Of all nations
The Commonwealth Games presented a unique opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ in and around our buzzing and vibrant city.
With over a million tickets sold and thousands of visitors to Birmingham from all around the world, the Commonwealth Games presented a unique opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ in and around our buzzing and vibrant city.
BCM worked in partnership with a number of Christian organisations in the planning for the Games, including Good News For Everyone (formerly Gideons) and local churches. Our City Missionaries were divided between the various venues - in Perry Barr, Smethwick, Edgbaston, Selly Oak and the city centre - where many conversations took place, contacts were made and families connected to churches. An immense amount of literature was distributed, including over 5,000 special Games tracts.
One day City Missionary Kevin Williams went out with a volunteer to the cricket ground with 800 tracts, thinking they would last all day. There were so many people by 10.30am all the tracts were gone! Bernd Schulz was stationed at Londonderry Baptist Church working with church members. After giving out New Testaments, they put on a BBQ which attracted almost 200 people.
Giving a tract to one man and his friend led to a long conversation for Jonathan Hackett. He said, 'Initially it seemed they just wanted to have a laugh about religion. After a while one of the men started to take it more seriously. When I invited them to talk again over coffee sometime he joked that, if it was God's will, we would meet again. Two weeks later we bumped into each other on Edgbaston Street! This time we swapped numbers and plan to meet up soon.'
Another project run by BCM for the two weeks of the Commonwealth Games was a ‘Read Psalm 23’ bus stop poster campaign. A series of 3 posters based on the Psalm - the most translated piece of literature ever - were displayed at bus stops across Birmingham.
The posters were designed to inspire, uplift and comfort people waiting for a bus, encouraging them to read Psalm 23 and discover the God of the Bible for themselves. They could quickly find the whole Psalm by going online to readpsalm23.org on a smartphone.
Amongst the thousands of commercial advertisements asking us to buy more and more, we hope these undemanding invitations to consider God and find help in him stood out with their offer of something positive and extraordinary.
