The Great Commission calls us to reach out in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.
The UK’s Commonwealth heritage makes us a remarkably diverse nation with London the most globalised city in the world, and we are surrounded by ‘Samaritans’ – those who are culturally very different from ourselves.
For London City Mission, our work will often be in helping to equip church members to chat to the Somali lady at the school gate, or the Romanian builder who fixed our fence, or the Asian family who live down the street. There are over 80,000 Somalis living close to Southall and over one million Muslims living in our capital city.
We need to be ready to step out of our comfort zones.
From vicar to church planter
One church ready to be adventurous is Becontree Church in Dagenham who partner with us in one of our community outreach centres in Dagenham. Becontree Church is led by Mike Reith, who was until recently vicar of Dagenham Parish Church. Eventually his frustration with the lack of gospel witness on local estates became so great that he took early retirement from his comfortable job as a vicar and stepped out in faith to be a church-planter on one of the estates.
The dozen planters who went with him on the day I gave the inaugural speech last Easter were a motley crew: not many university graduates, no trained evangelists or Bible scholars, but hearts passionate for the glory of the Lord and his fame in Dagenham. Their efforts have been rewarded with fruitfulness. Through systematic door-knocking, ‘Mums ’n Tots’ outreach events and faithful preaching, they have seen a steady increase in the number of people attending church and a number of baptisms of new believers.
City of Peace
Another church LCM has been supporting is City of Peace Church on the Isle of Dogs. The Isle of Dogs has been going through rapid change and while there are high-rise developments in the north that attract wealth from around the world, there are still many Cockney and Bangladeshi families living close to our Café and Outreach Centre, close to Mudchute Park, who have lived on the island for generations.
Church pastor Tom Carpenter stresses the need for long-term commitment in these kinds of areas: ‘Too many church planters come with short-term goals. That doesn’t work here. In a diverse community like the Isle of Dogs it can take a few years just to be known and trusted by the local community. If you have a target of breaking even financially after two years, then you’ll never be ready to invest the time and effort to make relationships work with the Bangladeshi youth or the Cockney elderly’.
We don’t all have to give up our jobs to get out of comfort zones, but we all determine every day whether to stay in the zone or not. We must break down the cultural walls to reach out to the Samaritans.
There are some specialist skills and resources available to churches wanting to engage with the ‘harder to reach’ parts of the community. The Trussell Trust, Christians Against Poverty, South Asia Concern and London City Mission can all help bridge particular skills gaps, but the main requirement will be a heart passionate for the glory of the Lord and a willingness to let the Holy Spirit drive us out of our comfort zone.
