A recent Channel 4 programme charted the extraordinary rise and development of Pentecostal West African churches, around London’s Old Kent Road.
Across the capital there are now well over a hundred recently planted churches, meeting in warehouses and office blocks, empty shops and reclaimed cinemas, involving thousands of mainly Afro-Caribbean young people. The common thread running through the stories of these young adults, aged 18 to 30, was the practical love shown to them by the members of the church. Sometimes this began with food and a place to sleep. Often it was a virtual parenting, especially of young males who had no father figure, giving firm Christian ethical teaching alongside gospel compassion.
Biggest shift
Perhaps the biggest shift of world view, involved in the process we call conversion is from a perspective on life in which I am the centre of everything, to one in which in practice, as well as principle, Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the crucial mega-shift which dethrones me from the centre of the universe and enthrones the Lord Jesus as rescuer and ruler and our initial commitment to repentance and faith needs to be renewed day by day, as we present ourselves to the Lord as living sacrifices, (Romans 12.1-2).
