Ruach Church, Brixton south London
It's not about us - it's about working together for the Kingdom
Ruach is a large and vibrant black-majority independent charismatic church with over 4,000 members. It is lead by Bishop John Francis.
To contact the church please visit the Ruach website
Ruach - an outward-focused church
Although Ruach has a TV ministry and some people travel many miles to worship there, many of the congregation live and work locally and the church has always been committed to being a presence and witness in the Brixton area.
The church runs a variety of outward-focused projects from a regular meal for the homeless to a prison-visiting ministry that includes Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution. Many of these projects are overseen mainly by the youth pastor, Mark Liburd who is passionate about empowering the church’s youth to engage with their peers. A team of 20-30 young people regularly visits four local estates to build relationships with the young people there. He believes that not only is their witness more powerful than that of adults, but the experience is vital to the development and strengthening of their faith.
When working on the estates, they make a point of directing the young people they meet to local youth clubs and find that nine times out of ten they are church projects. Ruach have resisted the temptation of starting up their own projects on these estates and instead have opted to support other churches and organisations' projects. Pastor Mark believes that this brings a far more cohesive Christian witness in the local area and has helped strengthen relationships between churches.
They are now committed to connecting with and supporting whatever churches and organisations are working in the same area and to going with an attitude of learning - both from those in the community themselves and from others who are working with them.
The Ruach leadership recognises the danger that as a large strong church they could take the attitude they don’t need anyone else, but says: “It doesn’t matter how big your church is, if you are saying to other churches ‘we don’t need you’ that’s not a Kingdom mentality. You may have a small church, but you may have something we don’t have and we should be working together for the Kingdom. Our weakness will be someone else’s strength and vise versa. In connecting we need to ask – ‘What do you bring’ and ‘What do I bring’ and to be prepared to learn from one another. There are things we could do ourselves, but we believe it's more important to work with what's already there.
Pastor Mark’s advice to churches that want to get more involved with their community but don’t know where to start, is to talk to the young people in the church. He also believes it is vital for churches to just get out there:
The Bible says ‘sit where they sit’ – take time to find out what the local issues are. Some of the answers to their problems could be very simple. You must know God's heart for your community - and remember that what works for us may not work elsewhere.
Pastor Mark Liburd
He also believes in recognising that the world does not stand still and churches must adapt their approach: "We have to accept that life has changed and our methods need to change too."
As well as working with other churches, Ruach Ministries regularly encourages its members to engage with local and nationa issues and teaches their members that "if you are part of the community, you need to use your voice."
Mark Liburd, Youth Minister, Ruach Ministries
December 2009