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Bringing God's grace and healing love
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An article from the July 2002 edition of the Sea Mills Churches Magazine.
Crisis Centre Ministries
By Paul Hazelden
I have been asked to write a short introduction to CCM - to tell you a little about who we are and what we do. We work in St Pauls with the most needy people in our society, offering them hope and a new start. We work to bring God's grace and healing love to people with life-disrupting problems: those sleeping on the streets, drug addicts, alcoholics, people with mental illnesses and the rest.
Sadly, we see these needs steadily increasing. There are many reasons for this, including the failure of our mental health and criminal justice systems, increased stress at work, a disintegrating social network, and the inability most people have to see any purpose to their lives. The immediate cause may be drink, drugs, marital breakdown or nervous breakdown, but the end result is the same: people end up on the street, unable to access the help they need.
A great deal of money is being poured into addressing these issues. Unfortunately, most of the 'solutions' being adopted by the government and social services are almost entirely ineffective, addressing the consequences and not the causes of these problems.
But possibly the most important factor is the church. It seems very clear to me that society is going downhill at such a rate because most of God's people today are completely failing to act as salt and light in our society. The Church is not playing its God-given role in society, and we are reaping the consequences in broken families and damaged lives.
The Role of the Church
The needs are very clear. Fortunately, God's response to those needs is also very clear. He loves people - every part of them: body, soul and spirit. He commands us to love them, so we express His love through social action and evangelism. We show people God's love, and tell them about His love. These are not alternatives, but two sides of the same coin.
Because God loves everyone, it is right for Christians to be involved in promoting fair trade, campaigning against third world debt or for restrictions on the arms trade. But it is especially important that we are involved in helping the people on our doorstep. After all, if you do not love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?
The Role of CCM
CCM seeks to work on behalf of the church in Bristol with the most needy people in society. We run a Coffee Shop where people can drop in, receive a hot drink and a hot meal, and talk to folk who care about them.
The most important thing we do for people is to get to know them, to build a relationship with them. Relationships change lives. People come to us who have no hope: people who feel themselves to be worthless and failures come and meet folk who are interested in them, who care about them, who are willing to support and encourage them. And time and time again we find that this care opens the door to change.
But just caring for people is not enough. Increasingly, we must adopt a professional approach if we are to be of any use. Both the problems and the structures in place to help people are so complex, that amateur do-gooders can easily do more harm than good. We are learning how to care for damaged people in ways that are both effective and true to the gospel.
As well as the Coffee Shop, we run a training programme (The LITE Course) to help people gain life skills so they can get into employment or access further, more formal training.
We also meet as the Bridgehead Church each Wednesday to encourage and build up the new converts in their faith and help them discover how to live as children of God.
Supporting CCM
What can you do? The most important thing is to pray for us! Please pray for the ministry as a whole, and for the individuals we are working with. Please pray that we receive the financial support needed to maintain and develop this work, and for more volunteers to come and help us.
If you would like to know more, you can come along to the Open Day on July 12, between 2 and 7pm: come and see what is happening and meet some of the people involved. For more details, ring (0117) 942 3088.