ministry TRUCE poured out their testimonies and opened the hearts of thousands of Londoners.

The week continues with various projects running across London, leading up to the ‘Big Event’ at the Carling Academy Brixton on 5th August. In this interview with Christian Today, CEO of XLP and Soul in the City, Patrick Regan gives a quick overview of what Soul Week is all about.

What’s the aim of Soul Week 2006?

Soul Week is about encouraging churches to engage in their communities. It’s about getting people out of the falls of the church and asking the community what their needs are. It’s all about proclaiming the good news of Jesus in word and action.

Where are the projects being held, and what kind of activities will take place?

Most of the projects are taking place where youth provision isn’t quite good. And what happens is a mixture to what the community needs. In some areas, they do a ‘make me a model’ day, talking to young girls about self-esteem, and the way they feel about themselves...in a lot of urban areas, kids are into sports, so we provide it for them.

It’s about going to where the community is. So often, our evangelism is telling kids ‘come to church, come to church,’ but the reality is, these guys are not going to come to church. So we have to come to them. And we have to be accessible, we have to be relevant, and we have to be culturally engaged. This is about taking the good news of Jesus in word and action. That’s why we’re here.

|TOP|What’s behind the theme of Soul Week 2006: ‘Louder that Words’?

‘Louder than Words’ comes from James 2:17, which talks about faith without action being dead. Faith really comes alive when we put it into action, and when we go into the places where Jesus told us to go.

For a lot of us, we believe that the church has been good at communicating what we are against. This is about communicating what the church is for. The church is for the poor, the marginalised, the broken, and the outcasts in society. It’s about communicating God’s word in action. Action is much better than words. Sometimes, people don’t want words, but they want an arm put around them. They just want to see the love of God in action.

What’s the relationship between XLP and Soul in the City?

XLP and Soul in the City are merged organisations. They have 4 key things that they do.

|AD|They serve communities by meeting social education and behaviour needs of young people. They do that in schools, helping kids read, doing assemblies, doing lessons, doing lunch clubs—60 lunch clubs a month run through XLP with 40 volunteers helping.

They educate young people to help them make wise life-style choices— a lot on sexual health, guns, and things that Jesus taught. It really helps young people unpack difficult issues happening in their lives.

It empowers young people to realise that they have potential and could achieve things in their lives, through arts projects, training events, etc. This mobilises them to get back into their community and be salt and light.

Once you’ve been served, educated, and empowered, you go out and serve others, educate them, and empower them, and mobilise them.

These are the four strands of XLP and Soul in the City. And each strand does different things.

What will happen at the ‘Big Event’ this Saturday?

The ‘Big Event’ is some of the UK’s best Christian acts coming together under one roof. We’re going to be sharing the gospel, and there is going to be a very high standard of performance. Hopefully thousands and thousands of young people across London will come. It’s going to be fast, it’s going to be furious, and it’s going to be a real cultural mix. One of the schools I work in has 65 mother tongue languages and London is diverse. Often our events aren’t that diverse, and you get a lot of segregated events— but this one is going to be different.