WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 It's a great joy to be with you here this morning. 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:20.059 And I'm so excited about the work that you are doing here in partnership with TLG in reaching out to your local schools. 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:34.100 And as an organization, we're overwhelmed by the response of churches, ordinary churches across the country who are seeking to make a difference to the last and the least. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:39.340 I'm just going to read a short portion of scripture. 00:00:39.879 --> 00:00:41.000 You can just listen. 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:43.280 I'm reading from Isaiah 58. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:53.500 And it's just a challenge for us to act and to put our faith into practice. 00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:56.920 Reading from verse 5, it says this. 00:00:57.060 --> 00:00:57.520 It says, 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:00.480 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen? 00:01:01.380 --> 00:01:05.079 Only for a person to humble himself. 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:08.060 Is it for one to bow their head like a reed? 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:10.599 And for lying on sackcloth and ashes. 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:12.879 Is this what you call a fast? 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:16.079 A day acceptable to the Lord. 00:01:17.379 --> 00:01:19.920 Is not this the kind of fast I have chosen? 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:23.000 Loose the change of injustice. 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:25.799 Untie the cords of the yoke. 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:28.240 To set the oppressed free. 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:30.020 And to break every yoke. 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:33.120 Is it not to share your food with the hungry? 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:35.960 To provide the poor wanderer with shelter? 00:01:36.299 --> 00:01:38.140 When you see the naked, to clothe them. 00:01:38.740 --> 00:01:41.219 Not to turn away from your own flesh and blood. 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:44.539 Then your light will break forth like the dawn. 00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:47.019 Your healing will quickly appear. 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:49.840 Then your righteousness will go before you. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:52.439 And the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 00:01:52.900 --> 00:01:53.799 Then you will call. 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:55.439 And the Lord will answer. 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:56.659 You will cry for help. 00:01:56.700 --> 00:01:57.239 And he will say, 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:59.060 Here am I. 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:02.359 If you do away with the yoke of oppression. 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:04.780 And the pointing finger and malicious talk. 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:07.840 And if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry. 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:10.680 And satisfy the needs of the oppressed. 00:02:10.900 --> 00:02:14.159 Then your light will rise in the darkness. 00:02:14.699 --> 00:02:17.400 And your light will become like the noonday. 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:19.680 The Lord will guide you always. 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:21.200 He will satisfy your need. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.280 In the sun scorched land. 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:25.240 And he will strengthen your frame. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.020 You will be like a well watered garden. 00:02:28.540 --> 00:02:31.259 Like a spring whose waters never fail. 00:02:31.939 --> 00:02:35.819 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:38.379 And raise up the age old foundations. 00:02:39.040 --> 00:02:42.140 You will be called repairer of broken walls. 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:44.960 Restorer of streets. 00:02:45.659 --> 00:02:47.180 With dwelling. 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.379 I love that scripture. 00:02:51.180 --> 00:02:53.620 And the reason why I love that scripture is. 00:02:53.980 --> 00:02:55.840 Because it speaks to us. 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:59.900 Of our personal responsibility. 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:02.819 Our personal spirituality as Christians. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.540 But also our social responsibility. 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:07.920 For our neighbour. 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:12.700 And of course we know our neighbour isn't those who look like us. 00:03:12.740 --> 00:03:16.379 Who are necessarily from the same side of town as us. 00:03:16.379 --> 00:03:20.500 Our neighbour are those who are in need. 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:23.479 As we see so vividly. 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:25.719 In the story of the Good Samaritan. 00:03:25.719 --> 00:03:28.120 That Jesus tells. 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:31.180 I can remember. 00:03:31.180 --> 00:03:36.420 I'm old enough to remember the conversations that used to happen. 00:03:36.860 --> 00:03:39.460 Well I'm born and brought up as a Pentecostal. 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:41.560 They certainly happened in Pentecostal circles. 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.259 Where people used to talk about the social gospel. 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:49.759 As though the social bit and the good news were meant to be separate. