More and more people in Britain are seeking spiritual support, fulfilment and help with the stress and strain of life and seem to be going everywhere for answers except the Church.A staggering £80 million was spent in 2003 on books and spiritual sessions by so called founts of knowledge, according to The Times.
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Christian Enquiry Agency’s work, in partner-ship with others, to create opportunities for people seeking spiritual answers to life is producing a huge response. In 2004 a record 5000 people contacted CEA to find out about Jesus Christ and seek God’s answers to life’s problems. Most of the response came through cinemas, websites and life issues postcards.
Cinemagoers sought answers having faced the harrowing reality of the sacrifice of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ film. CEA received ‘Why?’ response cards at the rate of up to 200 a day! Booklets were dispatched with an offer of more help. One man said: “I saw the film and it got me thinking. I sent off the postcard and have now just finished the book on who Jesus was. It has all touched me and I’d like to learn more.”
Internet surfers are exploring Jesus on www.rejesus.co.uk and CEA’s own website.
Life issues are tackled in a range of highly creative Contact Cards which churches and individuals are giving away. Part of the card is sent to CEA to find out what God has to say about love, stress, forgiveness or satisfaction. “We send high quality information to all enquirers but that’s not all – we offer further help including prayer, details of local Alpha courses and contact with a local Christian and many ask for this”, said CEA director Jeff Bonser.
Now the agency is working on creating new evangelistic resources as part of the Evangelising Contemporary Spiritualities project of the Churches Together in England Group for Evangelisation.
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Sport 2004: many fans enquire about Jesus
Many men and young people have contacted Christian Enquiry Agency through booklets about the Euro 2004 Football Championship and the Athens Olympic Games.
Thousands of copies of ‘The Ultimate Goal’, ‘The Winning Formula’ and ‘More Than Gold’ booklets were given away by churches in the UK. Some churches showed the football games on a large screen. Others ran sports events, competitions and holiday clubs. Moulton Baptist Church in North-ampton distributed 500 copies of ‘More Than Gold’ door to door.
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The booklets included stories of faith by footballers and athletes, an invitation to click on www.rejesus.co.uk/sport and an offer of a magazine from CEA.
Comments from people who received the magazine but never, or only occasionally, attend a church included: “Very useful … I felt there was no direction left to turn in my life.” “The real life stories gave me inspiration.”
“Helped me a lot.” “I am now going to read the Bible to find out more.”
Christian Enquiry Agency’s work in sports outreach was in partnership with CPO, Deo Gloria Trust, Verité CM, Christians in Sport and Trinity Vision.
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Soul in the city: a resounding success
In the summer of 2004, up to 20,000 young Christians from all over the UK and overseas took part in over 450 community projects, sports initiatives, concerts and other events across Greater London.
Soul in the City involved 750 churches, police and local government with the aim of showing the people of London a God who cares.
Christian Enquiry Agency handled some of the follow up to the evangelistic events across the capital, including several nights at St Paul’s Cathedral and a finale at Trafalgar Square with 15,000 people (pictured below).
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“It has been fantastic working with CEA. We have so appreciated everything you have done in making sure that people who make a response at Soul in the City are supported afterwards”, said Catherine Berry, a member of the Soul in the City management team. See www.soulinthecity.co.uk
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Sudden increase in web enquiries
The offer of information about Jesus has been picked up by a website highlighting free offers, and there are invitations on the BBC and Channel 4 sites to contact CEA. Visits to the CEA site via search engines have also increased dramatically. The result is hundreds of enquiries as more and more people complete and email the form on www.christianity.org.uk
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Enquiry Centre and Headquarters
An Enquiry Centre handles the growing number of enquiries about Jesus Christ. The centre is run by the staff of Deo Gloria Trust at their Selsdon House offices in South Croydon. Tim Harding, director of Deo Gloria Trust, said: Christian Enquiry Agency is one of the most strategic agencies for reaching those with no church contact. We are now privy to many exciting and encouraging stories about people’s faith journeys, and are in a position to know just how effective CEA is in introducing them to Jesus Christ.
The address for enquiries is:
Christian Enquiry Agency
Freepost WC2947
SOUTH CROYDON
CR2 8UZ.
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“Such an excellent team and good facilities mean we can respond to enquiries promptly and professionally, and cope with the anticipated further growth,” said Jeff Bonser, director of CEA. |
Christian Enquiry Agency headquarters is at 27 Tavistock Square, the London office of Churches Together in England, where the Web site rejesus.co.uk is also based. Revd Bill Snelson, general secretary of Churches Together in England, comments: Christian Enquiry Agency is a fine example of the connection between unity, mission and evangelism, and a much-needed ecumenical response at a time when fewer and fewer people have any church roots.
