|PIC1|The Faithworks Conference in Eastbourne over the weekend, “iChurch: Intelligent Church in the 21st Century”, challenged members of the Christian community to a more Christ-centred engagement with the community.

“It bodes well to keep thinking, to keep learning, but also to keep Christ-centred,” said the Rev. Steve Chalke MBE, in his sermon ‘Unity not Uniformity’ at the conference on Saturday.

He said: “The reason why the church has gotten diluted and the country has gotten the wrong end of the stick about Jesus Christ is because we have given them the wrong end of the stick. We must re-learn about the life of Jesus Christ.”

Other speakers at the event included the Rev. Joel Edwards, head of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK, Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, Jeff Lucas, director of leadership training course ‘Equipped to Lead: Favour’, |PIC2|and Rev. Nims Obunge, Pastor of Freedom’s Ark and CEO of The Peace Alliance.

In a passionate call to believers, Rev. Obunge said, “We must decide if we want a crowd or a movement...Don’t stay on stupidity-based churches”.

Speakers at the conference, which ran from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th November, tackled the difficult issue of how to lead Christ-centred faith-driven initiatives in the UK’s mixed faith and secular society.

“The great challenge is to do Gospel stuff without the language of Zion,” said World Vision’s Costello. “We block others who would otherwise be fellow travellers in a campaign.”

The Evangelical Alliance’s Joel Edwards focused his sermon particularly on a prevailing distrust toward Christians across Britain.|PIC3|

“How can you get Christian hope to make sense at the street level?” he asked. “What people are looking for most is hope. It is a disposition of hope we bring to the table at the local level.

“If you and I lose hope we become social activists in the political arena. We need exit routes for the hopelessness facing our young men and women today,” stressed Mr Edwards.

Faithworks is a Christian movement aimed at transforming the local church to into the heart of the community once again as it works to overcome poverty and exclusion whilst practically demonstrating God’s love to all without exception.