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:51.099 They never were. 00:03:51.099 --> 00:03:53.539 They were always meant to be together. 00:03:53.539 --> 00:03:55.859 They were always meant to be integral. 00:03:56.419 --> 00:03:59.939 And I'm constantly asking myself the question. 00:04:00.419 --> 00:04:06.359 How do we speak the gospel in a way that leads us to follow it up with action? 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:17.540 And how does our social action open up the opportunity for us to share our faith with credibility? 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:21.920 I love it when the church is credible. 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:27.920 I'm proud when the church is galvanised into action. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:32.140 Whether it's Grenfell Tower and that awful happening last year. 00:04:32.620 --> 00:04:38.500 Or nearer to home here when the floods took place here in Somerset. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:44.080 What I saw was the church at the forefront of making a difference. 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:53.959 And I think that's what I'm seeing in Clevedon at Christchurch with the TLG Early Intervention Centre. 00:04:54.779 --> 00:04:58.560 These verses firstly call us to justice. 00:04:59.579 --> 00:05:01.939 And Jesus was concerned about justice. 00:05:02.719 --> 00:05:07.319 He was concerned about the fact that the Pharisees were holding people down. 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:09.759 And he wanted to lift them up. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:13.560 And that's why his words to them were so harsh. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:19.740 It's also the reason why people said no one has ever spoken to us like this man. 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:23.060 He was like the people's rabbi. 00:05:24.139 --> 00:05:29.439 God has called us like Jesus to challenge injustice where we see it. 00:05:30.599 --> 00:05:35.899 When we see it in our banking system, in the loan shark industries, those are obvious candidates. 00:05:36.659 --> 00:05:41.159 But I wonder when we look at our education system, what do we see? 00:05:42.159 --> 00:05:43.060 Well, I see this. 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:50.379 I see something like up to 5,000 children and young people excluded permanently from school each year. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:58.959 I see over a quarter of a million fixed-term exclusions given to children and young people each year. 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:07.299 I see 4,000 six-term exclusions given to children who are under the age of six years old. 00:06:07.659 --> 00:06:10.079 That is a huge deal for me. 00:06:10.620 --> 00:06:21.099 I cannot sleep comfortably in my bed knowing that six-year-old children are being excluded from school. 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:24.820 And so early intervention is not just action. 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.600 It's actually also a matter of justice. 00:06:29.580 --> 00:06:32.780 It's not just about pulling people out of the water. 00:06:33.340 --> 00:06:40.180 It's also about going upstream and asking the question, who's pushing them in? 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:44.800 It's not just about sending an ambulance to the bottom of the cliff. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:50.980 It is also about erecting a fence to make sure people don't fall over. 00:06:51.100 --> 00:06:57.780 And that's what you're doing as a church when you engage in early intervention. 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:06.680 I've sat on and shared all kinds of boards and think tanks around educational failure. 00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:12.180 And what I've come to as a place is this, is that we can't just leave these issues to the state. 00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:15.120 Actually, the state has run out of resources. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:18.840 We have to step up as a church too. 00:07:18.839 --> 00:07:23.719 And so secondly, there is this call to social action. 00:07:23.899 --> 00:07:30.579 Verse 7 says, feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, provide for the poor. 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:33.519 That's the story of TLG. 00:07:33.659 --> 00:07:38.379 We were an ordinary church in Bradford working with children. 00:07:38.659 --> 00:07:43.819 On a Friday at youth club, on a Saturday they would come and we had a little burger joint. 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:46.800 And they'd come and get their burger and fries and sit down. 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:49.620 On a Sunday night they'd be throwing stones at the window. 00:07:50.159 --> 00:07:54.920 On Monday morning everyone would breathe a sigh of relief and say, they've gone to school. 00:07:55.219 --> 00:07:56.659 Except lots of them weren't. 00:07:56.759 --> 00:07:58.040 Lots of them were excluded. 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:04.719 And Bradford at that time, the education department was really in meltdown. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:09.480 And so we just rolled up our sleeves and began to work with these young people. 00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:13.720 And the council got wind of what we did and sent us more. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:19.000 And that was the beginnings of us becoming an alternative education provider. 00:08:19.620 --> 00:08:21.220 And for many years that's what we did. 00:08:21.320 --> 00:08:22.260 And that was my role. 00:08:22.400 --> 00:08:27.960 I was rolling out alternative provision centres across the country in partnership with churches. 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:30.759 Particularly in some of our inner city areas. 00:08:31.979 --> 00:08:38.360 But Rachel Morphin, who leads early intervention, she was banging a drum in the background saying, 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:39.919 you're way too late. 