Equipping the Church to be the Church
One in five people in the UK today is living in poverty, and God is calling on churches to respond. This is the focus of a special Sunday service that hundreds of churches will host this autumn, in partnership with charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP).
One church who is responding is Beacon Church in Brixton, led by Pastor Owen Hylton. Owen talks with us here, describing how working with CAP to provide free, local debt help has not only impacted local people in Brixton, but also the life of his church.
How did Beacon Church first get involved with Christians Against Poverty?
About ten years ago, we were seeing lots of local people experiencing debt through payday lenders, so we began exploring how our church could respond. We did this as part of a group of churches from across Brixton, and in the end we chose to start delivering debt help in partnership with CAP.
How has working with CAP impacted your church?
CAP develops the courses, the resources and employs the financial experts – but it’s local churches who provide the loving care and support for those drowning in debt and poverty, and can offer community and friendship to those living in deep isolation and crippling anxiety.
The service we provide is face-to-face, meaning our Debt Coaches – who are members of the church congregation – visit people at home and provide a level of support that goes beyond debt help. This has been a great opportunity to connect with people in our community that would have otherwise never walked through our church doors.
Our experience is that plenty of these people want to explore faith. A number have joined the church and been baptised, with some even finding jobs within the church. In turn, they have contributed to shaping and defining the make-up of our church.
What are the advantages of working alongside other churches?
Soon after we launched our debt help service, other churches in Brixton began to reach out and ask if they could get involved. I was delighted. Jesus said that the world would recognise that we are his followers by how we love another and our oneness that is our unity found in him; crossing the divides of denominations and working together to share the gospel is a great step towards this. We formed the Beacon CAP partnership from which we collectively fund, resource and run CAP services across our community. It’s a wonderful collaboration of different types of churches, united for a common purpose.
How do you create unity between churches that may be different?
I know that my church isn’t an island, nor will it bring the kingdom of God by itself. Most of the churches I work with are nothing like my church! I look for what we both value and focus on that, rather than looking at how we differ and whether that can be reconciled. There will certainly be challenges, but we all want to support people in our area through our common faith.
I would always say to start with prayer. We’ve been meeting with a number of churches in Brixton for a number of years now, and have learned so much from each other – we’ve even begun to practically support each other’s initiatives through these meet-ups.
In what ways has God answered your prayers?
Since meeting to pray together, we’ve collectively launched a food bank, youth group, debt help service, money coaching course and job club. We’ve gotten involved with the chaplaincy at Brixton prison, a charity helping people in sexually exploitative relationships and another charity housing homeless people during the winter. Most recently, we’ve connected with a local estate to provide CAP services in their community. These cross-church prayer meetings expose those of us who attend them to a wider world, connecting us to projects and initiatives outside of our ordinary environment. It can be life-changing.
What would you say to other churches considering partnering with CAP?
I believe the Church is the hope of the world because it holds the hope of the gospel at its centre. Engaging in social action is important because these initiatives help the church become more effective. Jesus said ‘I will build my church, not ‘I will build my ministry or charity’. When you take social action out of the church, social action becomes the focus, it becomes the ‘thing’. But the ‘thing’ is the gospel, the ‘thing’ is encountering the love of God through meeting Jesus in communities where he dwells – everything else is secondary to this.
The way I see it, CAP services are bridges we can use to take the gospel over the chasms that separate us from people in our community. That’s where CAP’s strength lies and where it’s helped our church. Instead of focusing on becoming a standalone social action service, it focuses on equipping the Church to be the Church.
More about Christians Against Poverty
CAP is offering free resources to enable your church and congregation to explore what the Bible says about poverty and how you can join the fight against it. Discover more at capuk.org/keepthefaith.
