CT: HOPE sprang up out of HOPE 2008. Did it astound you how much HOPE resonated with the churches?

RC: It was a pleasant surprise but we recognise that we just caught something that God was doing. I think people were wanting to work together and were recognising that community engagement is part of what they are doing. HOPE became an umbrella for a load of ideas. It was such a privilege to be part of and when it came to an end, we felt that rather than just these anecdotal stories, we wanted to do a full evaluation so that it would have some credibility in terms of what it achieved on the ground. What we didn’t crack was the black church, which is why going forward we are working on that.


CT: Now that it’s become a grounded movement, is the vision still the same?

RC: We’re still only around for four years and we’re building to another focus year of 2014. We recognise that we caught something in putting it around the Christian calendar and the breadth of it has increased, but we’re not just saying ‘let’s just wait until 2014’.


CT: You launched at the Festival of Life, one of the biggest black church events in Europe. How is the dialoguing going with the black church?

RC: Some black church leaders are really on board. But we haven’t moved as far as we would have liked to, so we will be working in January to try and bring together some people to continue the dialogue, because the black churches do words and actions and all of them pretty much are in urban settings.


CT: Where else do you see HOPE having to grow?

RC: What happened is classic really. The church gets excited, comes out of the woodwork, does some wonderful things, and that it all goes back. And so we are having to reengage with those groups and say, no don’t go back. That is why we want to be around for four years and say to churches that they could do missional activity right through. That’s what we want. We want churches to not just do mission for a year, but to become a missional, outward-facing church community.

I went to Lincoln where the churches said they wanted to brand all of their missional activity around HOPE. What they’ve recognised is that although they don’t all agree on the theology, the church comes together for the purpose of mission. So where you can always get the church to unite is for the cause of mission.

As Jesus prayed in John 17, pray that we will be one. Why? For the purpose of those who don’t believe. The people outside the church don’t get why we can’t work together! They don’t understand. And what divides us is so small. What we agree on, we really do agree on! We agree on Jesus, that He came and that He died for the world, and that He’s alive. We can agree on that. Let’s start there and that’s really where words and deeds are. We’re not saying that we need to all sign up to a statement of faith, because that will differ, but we all need to be involved as salt and light within the community. Our distinctive is word and deed and we do tell the story as we engage in the community.


CT: There is an ongoing debate about where to draw the line between actions and words.

RC: There is. Some groups have done actions and forgot the words. Some groups have done the words but never done the actions. And that goes right back to the Lausanne Covenant of 1974 when Billy Graham and John Stott said no, we’ve got to have both, they are two sides of the same coin. That was the most significant thing for evangelicalism. We then lost that and when we started doing mission together as youth movements, things like Festival Manchester, Soul in the City, people realised community involvement is where the young are at and so that’s also where we need to be at.


CT: Do you see HOPE as a way of reaching young people in particular?

RC: I think twenty-somethings want a cause that will transform community. They don’t want to be part of a club but they want what they do to impact on the community. We need to present that to them with the justice issue and let’s not project cynicism but hope. We should be the people of hope and be able to imagine that the worst situation can be changed by the power of God and working together. That’s what Christmas is all about. And in Big Society, when everyone’s down, we can say this is a fantastic opportunity not to partner and be the underdog but to partner and keep that prophetic voice in our partnership.


CT: So you’re enthusiastic about the Big Society?

RC: I’m not enthusiastic about the cutbacks, but Christians need to look with the eyes of the prophet and say, ok this is happening, what is God doing and what should Christians be doing, and is this an opportunity for the church to be the church in these places.


CT: Do you think the Government is changing its attitude towards faith groups and ready to work alongside them?

RC: Part of me thinks, great, let the Government do what the Government’s going to do. We don’t need to get in bed with the Government. Really, we need to not do things to our community, but rather with our community. Often the church has done things to a community, rather than with. But when you do things with, you recognise the needs of the community, and how we can serve that community.

Just recognise the needs and think: how can we serve the poor and serve the community, because that is what we have always done and what Jesus mandated us to do. But we are not there to serve the Government’s agenda, we are called to serve the Gospel. The Gospel has called us to do that and we can do it in partnership with them but keep our edge. We can serve the community but also tell the Government what we think. We’re not in their pocket, but the agenda of serving our communities is our agenda as well. The faith forums and faith groups should be round those tables but clearly we are people who have a story and we can’t back off because the story is what got most people into it.


CT: Young people seem to have a real enthusiasm for practical action and viral initiatives. There is so much pessimism about the future of the church but are you hopeful about the future of youth in the church?

RC: Well, you can’t run an organisation called HOPE and not have any hope for a better future! But the twenty-somethings are the missing generation in the church. So we have to ask ourselves and say why, what have we done, what’s shifted there? They are quite passionate about justice and community. Let’s give them a cause that says the Gospel is the greatest cause to give your life to.

The church has got to say to people, hey, don’t just come and be entertained. We don’t just want to gather and amuse you, we want to give you a mission that will transform those communities and give you something. There are good stories of what young Christians are doing and we need to put those stories out there. Our media thrives on cynicism and we need to say no, that isn’t true, or even if it is, I don’t want to be cynical and I don’t want the church to be cynical about our own initiatives. I want the church to be a believer – we so often catch the culture of cynicism that we are part of. The media thrives on it and if there is a good news story, they’ll destroy it.


CT: Do you think it’s just about getting out there and seeing the opportunities?

RC: My church gives out really nice hampers out at Christmas to the needy. There’s a church in Hackney and they give out really nice presents to kids who wouldn’t get a present otherwise. Other churches feed older people. That’s the church being the church. And then whole families come to faith. One family came to faith because their grandmother was fed and then the whole lot came. We’ve just got to think about what the need in the community is and serve that need. There is joy in serving, joy for the served and for the server. As Jesus teaches, it is in the doing that we feel joy. Scripture is full of it: here’s the teaching, now go do it.


CT: What’s your plan for 2011?

RC: We had 1,500 locations in 2008 and we’d love to have 2,500 by the end of 2014 and far more churches involved. Every denomination is on board. Uniting for the purpose of mission is what it’s about, so whether it’s a village, town or city, get on board, sign up, be a part of it. We won’t tell you what to do but we will give you resources.

Wouldn’t it be great if the Christian story, which is our Christian festival, becomes as big as Christmas? Christmas is lost in consumerism but people still recognise it. Easter is celebrated within the church but Easter is our moment so like Diwali, which is celebrated outside the church, Easter needs to be celebrated outside of the church.

My prayer is: could we imagine our towns, villages and cities being changed by the power of God. And if we can, how do we help facilitate that as churches together? Just maybe, over four years we can see it all change. You’ve got to believe that. The church is the vehicle that God has chosen to do it and get the job done.