Church leaders have come out in support of Care for the Family's initiative to encourage churches to use family issues as opportunities to engage with their communities.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Jonathan Edwards, The Salvation Army's Major Paul Main, and the Bishop of Sherwood, the Rt Rev Tony Porter, have all given their backing to the new initiative.

Engage, a new project, wants church leaders and congregations across the UK to think about their community, its needs and how to effectively meet them. The aim is to make the church more relevant to its locality by engaging with families.

Dr Sentamu said: "As carriers of God's message of hope and transformation our Churches can in turn transform the lives and communities of our nation. I welcome the 'Engage' Conference and its equipping to better serve our communities."

Engage, which takes place in Nottingham in October and Cheltenham in November, promises to provide churches with simple and effective ways to reach out into local communities and engage those who usually have little or no contact with church.

The programme intends to inspire everyone interested in meeting community needs when it comes to family issues. Headline speakers include Care for the Family's Rob Parsons and Ian Coffey who, alongside other keynote speakers, will be sharing their expertise on different elements of family life.

Care for the Family's Head of Church Relations, Richard Hardy is passionate about seeing churches get to grips with community issues.

"For too long we have failed to engage with our neighbourhoods by talking about the things that really matter to people. After spending many years in local ministry myself, I'm convinced our failure to address real life issues is the root cause of the Church's marginalisation in our society," he said.

"The attitude of many people who are struggling today is why would they look to the Church for support? How could the Church possibly help them?"

Seminars at Engage will include:

• The need to engage
• Leading your church to engage
• Transitioning your church to engage
• Engaging in the workplace
• Money Matters
• Drugs and your community
• Engaging 21st century families
• Engaging 20s and 30s: Building Relationships
• Building teams


Engage takes place in:
NOTTINGHAM, East Midlands Conference Centre, University Park, NG7 2RJ Saturday 4 October 2008, 9.30 am- 5 pm
CHELTENHAM, The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse, GL50 4SH
Saturday 8 November 2008, 9.30 am- 5 pm


On the web: www.engagetoday.org.uk