Rainy, windy, cold, skin-drenching ‘mizzle,’ as it’s called here in the wet-socked winter of England, turns everything into mid-winter splash ponds and mud baths. Especially football pitches. Children across the United Kingdom looked through their windows, their faces pressed like suction cups against the panes of glass, their hopes for Saturday morning football glory dissolving down the glass alongside the sheets of rain which clung like desperation to the huddling semi-detached houses.
Should it surprise us that on these very days, Jesus was already strolling these football pitches and rain-soaked alleyways, with a view to reaching the young people of Leatherhead, Surrey, just outside the yawning grasp of greater London? Of course it shouldn’t, but because he is far more ingenious and determined than we often realize, it does.
In the U.K., the necessity of Converge global workers being embedded in a local church to gain credibility within the communities we serve cannot be overstated. We play various roles in the churches we are blessed to partner with here, as we continue to ask God for a powerful gospel presence to take root and thrive in every Irish and British community.
A team born in the mud
One community where we see God at work is North Leatherhead. Tyler, 15, came into the local community hub to ask for help putting together a football team for local teens looking for a place to belong, who could not afford to join a local football club and were hoping for a better ending to their story than the chapter they saw in front of them.
Jesus was already stirring the heart of a local pastor who had been wondering if there was a way to reach the community through football. Pastor Jon from Grace Church Leatherhead overheard a conversation at the community hub and offered some ways to help. Converge global worker Tom Clyde serves with Grace Church and, together with a local football coach, has been gathering teens from across Leatherhead for football, a meal and a time for discussion.
The response has been amazing. Those rainy days in January saw boys coming week in, week out, training in the mud and wet cold. Now there are 22 kids, with an average of 10-12 participating each week. As one volunteer said, “The idea is to be ‘gospel people’ in a pre-evangelistic space, loving the community in real ways.”
I often ask myself where Jesus would spend his time in my community. Where would he frequent, and with whom would he look to embed himself strategically, because his nature is to pursue relationship, to welcome warm, wide and tenaciously?
Here in the U.K., I am certain that every Saturday (or Thursday) Jesus would strap on his football boots and don the local team kit, cheering on and coaching kids from the community. Because in Leatherhead, that is where the need is; that is where the seed of hope for purpose currently shows up in the lives of those who long for more. Our prayer is that they would meet Jesus in us as we volunteer, serve, laugh, cheer, sing and learn alongside them.
During the World Cup, Jesus would proudly wear the Three Lions jersey and sing, ‘Football’s comin’ home’ at the top of his lungs with mates at the local pub. He would incarnate the gospel on the nearly always wet football pitches and sidelines across the U.K., becoming ‘all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some’ (1 Cor. 9:22).
Get muddy with us
If you want to ‘get muddy’ on the pitch with us, so to speak, here are some ways you can get involved:
- Pray! Everything rises or falls on prayer. We have bimonthly virtual meetings for the Converge U.K. & Ireland Initiative. Would you like to be a critical part of seeing the gospel take root and thrive? Send an email message, and we will send you the link.
- Current prayer requests:
- More adult volunteers
- More Christian young people to build relationships with those in their community who need to meet Jesus
- Wisdom and resources
Amanda Bialy and her husband, Steve, are Converge global workers in the U.K. & Ireland Initiative, working to equip and launch the next generation of leaders to plant and revitalize churches across the U.K.