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Here are the four seminar titles:

1. Do church-planters give a stuff about urban communities?

Why is it so unusual for church planters to locate themselves in poorer urban areas? This seminar uses Eden’s experience to explore the costs and benefits of following a calling to church plant in a tough community and considers the signs of a turning tide toward our nation’s church-forsaken neighbourhoods.

2. Whatever happened to the local church anyway?

This seminar considers how the contemporary world around us is made up of radically different planting environments. Using a framework of Network and Neighbourhood we will consider what it means to be local in the 21st century city and how this might affect where and how we plant. Particular emphasis will be given in this session to what is meant by ‘Incarnational Ministry’.

3. Planting churches where Sunday isn’t ‘the main event’?

Looking at what a local Eden team actually does on the ground on a day to day basis – and how it is intentionally evolved over time as the new work becomes established. Reflecting on the importance of the planting team sharing a distinctive set of values as both a well of inspiration and an anchor for accountability.

4. What does success look like in a deprived urban context?

Do the traditional measures of church success translate into start-ups in deprived communities? Using Eden’s experience in the inner city to imagine what might an ‘urban scorecard’ might look like? And perhaps smaller urban churches may have valuable lessons to share with the wider church about how to combat consumerism and transience in order to achieve high levels of participation, empowerment, rootedness and fulfilment?

Over 1,000 young people took part in almost 50 community improvement projects in 25 locations across Greater Manchester. The two-day initiative helped breathe new life into neglected areas of the city and fascinated residents and onlookers around the city.

In Cheetham Hill, a new community garden stands in the grounds of Trinity United Church, welcoming visitors to the Welcome Centre, a community-drop in for refugees and asylum seekers, the homeless and those struggling with mental health issues.

In Ordsall, projects include painting railings around the Community Café and on the old St Clements and Radclyffe school sites; clearing the overgrown path alongside the River Irwell opposite the Victoria and Albert hotel; gardening for needy residents across the neighbourhood, clearing rubbish and general litter picking.

In Brinnington, a local children’s centre was re-landscaped with paths cleared and gardens planted, just one of several target areas to get the ‘Hope’ treatment, including areas around Reddish Vale Country Park, the Lapwing Centre, Moat Walk Play Area, and St Lukes Church and Community Centre.

Other local projects took place in Reddish (clearing gardens and ginnels), Kersal (clearing woodland), Eccles (litter picking and garden tidying), Flixton (graffiti removal and tidying scout hut), Langworthy (painting railings and clearing waste ground), Bury (litter picking, clearing waste ground, street clean-ups), Old Trafford (clearing yards and fly-tipping), Altrincham (clearing up transport interchange), Farnworth (litter picking), Halliwell (park tidying, gardening and repairs), Cheadle (park and sports activities), Didsbury (litter picking and family fun day), Failsworth (family open air events), Fitton Hill (cleaning local skate park and basketball court), Werneth (children’s holiday club), Greenacres (graffiti cleaning, back alleys and park tidying), Northern Moor (clearing local gardens), Openshaw (graffiti cleaning, cutting back bushes), Collyhurst (litter picking, tiding garden areas) and Crumpsall (painting railings).

All the projects were coordinated by The Message in partnership with local authorities, Greater Manchester Police and local churches.

(Thanks to Amanda Morgan for these pictures.)

The project is one of 50 taking place this week as part of the Audacious 09 Christian youth festival.

Local MP Hazel Blears will be helping out with the young people and local residents in Ordsall:

’Young people often get given a bad press but this is a great example of them putting something back into the community. ‘Ordsall is a great place to live and will be even greener and brighter as a result of all their hard work,’ she said.

The Message Trust is working in partnership with Salford Council, Salix Homes and LPC Living and Salford Division of Greater Manchester Police together with Ordsall churches – St Clements and the Oasis Church.

Alan Saunders from The Message commented: ‘We’re hugely grateful to the support and partnership of these organisations in providing tools, materials, rubbish clearance, staff and finances to help make this initiative such a great success for the local community.’

Projects include painting railings around the Community Café; clearing the overgrown path alongside the River Irwell opposite the Victoria and Albert hotel; gardening for needy residents across the neighbourhood, including a major project on Coronation Street; clearing rubbish and painting railings on the old St Clements and Radclyffe school sites; and general litter picking.

People passing will be invited to the free events in Manchester city centre on Saturday 8 August.

More pictures from the Ordsall project are available on Flickr.

A team of hard-working young people are helping a Cheetham Hill community centre improve its surroundings this week as part of the Audacious youth festival.

