Church leaders left Methodist Central Hall feeling energised after an evening of praise, worship and inspirational talks on sharing the life changing message of the Gospel within their communities.

Crossing London Mission 2013 aims to equip London Churches of all denominations with the skills to step out into their local areas to deliver hope to the lonely and the broken.

The first meeting of the year, titled 'Inspire', was aimed at encouraging leaders and took place in Westminster on Saturday.

"Crossing London is not simply an event or a series of events, it is about creating a movement," said Stephen Gaukroger, Executive Chair of Crossing London.

"Our vision is to see London change, person by person, street by street, community by community."

He continued: "There are issues around sexuality and morality, poverty and crime in our capital city. What's the answer? There is no economic or political solution for this, there is only a spiritual solution."

A series of events and training schemes will take place across London boroughs through the course of the year empowering Christians and developing confidence to speak openly about their faith.

Martin Durham, Director of Training and Discipleship, shared a few words about the vision behind the movement's training scheme, 'Reignite your Faith'.

"It is two-fold. One is to see Christians more assured about their faith. Secondly, is that we will be more confident in sharing our faith with other.

"One of my favourite definitions of evangelism is 'the overflow of our love for Jesus Christ'. I like it because it's true. When we have a deep assurance of faith, then we are more ready and able to share our faith. When we have little or no faith then it is increasingly difficult."

Dave Newton, director of outreach at Youth for Christ, shared his vision for young Londoners.

"If Crossing London is genuinely going to cross London, it has to involve young people. There are over nine million young people in our nation.

"What we hope to do is gather young people and inspire them so that they can make a difference where ever they are, in their communities, schools, colleges and work places.

"If we could train three thousand young people across the capital to actively go and share their faith it would make an incredible difference."

Evangelising and changing communities will also be happening through providing service to people.

Simon Barrington is overseeing 'Good Samaritan Week' which will be taking place in September.

"We want to replay the parable of the Good Samaritan which Jesus told by getting people out of their churches and into their communities," he said.

"We also want to celebrate the story of what the church is already doing. There is some fantastic work going on. Street Pastors and food banks for instance. We often, in the papers and news, get criticized for the things that we are against. There is so much that we are for, practical love and caring actions."

Hugh Osgood, Chairmen of the National Day of Prayer and Worship added: "One of the things I'm excited about is the legacy of this when it goes forward."