Why do we have Jesus Centres?

Jesus Centres are the Jesus Fellowship church/Jesus Army in action. They are an integral part of the ministry of the church. 

 

Jesus Centres aim to “Express the love of Jesus daily, in worship, friendship & help for every kind of person?”  

  

 As a social worker I had often longed for a one stop shop where people could come and have all of their needs met and where my faith could be a part of the helping them find a solution. So often social work just felt like sticking a plaster on a gaping wound- people found help and support and a limited alleviation from personal suffering but so often the root causes of why they were in the mess they were in went un dealt with. When the vision for Jesus Centres was first expressed to me my Spirit leapt but my head went,  “we’re made, we’re far too busy as a church to take this on. Do they have any idea what they’re getting us into?” 

So why did we embark on what has proved to be a tough cookie to digest?

 Times have changed and these days the church doesn’t always carry a lot of credibility with people- it might be seen as out dated or its members’ naïve.  The church needs to earn the right to speak and be heard by people. Jesus frequently met people’s practical needs for food & physical health before he told them to repent or called them to follow Him. 

They’re more easily accessible to a wider group of people.

Church can often feel like a club where people need to adhere to the members code of behaviour, values and beliefs. They are only available to people at certain times and days and people may fear being forced into making a commitment they’re not ready or equipped to make. Whereas Jesus Centres are public places open to anyone regardless of their faith or non-faith. People who might never go to church will feel more comfortable in the Jesus Centre. It meets more obvious needs in their lives. Agencies feel more comfortable signposting people for help and in providing services based at the Jesus Centre.  There is no faith requirement to access or participate in are groups or services. Therefore, it makes the church accessible & available to a wide variety of people.

They preach the gospel without words

Jesus Centres reach and meet people’s needs in a way that church can’t. It enables the church to be available to people during the day, every day.  They are better able to support those who are homeless, need to learn English, are lonely or have mental health issues.  We can provide a shower, laundry facilities, a listening ear, help learning English or an environment where people feel relaxed & welcome ; where they find home and family and a sense of belonging.

They extend the capacity of the church

It is a gateway to the Kingdom of God- it is the place where people can meet Christians and explore faith, if they wish, without going to church – which these days is alien to most of the population.

It is a net that can catch people if they begin to struggle in their faith, pick up old habits and lifestyles and disengage from the church but still need and want relationship and support.

They are better equipped & resourced to support and help people in a variety of ways.

It creates the time & space to listen to people; enables relationships to be formed without the clutter of needing to sign up to commitment or a certain doctrine or lifestyle.

They give people an outlet for service

They give the church an opportunity to put their faith into action and share the love of Jesus in practical ways. It was Mother Teresa who said “do small things with great love”.  The success of the Jesus Centres depends on each volunteer & member of staff doing these small acts of kindness with great love every single hour of every day we are open.

It’s a place where as Christians we can live out our faith and Jesus’ call to love the poor (& even rich people can be poor in Spirit- mentally, emotionally, relationally)

 They help people explore faith & find their place

They offer opportunities for church members and visitors to use their skills, develop new ones and feel they can be contributors more easily than it may be in the church.

 Here'a quote from one of our visitors who became a cafe helper:

“I am truly grateful to the Jesus Centre for allowing me to volunteer. During my time there, they did far more for me than I ever did for them. Thanks to them my confidence is restored and I’ve secured employment and my own flat. I’ve made many friends there. They are amazing people and I love them a lot. Without them, I don’t know where I would be.”

The power of what we believe

I’ve been wanting to blog about the power of what we believe for a while. It was sparked by watching a film and reading a book about two boys from two different countries who had, what at first seemed like to very different experiences, but as I reflected on the powerful effect they had on me I realised that what had united them in their experiences was the sense that they were both in a prison of believing they belonged to no one and that no one cared about them.

 The first was the young boy in the film ‘I am David’ (based on the novel by Ann Holm),  who escaped from a prisoner of war camp aged 12 years old,  believing his parents were dead. The other was  Paul abandoned by his mother at 2 weeks old, found by a neighbour in amongst the rubbish, who was brought up in the notorious St Leonard’s children’s’ home in the 70’s (where paedophiles gained access to senior care worker positions and routine abused 100’s of children placed in their care.)  Just before David escaped from the prisoner of war camp, with the help of a German officer, he was told “Trust no one”. Paul’s experiences in the London children’s home taught him “trust no one”- because of their early experiences both of them believed they were worth nothing & didn’t deserve anything good to happen to them.

