|PIC1|The Carling Academy Brixton was shaken up last night with some of UK’s most popular Christian acts, as Soul in the City’s highly anticipated ‘Big Event’ kicked off in London.

The event was the conclusion of the organisation’s evangelistic initiative ‘Soul Week 2006: Louder than Words’, which involved a week of hard work in numerous outreach projects across London.

The line-up of the ‘Big Event’ included Andy Flannagan, 29th Chapter, Jahaziel, Judah and Secret and Lou Fellingham.

Patrick Regan, CEO of XLP and Soul in the City, and Dr Jonathan Oloyede of Glory House hosted the big night, pumping up the audience of thousands to worship God.

“Rather than what the Church is against, we are here to celebrate what the Church is for. The Church is for the poor, the marginalised, the broken, and the outcasts in society,” Regan proclaimed to the audience.

“Does anyone believe this?”

The crowd replied with a loud cheer, as the stage opened up with Judah and Secret. Following were a series of performances and a testimony by author and youth pastor Dez Brown.

|TOP|Brown testified about his life of extreme crime and violence before his girlfriend helped convert him to Christianity. Many responded with ‘amen’, as they related to his past life as a sinner.

“Jesus didn’t come for the self-righteous. He came to bring sinners to repentance,” he said.

Following his testimony, an alter call was led by Brown and the Soul in the City leaders, as young people were invited to step forward to commit their lives to Christ. Street Pastors guided them to the back of the venue to pray and counsel with them.

The night later concluded with a dynamic performance by 29th Chapter.

James from 29th Chapter shared with Christian Today: “We recognise that there are a lot of young people with issues and problems. We want to see our young generation change. If you look at the news, the media, and even the music presented [in society], it’s always negative and tries to box young people on how they should live. They should be freed through Jesus.

“We want to see young people come to know Jesus and have a new life.”

|AD|“It’s important for young Christians to stand up for what they believe in,” added Dave from 29th Chapter.

According to Regan, this year’s Soul Week theme ‘Louder than Words’ comes from James 2:17, which talks about faith without action being dead.

“Sometimes, people don’t want words, but they want an arm put around them. They just want to see the love of God in action,” Regan said.

He added: “It’s about going to where the community is. So often, our evangelism is telling kids ‘come to church, come to church,’ but the reality is, these guys are not going to come to church. So we have to come to them.”

Soul Week 2006 launched last Saturday with famous American evangelist Nicky Cruz and his hip-hop arm ministry TRUCE in KICC.

The weeklong event was hosted by Soul in the City and XLP, joint organisations that aim to serve, educate, empower, and mobilise young people.