WE MUST FIGHT!!!

I got hold of the CD of Steve Chalkes teaching from the Sunday night at Roots. I just had to blog the ending, so here goes. I suppose it really has to be heard in the context of the whole thing, but for those of us who were there, I'm sure this will be just a reminder.


“The very survival of Christianity in the West, depends on the emergence of men and women who are able to think new thoughts and devise new strategies on the real frontiers of mission today and do it like it’s never been done, in the name of Jesus.

So here is the Question – Where is God calling you to go, where is he calling you to step outside of the box, down your street, in your town, in your office, what issue is he calling you to confront, who is Jesus calling you to go to, how is Jesus calling you to set up a new congregation in your church, to work together to get something happening in the coffee bar, or down at the golf club –I don’t know – in a 1000 different ways? We’ve got to reach, skaters and bikers and golfers and runners and footballers and rugby players and musicians, and poets and actors and walkers and bird watchers and train spotters, and painters and clubbers and potters and singers and dress makers and gardeners and fishermen. We’ve got to reach those with physical disabilities, the deaf, blind, dyslexic. We’ve got to work with those with mental health problems and learning disabilities. We’ve got to work with these people to bring the good news of Jesus authentically into their culture and into their space. Who is Jesus calling you to go to and calling you to work with?

(except from speech by William Booth, May 9th 1912)

While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight;
While children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight;
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, I’ll fight;
While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets,
While there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight.
I’ll fight to the very end.


Where people feel forgotten, neglected, oppressed, down-trodden, abused, and unheard, I will fight.

While children still work as coffee slaves, as cocoa slaves as chocolate slaves on the plantations of Cote d’Ivorie, I will fight.

Whist our sink estates mean that some kids are never given hope or education that they deserve, I will fight.

While there are those trapped in drugs and crime and intimidation, I will fight.

While there’s a village or a town or a city in the UK here, that does not know tangibly that there is a congregation of God’s people, speaking their language, in their culture, announcing the Good News that there’s a God in Heaven who is Love, I will fight.

While girls are trafficked around the World, stripped of their clothing, stripped of their dignity and freedom, I will fight.

While elderly people spend their last years, in our country, stuffed in front of some television set which is turned up too loud with their heating spun out and talked to like they’ve hardly got a mind, I will fight.

While young people and elderly people in our country do not know that Jesus gave His life for them and that there is a God in Heaven who loves them and enters their culture; who wants to scream and whisper at the same time “I love you for you are made in my image”, I will fight.

We will fight to the very end in Jesus’ name. We must fight!!"