There is power in what we believe about ourselves.

What we believe impacts on how we behave. If you don’t believe you are worth anything then why does it matter if you wreck your body with alcohol and drugs and casual sex who cares anyway? How do you ever learn that God created you, in His image, as a unique human being who He loved & cared so much about you that He allowed His only son to be sacrificed in your place?

Many of our visitors have experienced rejection, abuse- sexual, emotional and physical, and from this they have believe that they are not worth anything to anybody.  However, with the help and support of the staff and volunteers here at Northampton Jesus Centre they find hope and begin to believe in themselves. 

A quote which I've decided to include in our annual report, from one of our volunteers, who started life as a visitor reminds of the importance of giving our visitors a chance

 
" Working at the Jesus Centre has given me the coherence to deal with difficult situations and people. I know I’ve changed for a better person since I’ve worked here.

I’d like to thank the staff for standing by me and offering me a chance and investing time in me.

The Jesus centre and its staff have inspired me to do better. The Jesus Centre truly is a place where everyone is valued – even me”

Welcome home

The death of visitors always causes you to reflect. Did we do all that we could have done? Did they experience the love of God through what we did do for them? Where are they now?  It reminds us how fragile some our visitors’ lives are and how important it is that they are made to feel welcome and at home.

             

We have a picture painted for us in our Step up, drop in space- it has many worn and lost faces – young old, black white with the title ‘ Welcome Home’ . When I look at it each morning it reminds me why I am doing what I am doing. Whether our visitors’ find a relationship with God  for themselves is not always  certain but as long as they find home – a place where they feel they are welcomed, accepted, valued and safe then they are already half way on the journey.

If your experience has taught you, that no one can be trusted;  how do learn to trust that not all fathers beat you or abuse you or let you down and that there is a heavenly father who is perfect in His love for you and who is totally trust worthy?

Part of the answer lies somewhere in a comment made to me in an attempt to help some of the sadness that I felt over the tragic end to these two visitors’ lives.

“ May be they saw enough of Jesus in us , that when they meet Him face to face they will recognise Him and that will be enough for Him to welcome them in.”

 Noddy Holder belting out "I wish it could be Christmas every day" seems to follow me around wherever I go at the moment. But do we really? All that frantic rushing around trying to find the perfect present for the partner who's impossible to buy for or the kids who think you earn a 6 figure sum each month and write their list to Santa accordingly. 

All that socialising with family or friends you barely speak to from one year to the next, and excessive eating that leaves us bloated, lethargic and with a few more pounds to shift (possibly at the Gym that this year we WILL join & we WILL go to.. unlike last year when we joined & went twice & by February had forgotten why we'd joined)?

Alright before I sound like a Scrooge muttering Bah Humbug to dampen your Christmas Spirit I do realise that's not all it's about. The trouble is that each year, due to more desperate marketing in a bid to reach sales targets which require us to spend money we'll spend the rest of the year paying back, it feels like any possible good bits get more squuezed out. Things like: time to relax and unwind from work, reflect on the old year and prepare for the next, bless those we love, share what we have with those in need or even celebrate or at least spare a thought that allegedly the reason we're participating in this consumer frenzy is because of the gift God gave to the world of His son Jesus.


However, for some it is a painful and lonely time that merely accentuates their feelings of social isolation.

Maybe you've lost someone you loved who wont be there to share the celebrations with you
May be you suffer with depression and feel like you've endured the long dark nights for too long 
Or may be you are estranged from your family and friends for some reason and the thought that everyone else has people to turn to at this time simply accentuates your loneliness.*

Whilst suicide rates are lowest in December than at any other time of the year** there is a sharp 40% increase after Christmas in the week leading up to New Year, possibly for some of the reasons I've mentioned. 

The Samaritans report that the highest rates of suicide are for men aged 40-44years old (in Northern Ireland this drops to 25-29 years old), with a sharp increase again in men over 80 years of age. Men are 3 1/2 times more likely, according to their report, to commit suicide than women. (This doesnot however include statistics where the intention is unclear and may be classed as accidental or indeterminate, which may account for some of the discrepancy, men tending to choose more definate and final methods than women)

Advice from Healthline ( a privately owned provider of health information, based in the US) to help overcome depression or social isoloation which may be caused by grief or estrangement from family is:

1. Begin a new tradition- do something different at this time of year- go away, go somewhere different.

2. Give yourself some space to grieve- don't feel pressured by the pressure of all the extra social opportunities

3. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or offer to help a neighbour- remember it's in giving we often receive.

