‘Let Glasgow Flourish’ reads the city motto. And flourish it did at the Commonwealth Games from July 23 – Aug 3.
The city blossomed with many thousands of visitors and a successful 11 days of sporting excellence, with England topping the medal charts. However, what the current motto fails to reveal is that there was once a bit more to it. The original motto read like this: ‘Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of your Word and the praising of your name’. It was shortened to its current, secular format, back in the 17th century.
Street evangelism
Committed to the true flourishing of Glasgow, churches from the West of Scotland Gospel Partnership (www.wsgp.org.uk) and others used the arrival of the Games as an opportunity to proclaim and distribute the Word of God. With the city in full bloom and packed with athletes, coaches and tourists from all over the world, the streets and squares were awash with people, presenting many opportunities for outreach, particularly street evangelism.
Adi Harris from Greenview Evangelical Church led a Gospel Literature Outreach team along with Stephen McQuoid, of GLO (www.glo-europe.org/glo/). GLO are committed to helping grow mission focused churches in Europe. They do this through the mobilising, training and resourcing of Christians to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. They run many short-term mission teams such as the one to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games.
40 member team
Greenview and GLO, working in partnership with Harper Memorial Church, Open Air Missions and MAD Ministries had put together a team of about 40 members for outreach during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Over the course of the Games the team distributed 12,000 Penny Gospels and 12,000 Winning Gold tracts and had hundreds of meaningful conversations and witnessing opportunities.
The Penny Gospels project was an initiative from the Scottish Bible Society with the aim of distributing thousands of copies of Luke’s Gospel during the Commonwealth Games at a cost to churches looking to give them away of just 1p per gospel. Over 400 churches took part in the initiative with 750,000 Luke’s Gospel’s printed for distribution during the Games. Greenview Evangelical Church will be offering a Christianity Explored course in September to capitalise on any follow-up opportunities.
The Tron Church in the city centre sent small teams onto the streets each day to engage people in conversation, share testimonies and distribute gospels and tracts. The Tron also hosted a team of street evangelists from the United States who are part of Sports Fan Outreach International. Training on street preaching was provided by Jeremy Walker of Maidenbower Baptist Church, Alex Bedford, a Glasgow-based itinerant preacher and street evangelist and Bob Fyall, senior tutor at Cornhill Scotland.
Daily café
Sandyford Henderson Memorial Church in Glasgow’s West End and just around the corner from the lawn bowls venue (!) hosted a daily café throughout the course of the Games. They attracted over 1000 visitors during the 11 days of the Games and the café, hosted by church members, provided many opportunities for sharing the gospel. Some of those who attended the café came along to the Sunday services at Sandyford during the Games.
Let Glasgow Flourish, yes, but let it be through the preaching of the Word of God and by the praising of his name. Pray that there might be lasting fruit from the efforts of local churches over the Commonwealth Games.
