New Wine, Urban Impact, is hitting the road in March 2011 to spread the word and celebrate all that God is doing. 

Ian and Nadine Parkinson (right) will host the evenings with Andy Hawthorne, Ian Henderson and Matt Wilson speaking. Andy Smith will be leading worship and In Yer Face will bring cutting-edge theatre.

Tickets will available on the door at each venue unless stated. More details will follow as we get them.

Thursday 3 March – Sheffield (St Thomas Crookes)

Monday 7 March – Tyneside (Heaton Baptist Church)

Tuesday 8 March – Teesside (Oakwood Centre, Stockton-on-Tees)

Wednesday 9 March – Manchester (Ivy Manchester)

Friday 11 March – London (venue TBC)

One of the most remarked-upon aspects of community action evangelism events is how they act as a catalyst for unity among churches. This always produces results far greater than churches could ever see alone.

Momentum from unity-building work among churches for Festival:Manchester in 2003, resulted in the creation of an initiative designed to help churches support their local police and the public sector, Redeeming Our Communities.

The strength of the partnership which has developed over the years will be shown by a Community Showcase event at the Manchester Velodrome on June 30, held in association with Greater Manchester Police and Fire and Rescue Services. And the results speak for themselves: Greater Manchester Police’s latest figures show crime at its lowest level for 10 years – a fact which they attribute to their operations, changes to policing and new initiatives like Redeeming Our Communities.

What was pioneered in Manchester is now being investigated and adopted by other cities. A Merseyside initiative launched last year; Birmingham launches in November 2010 and London in April 2011. Redeeming Our Communities is also now working with the police nationally through the National Policing Improvement Agency which works with all 43 police divisions in England and Wales and the Home Office.

Debra Green, founder, remarks: ‘There has been a bridge built across the sacred-secular divide which we would never in our wildest dreams have thought possible ten years ago. The idea that we could put on a big event that politicians, police, local authorities would gladly come and be a part of – and that is unashamedly Christian – was inconceivable.’

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‘I was surprised. What on earth did washing someone’s car have to do with the gospel? How did painting park benches lead to salvation? I couldn’t remember Jesus talking about the importance of weeding communal gardens!’

But his decision to agree with the Soul Survivor leader led to the creation of Message 2000, an unprecedented festival of ‘word and deed’ evangelism that was to set the tone for the rest of the next ten years.

Over ten summer days in July 2000, 400 community action projects across Greater Manchester involved almost 10,000 young Christian volunteers in social, environmental and crime reduction projects on some of the city’s roughest and toughest estates. The results were instant and dramatic. New life burst out on old streets.

Andy continues: ‘There was something remarkable about that time we spent together in the summer of 2000. It was as if we did ten years’ work in ten days. Perhaps some of our earlier attempts at ‘hit and run evangelism’ had led people to believe that we were some kind of foaming-at-the-mouth fundamentalists. But suddenly we had the police and local authorities on our side, seeing us as a real force for good rather than people to be avoided.’

In the coming years, The Message built on this momentum with Message 2K1 (2001); Festival:Manchester, in partnership with the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association (2003); the Big Deal weekends in Salford, Stockport and Macclesfield (2005-6); the UK-wide Hope 08 initiative in partnership with dozens of other agencies and thousands of local churches (2008), and last summer’s 10,000 Hours of Hope, part of the !Audacious youth conference.

Stories of how lives were changed and whole new initiatives were birthed as a result of Message 2000 and subsequent word and deed evangelism find their way back to The Message all the time.

Communities benefitted from the sudden influx of fired-up young people with a paint brush in their hand and a smile on their face. In several cases, whole new churches or community organisations were set up as a direct consequence of people being inspired by what they saw was possible when churches worked together to make a difference.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking back on Message 2000 and asking: what’s changed?

Church unity grown

Local communities transformed

Individual lives impacted

What’s next?

Four exceptional youngsters and a pioneering group from Greater Manchester are to be honoured on Friday at our third annual Urban Hero Awards.

The awards recognise young people who have made exceptional contributions to their local communities over the last year – or have bravely overcome a major obstacle in their lives.

All of the nominees have been directly impacted by the work of The Message Trust, a Christian charity working with the hardest-to-reach young people in Greater Manchester’s schools, communities and prisons.

Five category winners have already been named as winners of the Achiever, Champion, Courage, Inspiration and Volunteer Awards.

They include a former drug dealer now helping young offenders in prisons; a school drop-out now back in full-time education; and a notorious community trouble-maker who is now an active local volunteer. A pioneering group which worked together to help combat antisocial behaviour among young people in Oldham is also receiving a special award.

The overall Urban Hero of the Year will be named and presented with their award at a glitzy red carpet ceremony at the Palace Hotel, Manchester.

This is the third year the Urban Hero Awards have taken place. In 2008, teenager Anthony Martindale from Harpurhey scooped the award for services to his local community. Last year, Stephanie North from Openshaw (pictured above) won the award for courageously pursuing justice in the face of bullying and threats to her family.

The event, which will feature performances from In Yer Face, Twelve24 and Lz7 is sponsored by Stagecoach and a host of north west businesses: Wigwam, Safe Records Management, Stephensons, The Grand and Jurang.

The Message’s youth discipleship resource Start Something is now available to download for free via iTunes.

Featuring Lindz West, Andy Hawthorne and members of Blush, Start Something answers 12 burning questions facing young Christians and includes tracks from the bands.

Previously full-priced at £4.99, well over 5,o00 copies of Start Something have already found their way into the hands of young people.

Click here to go direct to iTunes to download Start Something as a podcast.

Click here to download the original CD artwork.

The book, looking at the Gospel of Luke and what it means for mission today, is one of five books to be shortlisted for the award, and faces competition from bestselling authors Mark Stibbe, John Ortberg, Tom Wright and Nicky and Sila Lee.

The winning book will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Christian Resource Exhibition (CRE) at Sandown Park, Esher, on May 11.

Voting is now open and the first 1,000 votes will be rewarded with free entry to the exhibition between 11- 14 May. Five voters will also be in with a chance of winning £100 worth of Christian books.

Please take a minute to vote for your favourite book, and who knows, maybe Andy will scoop Book of The Year!

You can buy a copy from our Online Store for just £5.99 (25% off RRP) with free P&P.

Or get a free copy when you sign up to become a regular giver to The Message.

The Message’s bands, theatre company and CEO Andy Hawthorne are all on the road throughout the summer taking part in festivals and events around the country.

Andy Hawthorne, Matt Wilson, Ian Henderson and In Yer Face will be hosting the EmPower venue at New Wine North and East during July 25-31.

Andy is also leading various seminars in New Wine Central and South.

Andy is a platform speaker at Harvest 09 during August 19-21.

LZ7 are playing CreationFest (Aug 9), Soul Survivor (Aug 15, 17), Flevo Festival (Aug 20-23) and Greenbelt (Aug 31).

Blush are playing CreationFest (Aug 9)

All our bands are also playing the Audacious Unleashed event on August 8.