The movement Matt describes has already taken in neighbourhoods far beyond Manchester, where the first Eden teams began working with young people in 1997. Now regional hubs are thriving in the North East, Yorkshire and London, and exciting new doors are opening up in both the Humber region and Merseyside.

NEW PARTNERSHIPS

In all, 24 Eden partnerships are now active or on the cusp of launching.

In Hull, Eden Preston Road is urgently recruiting its team who will live and minister on the estate which has long-standing challenges: the area is in the bottom 0.26% of multiple deprivation nationally, with high levels of crime, benefit dependency and worklessness. The partnership will be boosted by strong links with the newly re-sited Archbishop Sentamu Academy on the estate (see picture). This 1500-pupil high school has a strong Christian ethos and its Principal is keen to work closely with the Eden team to make a significant difference in the lives of young people and their families.

Sited in a highly multicultural area of Sheffield, Eden Fir Vale is the third Eden team to be established in Yorkshire. Team leaders Ben and Beth Baker are building links with local people and organisations and engaging cross-culturally, getting to know their Muslim neighbours and even learning Urdu.

In London, two new partnerships are set to commence in 2012, adding to the four already under way. Eden Brunel will be based on an estate in the Paddington area and Eden Plaistow is to be located in the area close to the West Ham football stadium in East London.

And here in Manchester, plans are being drawn up for a new Eden in partnership in an estate called the Merseybank, in partnership with a church called Ivy Manchester.

We hope to bring you more news about these exciting new Eden teams in the next edition of Flow. However, if you can’t wait that long you’re welcome to contact the Eden office directly, details below.

ASSOCIATES NETWORK

A further significant development for 2012 will be a whole new kind of growth, an opportunity to go far beyond the current geographical boundaries of the Eden Network. Matt explains more:

‘We’re approached often by people who are encouraged by what God’s doing through Eden – they want to connect and receive support from us but they don’t fulfil our criteria for various reasons. Perhaps they’re not focused within a big urban population, maybe they don’t place the same emphasis on youth, or maybe their community isn’t quite in the bottom 10%. But we really want to help them succeed too – we don’t want them to find themselves repeating mistakes we’ve made before. We recognise we need an easier way for them to connect with us to obtain some level of support, encouragement and resource.’

With that in mind, Eden is working behind the scenes on the nuts and bolts of what will become an Eden ‘Associates’ network. This will allow interested groups to benefit from Eden’s expertise without becoming full-blown Eden partners. Associates will have the opportunity to train with experienced Eden workers, join networking events and access lots of great resources.

‘In kingdom terms we hope this shift will have massive impact because it will offer us the opportunity to begin making a difference in many other places – perhaps even in other nations,’ says Matt.

PROXIMITY CONFERENCE

One part of the Associates package will be an invitation to be part of national events such as the upcoming Proximity conference, taking place on 25th and 26th May at World Harvest Bible Church in Salford Quays.

Proximity will feature as its keynote speaker Dave Ferguson from Community Christian Church and NewThing Network (pictured). Dave is a serial church planter who has seen exponential growth in his movement of missional communities around Chicago.

Also speaking will be Patrick Regan of XLP, who works with young people in several inner-London boroughs. Because of his experience of gang culture, Patrick became a key voice in the wake of the riots last August.

And Nims Obunge, CEO of the Peace Alliance and pastor of a church in Tottenham, has also joined the speaking team, responsible for leading the conference’s devotional times.

‘Nims actually gave me a great insight that helped me see Eden in a whole new way,’ says Matt. ‘He said to me, “Biblically, Eden signifies the work that God’s begun and is inviting us to be part of.” Wow! Now that’s great theology! We’ve always known that Eden is God’s movement, not ours, he’s doing something special through Eden and we just want to keep up with him.’

You can find out more about the Proximity conference and the new Eden locations on Eden’s website.

Contact the Eden team now via email.

Matt’s new book, ‘Concrete Faith’, is the inside story of the Eden Network

It’s packed with inspirational and personal stories and shares the lessons learned and challenges faced by Eden teams over the last 
15 years. The book will be out in March, but you can pre-order a copy for just £5 right here.

Over the last 15 years, Eden has established itself as part of a movement of God embracing the different strands of incarnational living, church planting, urban youth ministry, missional community and urban church. Proximity 2012 will bring these ministries together in one place for two days of vision, conversation, inspiration and celebration. Proximity will be light-hearted and yet intelligent; fast-paced and yet reflective; boundary-pushing and yet affirming.

If you’re a leader or practitioner in any of these five overlapping areas of ministry Proximity is for you.

When and where is it happening?

