Hello Stroud Parish!
My name is Chris Scorah, I am part of the youth work team at The Door and I have succeeded the wonderful Barrie Voyce leading the illuminate project. A quick pause for those who may not be familiar with illuminate:
Illuminate is a project within the whole of The Door’s community youth work that aims to bring isolated young Christians together so that they can develop their faith as part of something bigger. Through these young people, we hope to reach their friends with the good news of Jesus and this is provided in a variety of different ways.
Currently in Stroud, illuminate opens a lunch time club at Archway school, where we have big conversations around what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and how to show His love in our school community. More recently, illuminate has begun opening the Tin Church at Paganhill, after school on a Monday, to provide young people with a light refreshment have a warm space to hang out with friends and have conversations about God.
The latter is a pioneering work that we feel God could move in very exciting ways. Nearly all Archway young people pass the Tin Church within a few minutes of having left school. Many congregate there to catch their bus or to go into the Tesco Express. Many young people have come into the church, which for some is their very first voluntary experience of walking into a church building and they are curious – they ask loads of questions! We would love to develop this work to allow for more activities that would encourage young people to spend some time in the space.
So, what does illuminate need from you? Well, the most important priority, and I really can’t stress this enough, is a call to prayer. Could you commit to praying regularly for young people in Stroud, including the work inside the Tin Church and The Door as a whole? This generation of young people are desperate for hope and that hope can only be found in Jesus. Recent census data suggests that less than 1 in 20 young people have a church family. We yearn to see a movement of God’s Spirit in this generation, across this region that will only start postured on our knees – His Church committed to faithful regular and persistent prayer.
If that’s something you feel you could commit to, then please contact me below and we can provide you as an individual, or as a church with resources to prayer through; and as you pray – ask God to mould your heart to be as His for the young people of Stroud. On a practical level, one way some could help would be to bake for the Tin Church drop in on Mondays. We would need something in the range of 30-50 simple small cakes each week and if enough people came forward, we could put a rota together. Imagine the impact that even one small act of love, that is prayerfully baking a cake for a young person, that could lead to a conversation about following Jesus. Again, please get in touch with me using the details below. I look forward to meeting you soon.
In Christ,
Chris Scorah, Youthwork Manager. The Door Youth Project