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Finding hope through the weekly grocery shop
Alongside the highly reduced food shop, the member and their whole family have access to a wide range of free support courses. These include healthy cooking classes, debt management, IT skills, children’s dance and music classes, community meals, exploring Christianity and so much more. Members…
Danielle Campsall
Church leaders, here's how to work with MPs, mayors and more
Churches in Greater Manchester are mapping food provision offered in every church in each of the ten boroughs of the region. Piloted in the summer, this is now being overlaid with a map of the postcodes of children on free school meals to reveal the “gaps” in our communities and is becoming the…
Mark Cowling
Exploring Evangelism Myths
Do you want to see evangelism with fresh eyes? How do you feel when you hear the word ‘evangelism’? If you’re anything like us, you feel a mix of emotions. We get it. If you’re a church leader, you may feel like evangelism is yet another thing to juggle. If you go to church, it’s common to feel…
Jesus to the Rescue
Jesus to the Rescue is the Christmas story … with a difference. Jesus to the Rescue tells the story of how God sent Jesus into the world to rescue it and us. Part of the God’s Big Story series, which uses the Early Learning Centre’s Happyland toys and with free downloadable resources to help…
A prayer for COP27
Inspired by Psalm 8:3 "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?"
He is my comfort during the holiday blues
My earliest memories of Christmas are happy ones. I remember I was delighted at being cast as 'sheep number two’ in the school nativity play in year four. I loved to decorate the Christmas tree and marvel every evening after school as I came home to find yet another present decoratively wrapped…
Nicola Morrison
Game for change
Even if you are not a fan, it's hard to deny the impact football can have on a global scale. Especially the World Cup, when even the less enthused football fanatics from around the world are drawn to attend or watch on the big screen with friends and family for weeks on end, or at least until your…
Nicola Morrison
Eight changes you should know about from the Autumn Statement
Many of the plans unveiled by Hunt yesterday were a stark contrast to those announced in September. The general response to Hunt’s statement has been one of cautious optimism for what these plans mean for those who are struggling financially. However, increased support in some areas results in…
Nicola Martin
Carols in IKEA: how to bring the nativity to life
However, as people come and go to Christmas services, it sometimes leaves us wondering whether it makes any difference. Does anyone care about the real meaning of Christmas or are they just here for the free mince pies? There is something about Christmas that brings comfort. We eat the same foods…
Leonie Dorland
2021 Census: Christianity can flourish in the margins of society
How should Christians respond to these findings, is it a cause for concern, and what does it mean for Christianity in public life? First of all, these findings are not a surprise; it has been widely predicted that this would be the result, and our own research through Talking Jesus found that 48%…
Danny Webster
He is greater: Advent prayers
This advent, join us in prayer as we lift our focus to reflect on His hope, peace, joy and love
Three ways to be a better friend this Christmas
Reconnect There is a phenomenon in friendship called 'relational decay', based on the notion that the sands of time and miles of geography do to our connections, what the failure of brushing and lack of dental hygiene do to our teeth. Our diaries resemble peak commuter trains, with little space to…
Phil Knox
Scotland: Government told commercial sexual exploitation must stop
Scotland currently legalises violence against women. This injustice must be challenged. As Christians, we reflect the nature of our Creator in seeking to end injustices against those who are exploited and vulnerable, especially and including gendered injustices. The open letter urges the Scottish…
Chris Ringland
Hope is the antidote
What struck me was that this trajectory starts in suffering but instead of ending in sorrow or sadness or despair, it ends in hope. In the mysterious ways of God, suffering doesn’t strip away hope, but ultimately produces it. Surely that cannot be right? It is when I suffer that I often feel most…
Natalie Williams
Hope with hindsight
For example, in Psalm 77, Asaph sings with brutal honesty about his experience of suffering and sleepless nights. But by the end of the song, he finds comfort in recollecting how God rescued Israel out of slavery: “Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your…
Andy Palmer