Over 300 church leaders and workers gathered at East London Tabernacle on 29 September to hear about the need to reach hard places in the UK.
Delegates heard that whilst evangelicalism had deep and historical working-class roots, many of the country’s deprived areas have since been woefully neglected and movements have failed to invest and to raise up indigenous leaders.
Impassioned pleas
Mez McConnell and Ian Richardson (ministering in Scottish schemes and Middlesbrough estates respectively) gave impassioned pleas for this imbalance to be urgently addressed. Andy Prime (also serving in Scotland) graciously and clearly outlined the challenges to a middle-class worker serving in deprived areas.