4. Get back to nature- make the most of the time, get on your walking boots and enjoy the fresh air. 


Here at the Northampton Jesus Centre we will be open over the holiday period thanks to a team of faithful volunteers, for just this reason. 

Opening Times
Christmas Eve 7-9.30pm our Step Up scheme is open for anyone on their own. 
Christmas Day- 10.30am- 1.30pm - come & join us for food and friendship
Boxing Day  11.30-1.30pm - we'll be serving a hot meal- fun, food and friendship
 New Years eve 7.30-9pm We will have a special edition of our Stay Dry recovery group for those who are battling with addictions- come and find friends and support. Contact us if you'd like more information about this group.

If you or anyone you know is feeling suicidal please find someone to talk to.
The Samaritans run a 24 hr helpline you can contact them on 08457 90 90 90


Or find out if there is a Jesus Centre near you & pop in for a cuppa & a chat.  jesuscentre.org.uk


If you'd like to donate to help support our services to vulnerable and socially isolated people text JACT00 £10 to 70070

Help us to help them to start again

* information supplied by Healthline
** information from, the Samaritans report on Suicide rates based on 2012 figures.

Renewing our Vision- How do we hear God?

What does it mean to ‘own the vision’?

  
Does it mean we do what’s always been done or from time to time does God want to bring something new to us? And does that mean the original vision was wrong or that God is fickle and has changed His mind? Do difficulties mean that God’s stopped blessing us or can they be opportunities to grab our attention and communicate the new direction or vision? 

Here at Northampton Jesus Centre it’s our 10^th anniversary year and we’ve been revisiting our vision and aims in the light of financial constraints.  Whilst sitting in managers’ meetings talking about ways to increase income and reduce expenditure may not feel  particularly spiritual does it mean that we should down tools, lock ourselves in a room and pray fervently instead or can God speak to us in other ways and if so how? 

Augustine once said “Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you”.  I like this. I’m naturally an activist and faith that would appear to expect me to sit back and wait for God to do something doesn’t sit comfortably with me. However, running around like a headless chicken can quickly lead disillusionment. As James says in his letter to the church “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-16) but in reverse works without faith is futile.

So how do we hear God? And how do we know when He wants to bring some fresh direction to our vision?  These are some of my thoughts on how I’ve sensed God speaking to us in recent days. 

God speaks through circumstances

God will often use circumstances to get our attention. Our financial situation has been a wake- up call that some things need to change. This can either be seen as a negative experience or a positive opportunity.

 Last week I met a woman who, up until recently, had been Director of a successful Christian organisation in the town. They had faced a far more serious funding situation than us, quite unexpectedly and yet when I met her 6 months previously she asked that we pray that either God provide the extra income that they needed or that He guided them to another solution. 6 months later she wasn’t testifying to God’s miraculous financial provision but to a new service model, partnership and way forward. It hadn’t been plain sailing; there had been redundancies and personal sacrifices including her moving aside to let someone else lead the new organisation. Her testimony was that through difficult circumstance God had brought them to a new and better situation.

God guides us through our grappling with issues

Just as the strength of the butterflies wings come from the struggle of the larva to break out of the chrysalis, so we can believe that God strengthens us and trains our character through allowing us to grapple with issues to find a way forward. We’ve been experiencing this as a management team as we are forced by circumstances to examine our service outcomes, income and expenditure and ask questions about how we balance the books whilst at the same time wanting to hear God speak into the vision. None of this activity feels very spiritual and some of it results in very different ‘obvious’ solutions to the situation. However, I believe that in all of our efforts to look at things from a variety of perspectives, we will eventually find an agreed way forward with the confidence that God has spoken into and directed our plans. We don’t necessarily need to be in a prayer meeting to hear God.

 God speaks through others

Sometimes God doesn’t appear to be saying anything to us directly and then we find ourselves in a different situation with other people and they bring a word of direction to us. This happened recently when the Jesus Centre hosted a prayer & praise evening; because we were the hosts part of the evening was given over to praying for the needs we shared. When we got together as managers the next day most of us agreed that this had been a very prophetic and significant event in which we’d heard God speak through others. I had prayed with my Director friend and she had spoken that God was going to do a new thing through these present circumstances and later in the evening the song that several of us felt was prophetically anointed was “Greater things have yet to come” from Chris Tomlins’ worship song ‘God of this City’.  Since then I’ve felt a renewed sense of faith and confidence in the knowledge that God is going to direct our path and lead us into new places.

