Emily Graves spoke with Christians on the Left Director Andy Flannagan

It was amazing to be doing it and especially entertaining to be doing it on Bonfire Night: the history of Bonfire Night and the Houses of Parliament and Guy Fawkes and so my talk that I gave that night was entitled "They came expecting fireworks" because, everybody's excited about the new website and excited about the new videos that we had up on the website and all the new members that are coming and their energy and I guess I really challenged people: I said, coming expecting fireworks is pretty much what was happening in 1st-Century Palestine, when an oppressed people were expecting Jesus to be a revolutionary from a military perspective and conquer Rome and sort out the Jewish religious leaders. They were expecting fireworks, but what they heard was a story about a mustard seed and how the deal with the Kingdom was actually like a mustard seed that starts really small and it grows gradually and it's built relationally and we might not see immediate fruit from what we do. I challenged everyone there to say: look, are you in this for the long-haul? Because politics will not be turned around in the next 24 hours. So that was a real call to folks to say the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed and are we prepared to do the hard work, the hard yards of building relationship, of getting to know people in politics and the media and being salt and light in those places?

It's very easy, I know, my attention span can fade and I can get excited about a cause and then fade away from it again, but when we actually build relationships with people, that's when we get wired in to those spheres and wired in to those worlds. That's when actual change can happen. It's not just about making sure our opinions get heard; it's about making sure that people have an experience and can meet Jesus in the midst of these things.

We're praying for miracles in the corridors of power, in Parliament, we just want God's people to be there. People often say to me, well, why do you need to be there? Surely Christians shouldn't be engaged? But I often say, look, David Cameron could wake up tomorrow morning and decide to go through a tick list and decide on every single policy that Cross Rhythms listeners would like! But some of the most important things that will happen in the next two years will just be the events that take place, whether economic crises, wars, famines, all the things that have happened in the last 15-20 years. The events take place and surely we want somebody who has a faith or who is taking the time to pray to actually be in those positions, making those decisions, responding to those events. It's not just about having a set of policies that we adhere to, it's about having Christians there and people who are prepared to stop and pray rather than people who are just going to be influenced by what Twitter says or the blogosphere says, who are going to make knee-jerk reactions rather than stopping for a moment and trying to hear God's wisdom and turning to somebody who can advise them. You know, that rule that Daniel and Joseph had in the Old Testament, that's what we're praying more and more, people get involved. So please do visit the website if you're keen to get involved, if this stuff resonates with you, its www.christiansontheleft.org.uk.

Emily: What are your hopes for the future as you look to go forward with Christians On The Left?

Andy: We're working with an incredible bunch of future candidates at this minute, who are meeting together, praying for each other, discussing policy issues and they're going forward for selection. Some of them have been selected for seats already for 2015 for the general election. My hope is that they continue to grow. That it won't necessarily happen fast, but that that group of people will grow together and it will be expanded even more, maybe people that are listening to this interview, that more people will join them and that they will find seats and that they will be selected and that in five years' time, in ten years' time, a lot of those folks will be sitting in local councils and they'll be sitting in Parliament being salt and light in that place.