The Welcome Centre run at Trinity United Church is a local drop-in centre set up five years ago to respond to the needs of people living locally, especially refugees and asylum seekers, the homeless and those struggling with mental health issues.

Run by the church in partnership with local agencies, the Centre provides access to services, a good meal, friendship and support at the church’s premises on the intersection of Greenhill Road and Cheetham Hill Road.

Teamirat Seyoum, himself once an asylum seeker from Eritrea, is the Centre Coordinator: ‘People come to the Centre for a variety of reasons: some seeking advice and support, some looking for help filling in a form, referrals and advice work on benefits.

‘We help anyone. Cheetham Hill is a very diverse and multicultural community with 22 communities speaking 44 languages. Our volunteers are also from diverse backgrounds – Christians, Muslims, Hindus and many of the people who help deliver our services are themselves refugees or are affected by mental health issues. Volunteering can be the first step on the road to employment.’

Seventeen young people are working at Trinity United Church and the partner church St Johns on Thursday and Friday afternoons this week (August 6 and 7). The youngsters are creating a community garden: clearing land which use to be occupied by a demolished church hall, putting down a membrane and covering the area with bark chippings, creating a restful seating area.

The area will also host a vegetable patch which will eventually provide home-grown for use in the Centre.

‘It will be used as a quiet and reflective place for the users of the centre on Thursdays and Fridays’, says Trinity United Church leader Daniel Burton. ‘It’s the first thing you see when you go through the gate and for years it’s been an eyesore. Suddenly, having a willing team of youngsters has given us the people power to tackle it.’

‘It’s a great project for them to be involved with. The church is at the physical crossroads here and we are also at the crossroads of many people’s lives.’

The team sent to help the project in Cheetham Hill is from Louth Christian Fellowship in Louth, Lincolnshire. James Cartwright, one of the leaders of the group commented:

‘It’s really good to see the young people getting involved in the community and chatting to people as they come past and ask what’s going on. It’s also good for the young people to know that they’re appreciated and get the encouragement. It’s uplifting to be a part of it.’

The project is one of 50 local projects taking place across Manchester this Thursday and Friday, part of an initiative run by The Message Trust and the Audacious Festival. More than 1,000 young people are involved in total.

The Audacious youth festival will culminate in a massive free outdoor event in central Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens and Spinningfields on Saturday 8 August. The event will feature outdoor sports, live music, street theatre and, for the first time ever in the centre of Manchester, a bungee crane. The day starts at 1pm and everyone is welcome.

Day and evening passes available – click here.

The week-long Christian festival takes place at Manchester Central (formerly G-MEX) and is a mix of conference-style worship and teaching, community action projects across the city and a day-long city centre ‘expo’ event taking place in Spinningfields and Cathedral Gardens.

On Thursday 6 and Friday 7 August, the young people will suit up and ship out to 25 locally-based community projects across the city in an initiative the festival organisers are calling ’10,000 Hours of Hope’. Each project is designed to clean up and improve local areas through clearing rubbish, painting railings, cleaning graffiti and planting gardens.

The Audacious festival will culminate in a massive free public event in Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens and Spinningfields on Saturday 8 August. The event will feature outdoor sports, live music, street theatre and, for the first time ever in the centre of Manchester, a bungee crane. The day starts at 1pm and everyone is welcome.

This summer, The Message is excited to be partnering with Audacious to bring the massive !Audacious conference to Manchester from 3-8 August.

Manchester Central will play host to thousands of young people from across the country, here to soak up six days of passionate praise and worship, stirring teaching from top Bible communicators and the life-transforming presence of God.

But !Audacious ’09 is more than just a conference for young people. It’s a chance for the people of Manchester to see the life-changing power of God in action.

That’s because this year, alongside the conference programme, young delegates will have the chance to show God’s love in action through dozens of targeted social action projects in local communities around Greater Manchester.

On the two afternoons of the 6th and 7th August, delegates will suit up and ship out to serve on community projects across the city. Teams will be transported to local neighbourhoods, equipped and let loose on projects such as cleaning up the local shopping parade, litter picking, scrubbing off graffiti or painting railings.

To register your young people on the conference, visit www.liveaudacious.com or call 0161 830 7000.

To have an ‘A-Team to come to serve your local community (for one or both of the afternoons), download an application form at www.bigdeal.org.uk or call 0161 946 2332.

And don’t miss the massive day of mission ‘Audacious Unleashed’ on Saturday 8 August culminating with the live Unleashed event at Manchester Central, starting at 7.30pm and featuring Message bands LZ7, Blush and Twelve24 , as well as In Yer Face.