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:41.079 You're way too late. 00:08:41.379 --> 00:08:43.360 You've got to get in early as well. 00:08:44.139 --> 00:08:48.740 And so in 2010 we launched early intervention. 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:50.279 Which is simply this. 00:08:50.279 --> 00:09:01.319 It's one coach giving an hour a week of their time for children in school who for whatever reason might not be thriving. 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:07.199 And giving that time for up to a year for that child. 00:09:07.199 --> 00:09:13.839 And what we've seen is that when that hour is given a week consistently over time, 00:09:14.220 --> 00:09:20.000 change happens not just in the child's education but also in their home life. 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:21.279 As well. 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:37.360 And we've done work with York St. John's University that has helped us to really get some evidence and proof to the impact of our work. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:44.379 It's a wonderful way in which the church also can connect with their local schools. 00:09:44.699 --> 00:09:49.980 I grew up at a time where you sang hymns and song in assembly. 00:09:49.980 --> 00:09:53.220 I kind of went to that kind of school. 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:59.100 But actually that connection between faith and school has been lost. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:10.000 And we think that early intervention is a really practical and helpful way that the church can re-engage with its local schools. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:19.820 If you look back in the 19th to 20th century in particular, our hospitals were often started by churches. 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:22.860 Our schools were started by churches. 00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:29.179 The Salvation Army became the first social service provider in the country. 00:10:29.179 --> 00:10:32.799 And, you know, in the 20th century along came the welfare state. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:34.299 And we welcome that. 00:10:34.719 --> 00:10:36.959 I'm all for the welfare state. 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:43.779 But what we've seen in the last 20, 30 years is a rolling back of that for whatever reasons. 00:10:43.779 --> 00:10:52.699 And I believe as a church we need to be there in the gaps where people are falling through. 00:10:53.659 --> 00:10:57.759 Bill Hybel says that the local church is the hope of the world. 00:10:57.899 --> 00:11:02.259 A friend of mine, Dr. Mark Boddington, rephrases it like this. 00:11:02.259 --> 00:11:03.779 Jesus is the hope of the world. 00:11:04.439 --> 00:11:06.980 And his church is his primary vehicle. 00:11:07.580 --> 00:11:15.779 Well, if I can be a vehicle of hope, then I think that's a good reason to be part and parcel of the church. 00:11:16.259 --> 00:11:27.139 Finally, it says that actually in verse 10a, we are to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and the hungry. 00:11:27.139 --> 00:11:31.639 I love that phrase in the NIV, to spend ourselves. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:34.980 It's a call to social justice, a call to social action. 00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:37.500 But it's a call to social care. 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:39.980 And I mean that in its broadest sense. 00:11:40.580 --> 00:11:47.059 We cannot leave social care to just be the domain of the state. 00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:54.279 God wants us to be a loving church that wraps its arms around the community. 00:11:54.939 --> 00:11:55.960 I'm very privileged. 00:11:55.960 --> 00:11:59.440 My parentage is Jamaican. 00:11:59.620 --> 00:12:08.240 My family, my parents came over in the 50s as a Windrush generation, which has been in the news a lot this week. 00:12:08.560 --> 00:12:11.060 And I'm married to a Ghanaian. 00:12:11.400 --> 00:12:17.259 And it's very interesting just really picking up some African culture. 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:20.879 And one of my favorite African proverbs is this. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:25.360 It takes a whole village to raise a child. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:26.779 A whole village. 00:12:28.019 --> 00:12:35.500 And this church, our churches, can become that village where we can take care of our children. 00:12:35.620 --> 00:12:42.620 Not just those who are of our own, but those in our community as well. 00:12:42.620 --> 00:12:49.740 A radical way of living and being church in our community. 00:12:49.899 --> 00:12:55.299 I think that was the secret of Acts chapter 2 and the growth of the church. 00:12:55.820 --> 00:13:00.679 May the Lord help us to return to that. 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:09.459 Jesus says, doesn't he, in Matthew 25, whatever we do for others, we do it to the Lord. 00:13:09.459 --> 00:13:12.120 When you were hungry, you fed me. 00:13:12.219 --> 00:13:15.379 When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. 00:13:15.719 --> 00:13:18.219 When I was a stranger, you invited me in. 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:22.700 When I needed clothes, you clothed me when I was sick. 00:13:23.259 --> 00:13:26.320 You looked after me when I was in prison. 00:13:26.920 --> 00:13:28.340 You came to visit me. 00:13:28.779 --> 00:13:34.940 I think if Jesus was speaking today, when I was excluded, you included me. 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:39.899 That's what TLG, early intervention, is all about. 00:13:39.899 --> 00:13:45.699 When we engage in this activity, actually what happens is this. 00:13:46.259 --> 00:13:50.039 Is that our light will shine like the dawn. 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:53.699 And we will become those repairer of broken walls. 00:13:53.699 --> 00:13:58.419 And restorer of streets with dwellings.