This year 2008 has been raised up as Hope08. Where churches can work together to build up other people in their communities. The tag line is do more, do it together, do it in word and deed. This is what Christian Unity is all about. This is a year where churches across the country will be focusing on how they can work together to show Christ’s love in their local community.

 We are used in the Church to do things in order to raise much needed funds, but the challenge is to do activities to focus people’s attention on what makes us different and worth finding out more about, or even joining us. The push is not even evangelism, but just demonstrating God’s love to those around us.

 You may know the parable of the sheep and the goats where the sheep are commended for their actions for others that they didn’t even recognise. Well in a way that’s what this year is all about, doing things because God first loved us so we love others.

 The Hope 08 team have produced lots of ideas in which we can work together to deliver the message of hope to those around us.

 First and most important is prayer. If we are going to do anything first of all we need to be praying. This is not instead of action but part of our action and supporting our activities.

 There are weekly themes that can go into the newssheet or even better we can pray together.

One way of doing this is through the monthly meeting held at the Parish Church.

 This is an opportunity to use the themes to pray for the place in which we live, for the people that we know and the people that we don’t know. To pray for the activities that are going on, both those we do together and those which individuals are just getting on quietly with.

 We could also use the themes to pray in any groups we are part of, not just bible study groups, but any other meetings we are part of. We will know that each week we are praying with many others for Jesus to be made known in our local communities.

 Hope 08 also challenges us to get together in prayer triplets from Easter to October where we can pray for individuals that we would like to come to know Jesus in a concerted way.

 Prayer needs to be continuous to support our activities, but the rest of the year has been split up into themes:

 January is about Fresh Hope – touching people’s lives where they are struggling.

Poverty and homelessness are two of the big themes, also parenting and relationships.

 Although we are nearly at the end of January these are ongoing issues and we need to find ways in which people can be open with the problems that they face either those inside the church or outside and know that we will not be judgemental but can help.

 Maybe you could be inspired to run a parenting course, or could find out about local help for people in debt. There are certainly people in this room who will be struggling with relationships or family or money in some way.

 If there’s not - then have we made the church a place where only the well can come and have lost the message that Jesus is for those who are not perfect, not those who are.

We will all know many more even if they haven’t made us aware of the problems they face.

 Lent and Easter are about the Big Hope.

Without the Resurrection and God’s forgiveness our message would be foolishness.

 So our challenge in Lent and Easter is to make that message accessible to all. We are about to launch a lent Course on Thursday evenings, looking at some hot potatoes. This is something we can invite others to as well as come along ourselves. We can explore the Hope we have for all the different issues such as climate, crime, genetics.

Let’s promote the Easter Egg collection which we give to children who wouldn’t get them otherwise. This brings Hope to youngsters that someone actually cares about them.

 Let’s stop and look at our services and all that we do over Easter – how can we make it more accessible to those who don’t know about how much Jesus loves them.

 We have a Good Friday Club for children, this is part of our outreach to the community, let’s recognise it as part of our mission and support both it in our volunteering and through prayer.

 May is Hope Where you live.

The target across the country is for 1,000,000 hours of kindness. For those of you who have seen Evan Almighty will be familiar with the idea of Acts of Random Kindness.

 What do we do, what can we do, what can our young people do, to demonstrate kindness in our community. Can we join the Village Society in keeping the place litter free, maybe our youngsters can run a car wash, can we help with someone’s garden for a few hours? 

 The possibilities are endless, we just need to think them out and recognise that whatever we do we do it for God and acknowledge that in many of things we do and are involved with we represent Christ’s love, even if it is not a Church activity.

 Across the summer there may be more activities that we can set up to add to what we already do, especially for our young people who will be at home for several week. Let’s encourage them to think of ways they can offer acts of kindness in the community and support them as they do them.

 The Autumn brings Hope explored. 

This is a chance to invite people to Alpha, to look at Back to Church Sunday, to review our harvest festival and to encourage people to explore faith for themselves.

 Our harvest gifts are often used to bring hope into the lives of those who can’t get out and about. Let’s make sure we know who in our community would appreciate a gift and not just stick to the same old list but be prepared to take them ourselves.

 If we are to encourage people to come to faith we need to be ready to help them ourselves.

We can’t always leave it to others so lets see what skills we have as individuals and what we can build up between us. 

 What help can we give maybe to the Young Families group, to organising events, to help with energise, maybe to offer in school to listen to reading on a regular basis. The possibilities are endless but it is up to you to make them happen.

 The Marie Curie Foundation is this year promoting the Field of Hope and will provide all that is needed to plant bulbs, to remind us of the needs of those with cancer. It would be easy to get on board with a project like that.

 December is the Gift of Hope.

How can we use Christmas to share the message of Jesus with others. We have lots of opportunities, people are open to the Church in December, not just coming to us and our services, but how can we go to them.

Can we join in with Radio Leicester with carols in pubs? Can we promote the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas boxes and see just how many we as a community can send to children in need.

 The possibilities to promote hope in our neighbourhood are endless. We just need to recognise that we are the vehicles to make it happen.

 Some things need to be done by us as individuals some by our own Church but many by our working together. Many things we already do, but we could do better and would be even better if supported by prayer.

 We can take our social activities and recognise that they are actually mission to our community and pray for their success.

 We can look at our local school and realise how much help they need in simple ways and that children will grow to recognise Christians working with them.

 In a few moments we will be committing ourselves individually to some sort of action to change the world in which we live.

 There is lots of choice but it is a commitment to make a change, to bring a little more hope into the place in which we live, so let’s use the opportunity to make a real commitment to start bringing Hope into our village, doing more, doing it together and doing it in word and action.