Snowflakes dance around the old stone church and dust the detailed crevices of its exterior like highlights.
Snow’s not super common in England, but Lizzie’s getting accustomed to seeing it blanket the neighborhood around her church a little more frequently than it used to.
Much as political correctness does.
“It’s a postmodern society. To many people here, there is no truth. ‘Whatever you believe, that’s fine’ — that’s the pervasive thought,” said Lizzie Baker, youth minister at Holy Trinity Church on the outskirts of London.
And the “whatever you believe” is becoming more and more diverse in London. Some 300 languages are spoken in the city of 8 million. Spend a little time on the street, and you’ll see people of all nationalities and religions. “You really can reach any nation of the world right here,” said Susan Goodman, a Southern Baptist representative in London. “We can work freely here among people groups we would have little to no access to back in their homelands.”
Walk around, she said, and “you’ll quickly see Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindu — you can share with any faith you’d like to here.”
Because of the great need for the gospel and the great opportunities to share, London is the focus of the International Missions Study (IMS) this year, set for Dec. 4–11.
“On the surface, the city is dark but God is stirring hearts,” said Donielle Yancey, a college leader with Shandon Baptist Church, Columbia, S.C., who visited London earlier this year. “People are open to having conversations.”
Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn, has spent time investing in a particular area of London, an area where it’s been able to bump into a variety of nationalities and share the gospel with them.
“It’s a huge city, probably considered the capital of the world in some ways,” said Cliff Knight, associate pastor of family ministries at the Tuskegee Lee Baptist Association church.
Matt Fontenot, a Southern Baptist representative in London, asks that Christians in Alabama pray for his city, learn about it and engage it so that “the voices of the nations in London will begin echoing the whispers of the gospel.”
The IMS, provided by national Woman’s Missionary Union, goes hand in hand with the International Mission Board’s Week of Prayer for International Missions and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
Available resources include:
- Adult, student and preschool study guides focusing on needs and missions work in London;
- “Kids Reaching Kids — London,” a study for grades 1–6;
- A kit including a planning guide for the study, maps, posters, crafts, recipes and handouts; and
- Molly’s Tour of London, a downloadable video tour of London narrated by a missionary kid living in England.
For IMS resources, call 1-800-968-7301 or visit wmu.com and click on “calendar” and then “International Missions Emphasis.”
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