 God speaks through prophetic wisdom & inspiration

Finally, this appeared to be backed up a few days later in our worship time as a team, which we have each morning before we open the Jesus Centre to the public. I saw two related pictures; one was of a small child clomping clumsily around in oversized shoes, at first enjoying wearing adult shoes but quickly getting frustrated by the lack of speed and eventually falling over.  The second was of someone peering over at a huge oversized footprint, the emotion I felt with it was this person was they were feeling ‘overwhelmed’.  The interpretation I sensed in them was that those of us who are facing the prospect of taking on the shoes (metaphorically representing stepping into the responsibility of the pioneering generation) are either feeling frustrated and out of our depth as we begin to practice stepping into their shoes or daunted by the prospect and like the prints they have made are far too big for us to step into.

 Then I had a 3^rd picture which was of someone walking a new path, making new footprints and another set of footprints leading the way. I brought what I believed the Spirit wanted to say to us to us through this.  God isn’t asking us to step in to the shoes of anyone else; He will work with who we are and lead us in a new direction; all He is asking is that we are obedient and follow Him.

None of this means that the path ahead of us is necessarily going to be any easier but what can seem like overwhelming problems can become opportunities when we see them through the eyes of faith and put our trust in the God who “did not bring us out this far to take us back again” (JF song)

The Glorious Cross Art Exhibition 1st -27th June 2013

On Friday 7th June,Jason Lock, our June artist, and his family will be coming up from Hertfordshire to spend the evening with us. There will be an opportunity to view the exhibition and talk to Jason about the inspiration behind his work.
Everyone welcome; free entry.

Relaxed, informal atmosphere; the cafe will be open for light refreshments.

Feel free to bring art & crafts etc to do in the cafe.

This will be a good scene to bring people who haven't been to an event in the Circle Cafe before.

Contrary to the flyer this exhibition and event is happening in The Circle Cafe at Northampton Jesus Centre, Abington square, Northampton NN1 4AE

Eating well when the chips are down

It's not difficult to notice that everyone's feeling the squeeze on their finances

Every time I fill up the car with petrol it seems to cost a little bit more. The media carries stories hi-lighting the impact of Fuel Poverty, changes to housing benefit & council tax benefit, meaning some people are having to move to down size their accommodation or face additional rent & council tax payments. Universal credit and PIP will mean changes in who can receive certain benefits and the amount some people receive; the increasing use of Food Banks hi-lights the level to which some people are already struggling.

 One young woman came in the other day. in her own words "she wouldn't normally ask for help", but she appeared to have tried everywhere else. She illustrated to me the way that the current economic and employment climate is impacting on a wider range of people than usually. Normally, in work, she was currently between jobs and waiting for her JSA claim to start and due to the abnormally severe weather conditions was about to run out of money for the electric meter. Her energy supplier was sympathetic but couldn't help. Her daughter was 6 years old, insulin dependent, needed her medication stored in a fridge, was there anything we could do to help?


Or the middle aged woman who is having to move home, from the flat she loves, or face an paying the extra £56 from her JSA to cover her 2nd bedroom that will no longer be covered by Housing benefit. 

 Or the older man, who told one of our helpers that he'd got to decide whether to buy food for the next week or put money in the electric meter.

Here at the Jesus Centre we are trying to respond and prepare for the impact of the benefit changes by ensuring our groups and services are able to respond to these needs.

We already run Money Worries- a weekly service that gives people debt advice, negotiates debt re-payments and gives advice on budgeting. 

We are in the middle of our 5 week Money Course which includes an additional week on how to save money on your fuel bills. 

Later in the year we intend to launch a new service Keep warm- where, (subject to funding) we hope to be able to offer people small grants to assist with energy saving measures and advice on choosing the best tariff for their energy usage to keep their bills down. 

We are becoming a Food Bank distribution point and continue to offer free drinks, a shower and laundry facilities to those in need in our Step Up scheme.

In addition we provide a number of groups that can provide support and increase people's Wellbeing by offering support in a relaxed, informal environment and opportunities to make friends.

Basic Cooking - which will include how to cook on a budget starts in mid April. Eat Well- lose weight- will show you how eating right & staying healthy need not cost the earth.

For more information on these and other of our groups check out northampton.jesuscentre.org.uk or call in and register at our Info Desk.