From Friday 25th – Saturday 26th May, at The Sanctuary, the home of World Harvest Bible Church, a stone’s throw from the newly regenerated Salford Quays, the new home of the BBC in the north of England. Those interested in urban regeneration will find the area absolutely fascinating. There is an abundance of hotels to suit various budgets and local transport links into the area are excellent.

How much will it cost?

Proximity has been specifically designed to be flexible enough to accommodate a variety of needs and to allow maximum participation. Many will choose to be involved for the whole two days, which will cost £44; however booking before the end of March will save you 10%. Day tickets for each of the days are also available at £25 each. Finally, we will be opening up the Friday evening celebration at a cost of just £5 per ticket (limited numbers available).

How do I book?

The event is being administrated using the online ‘Eventbrite’ system which means you’ll need a credit card handy in order to place your booking. To visit the booking portal CLICK HERE.

Laura’s experience as part of an Eden team opened her eyes to a massive problem in Fitton Hill: her community wasn’t getting the kind of health care it desperately needed.

Part way through a medical degree, Laura put her studies to one side to do something about it. With a small team, Laura put together a Community Interest Company and wrote a 700 page bid for the tender – and they won it. Not yet 30, Laura now oversees four local practices.

With thanks to Award Sponsor Subaru UK.

Nina wanted to set up a youth club to help girls in her local area, Harpurhey, because nothing existed at that point.

Showing impressive leadership, Nina and a mate applied for funding from the council and got it – and now there is a club which is very successfully attracting and helping young girls regularly in this disadvantaged part of the city.

With thanks to Award Sponsor The Grand.

‘Our journey to Gorton actually started decades ago when Mike chose to support Manchester City at age 11. As a family, we’re all season ticket holders and we often used to come all the way up to watch them play from our old home in Whiteley, near Portsmouth.

Years of praying for an opportunity to serve God somewhere as a family came to an end when we heard an interview on Premier Radio mentioning Eden.  It sounded like just what we were looking for: being able to reach out to a poor community on our doorstep.

So I looked into it online and saw they were looking for people in Gorton, Manchester. Mike suddenly piped up, ‘That’s where we stay in a hotel when we go up to watch City!’ It turned out we drove through Gorton regularly but had never realised it.

The differences between our old home and Gorton were stark. The crime rate in Gorton is sky high, whereas in Whiteley it was next to nothing. We’d been away for the weekend before and left the front door open by accident! We left our car unlocked all the time.

In Gorton on the other hand, we had stuff nicked from outside our house on our first night here. And we were burgled almost six months to the day of moving in. I was praying for an opportunity to get to know our neighbours better – I didn’t expect it to be a burglary!

Our two boys, William and Harrison, were a key part of our move. The fact the boys were so young had almost stopped us going on mission in the past – what if their education suffered or they were bullied? But we felt God clearly saying, ‘I’m more than capable of looking after your children – trust me.’ And every single step of the way, God has opened a door. At first we were told there would be no places in the local school for our boys – but two places opened up at just the right time.

We think the fact that they go to a school where there are 25 languages spoken and lots of different cultures is really healthy for them. We found it was very easy in leafy suburbia to become quite complacent – life was comfortable and often not very challenging. Up here, yes, we’ve had discomfort spiritually and physically but that’s brought us closer together and made us stronger.

There are still strains on family life – not least being burgled. But even that was turned into a blessing as we all learned more about putting our security in God alone. Our youngest Harrison was really shaken up by the burglary, and wondered why God had allowed it when he said he’d protect us.

But one day while he was praying, he felt God spoke to him, ‘You are a mighty warrior’ and everything changed for him. For Harrison to have grabbed hold of that is amazing. I really don’t think that would have happened if we hadn’t brought him on this adventure with God with us.’

Don’t miss a brilliant new series of five-minute films about Eden called Extra Ordinary Lives.

The films give a window into the lives of people who have chosen to live in challenging communities as part of the Eden Network.

Collecting the award on behalf of the production team at Message:Creative, Eden’s National Director Matt Wilson spoke of the inspiration behind the short films: ‘The Being Extra Ordinary films are designed to foster a richer understanding of what life is like in the communities we’re serving. Through the real-life stories of our team members and their neighbours, we hope to break down the assumption that you need to be a superhero to be involved in this kind of ministry.’

The latest film, number four in the series, features Chris and Laura, team leaders of Eden Byker, who talk about how God interrupted their lives to call them to the North East. Watch it below.

It follows number three in the series, telling the amazing story of Tony Grainge and his work with young people on the Easterside estate near Middlesbrough.

Click to watch Part Three on YouTube

Part Two featured Jackie and Simon Blanchflower, part of Eden Notting Barns (W10). They talk about how they moved on to the Lancaster West estate, the thrill of living in multicultural London and their dream to build ‘a local church for local people’.

