Reaching Those With No Religion

£50.00 - Thank you for all that you do for young people - may God bless your ministry abundantly.
$200.00 - Luv'ing Cross Rhythms!!
£25.00 - I hope the little I can give can help in making your ministry grow stronger!
£20.00 - many blessings on the team which I want to be a part of!
£250.00 - Keep up the good work! Lift Him high for all to see.
£500.00 - I have faith that you will receive your breakthrough and that God will use Crossrhythms to bring hope to people all over the world.

“Record Number Of Brits With No Religion…”

This headline appeared towards the end of 2017 and accompanied the latest results from the National Centre for Social Research. Here’s their key findings:

“The proportion of people in Britain who describe themselves as having no religion is at its highest ever level.”
“More than half (53%) of the British public now describe themselves as having ‘no religion’”
“71% of young people aged 18-24 said they had no religion (up 9% in just one year).”

As the UK Christian Church, we should find these statistics alarming, particularly for our youth. Increasingly, secular humanism is replacing Christianity as the primary doctrine of our times; ‘faith, hope and love’, is being replaced by ‘diversity, tolerance and inclusivity’.

Let’s not gloss over these figures. The UK Church is currently losing the battle for the hearts and minds of a younger generation. Hands down! And it’s not even a close fight. I spoke to an elderly lady just last Friday. Her congregation was shrinking and she was concerned. “We’ve got just 6 young people in our church. Where are they?” It’s a familiar story we’ve been hearing for years. The Church has struggled, or not known how, or in some cases just given up, trying to reach the kids.

Please don’t give up! Because without a change, that 71% of young people will increasingly be the voices of influence in our nation: leading our society with ideas, values and lifestyle choices not rooted and founded on Godly principles. Worst of all, they will be faced with trying to make sense of life and handle life’s issues without an active relational connection with God.

But how can they change? The Bible is clear - it’s down to us: “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help. But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?” (Romans 10:13-14, The Message).

Well, at Cross Rhythms we’re in the business of telling people so they can hear! To us the UK is already a mission field, and we’re raising up media missionaries to tell young and old, through FM radio, the internet and new media.

God is also much bigger than the stats! He has a plan and a purpose for our generation. He’s just looking for His faithful ones who will work with Him to help see His Kingdom come through in the UK. Here’s some of the current ways that we are doing just that through investing into the Cross Rhythms ministry:

Cross Rhythms Teesside (CRT), the FM radio station in Stockton, is going through a transformation. In September new leaders Jacob and Adam took on the vision, ploughing energy, passion and faith into it. Six months later they were rewarded with a new five year licence, but more than that, they are being rewarded with some amazing stories of God at work through them. Here’s one:

Eddy bought an old Renault Clio to get to and from work. However, his car radio only allowed him to tune into a couple of stations. One morning he turned on and, as if God had tuned the radio Himself, on came CRT! After listening to a couple of songs he noticed the positive lyrics and decided he quite liked it, so he left the station tuned in. Soon, he realised the radio station was actually Christian! Although a non-believer Eddy listened to ‘Your Morning Feed’ and was impacted day after day by what Jacob shared. Growing in faith, a couple months later it was Eddy’s birthday, and whilst he was out with his girlfriend, he prayed with her, “God I want a sign. Allow me to meet Jacob.” The very next bar he walked into, there was Jacob! Eddy shook with excitement at his answered prayer! From that day, he joined a local fellowship, started reading the word, and most importantly his journey with Jesus started!

For Cross Rhythms Plymouth and Cross Rhythms City Radio in Stoke-on-Trent it’s about marketplace engagement: using our local FM radio stations to be a blessing to the local community, to build relationships, be a part of shaping local community life, and when possible to give account for the hope that we have. As Dan let us know: "Your music found me when I was in a dark place, when I was struggling to find anything or anyone to connect to...and then I heard your station on a Saturday night...and through Jesus you helped me make sense of what was happening at the time and you became my refuge, my safe place.”

Being a ‘safe place’ for people is something we are passionate about. Jesus described the Kingdom of God like a mustard seed that “grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade”. We see all types of ‘birds’ come and ‘perch’ at our HQ: volunteers, work experience, students, disadvantaged, unemployed, faith, no faith, other faith… and all find ‘shade’ and a safe and encouraging environment where they get to experience Jesus in our midst, ask questions, experience prayer, and come as close to Him as they want.

Finally there’s our exciting new work - xRhythms - a unique media platform being created specifically to engage with that 71% of youth who don’t yet know Father God. To reach them we’re empowering an army of modern day media missionaries. So far 23 new bloggers and vloggers have started producing incredible content that will re-communicate Christian truth to young people on the issues they are facing, like: ‘Overcoming An Eating Disorder’, ‘Finding My Identity’, ‘When School Is A Place Of Pain’, ‘When Dads And Boyfriends Let You Down’, ‘A Journey Of Freedom From Self Harm’, ‘Grieving For Absent Mothers On Mother’s Day’.

Whether it’s to our local communities, the marketplace or a teenage generation, this nation needs ministries today that will ‘tell of the One who can be trusted’. Cross Rhythms is just such a ministry. To sustain and empower both our community radio work and the brand new xRhythms vision for the next 8 months, we need to raise £25,250. Would you stand with us?