Watch Part Two (featuring Jackie and Simon) on YouTube

Part one featured Ben and Amy Woodfield, team leaders of Eden Old Trafford, which gives glimpses of life on Eden Old Trafford together with some of the couple’s experiences and motivation behind being part of Eden.

Watch Part One (featuring Ben and Amy) on YouTube

Eden is looking for 100 people to join their teams in Manchester, London and in the North East in 2011. Could you be one of them?

Find out more at the Eden Network website

Watch it here:

To find out more about the work of Eden visit: www.eden-network.org

The latest film, number four in the series, features Chris and Laura, team leaders of Eden Byker, who talk about how God interrupted their lives to call them to the North East. Watch it below now!

Number three in the series, tells the amazing story of Tony Grainge and his work with young people on the Easterside estate near Middlesbrough.

Click to watch Part Three  on YouTube.com

It follows Part Two, featuring Jackie and Simon Blanchflower, part of Eden Notting Barns (W10). They talk about how they moved on to the Lancaster West estate, the thrill of living in multicultural London and their dream to build ‘a local church for local people’.

Click to watch Part Two (featuring Jackie and Simon) on YouTube.com.

Part one featured Ben and Amy Woodfield, team leaders of Eden Old Trafford, which gives glimpses of life on Eden Old Trafford together with some of the couple’s experiences and motivation behind being part of Eden.

Watch Part One (featuring Ben and Amy) on YouTube now.

Eden is looking for 100 people to join their teams up and down the country in 2011. Could you be one of them?

Find out more at the Eden Network website.

The 21-year-old is giving his whole life to becoming the kind of committed youth worker who helped him turn his own life around as a teenager.

Four years ago, Allan was arrested for robbery – an attempt to feed a drug habit that had spiralled out of control. He was given a community penalty and had to undergo a drugs treatment course.

Everything changed for Allan when he met team members from Eden Westwood and Firwood Church who shared the gospel with him and helped him start afresh.

He quickly started volunteering with the Eden team, helping out with youth work and acting as a mentor to other young men. Just two years later, he was nominated for the Volunteer Award – and won.

‘Receiving the award was a real encouragement to keep going,’ says Allan. ‘The awards are a real recognition of what God is doing in people’s lives.’ It also confirmed Allan’s desire to continue to train for full-time youth work. After completing a course in music technology, Allan enrolled on a BA Honours course in Theology at the Nazarene  theological college:

‘I have two main passions in my life – one is God and the other is music. My dream is to combine the two with youth work. I want to work with young people.’

Allan returns home to Oldham every weekend to continue helping out with the youth work at Firwood, investing in relationships with young people over sports and music activities and two services on a Sunday. All the hard work is bearing fruit – Firwood’s youth work is thriving and seeing many young people coming to know Jesus.

‘We’re starting to see some of the young people we’ve been working with for a long time finally making decisions for God,’ says Allan. ‘The reason many of them have waited is because they wanted to take it seriously. One came up to me recently in tears and apologised for being rowdy and hard work. There’s real change happening – what was for a long time evangelism is now discipleship.’

Janine’s life was transformed when she met God through the Eden team working with the church in Harpurhey.

‘My story started when my sister died when she was 24 and I was only 14. I didn’t know how to deal with it and my whole life turned really fearful and went downhill.

‘I started having panic attacks and they gradually got worse. I had to quit my job and eventually I couldn’t even leave my house. I couldn’t even go downstairs. I didn’t leave my house for two and a half years. I couldn’t see friends or even my family. It was horrible.

‘There was nothing that medical professionals could do to help. They tried to give me antidepressants but I wouldn’t take them. They said I wasn’t fit for counselling because I couldn’t even make it to an appointment.

‘I knew about God but I would say I didn’t know God. But I would pray for help. One night I had a dream that I had to go to Christchurch in Harpurhey, the Eden partner church. But I didn’t feel I could go so I asked my mum to go for me. After the service, she prayed with the vicar, Mark, and with Lucy from the Eden team.

‘Their prayers worked and God started healing me. Gradually I would take small steps out of the house – just a little way, then I would run back home again. It was really hard but God helped  me. Every week it got a bit easier.

‘The first times I went to Christchurch, I couldn’t speak or even look up from the pew. That went on for ages. Somehow Mark and Lucy knew what I had been praying to God and they were so sensitive, it was like Jesus himself helping me.

‘The Eden team really showed me Jesus. They supported me and encouraged me, shared special words and scriptures and prayed for me. They were my friends when I needed them.

‘They helped me get my life back together. I’ve got a job now and I’m working with young people in the church. I took some of them to an LZ7 concert and it was amazing to see so many of them giving their lives to Jesus.

‘Now I just feel like I’m living again. I’ve known what it is to be low and depressed. Now I know what real joy is. It could only be God.’

Find out more about Eden at the Eden Network website.