The Journey... and a plea

So RISE Project is established. We've been through the period where we could have been labeled as a 'gimic', a 'phase' or a 'one-off'. We are here to stay.

Antrim needs us. Needs the Church. Needs us Jesus. People talk about an 'Irresistable Revolution' or a 'Jesus Generation'. But ask most of the people in our town what this is, and they'll say they have seen no evidence of change.
If we are to talk the talk we have to walk the walk. Put our words into action and do something for the cause.

Imagine a room full of gas. A man walks into the room, shuts the door and takes out something from his pocket. It seems to be a box of matches. With an air of confidence he takes out the only match left in the box. With one strike of the match, it creates a spark and the room is filled with fire.
Now imagine Antrim, filled with the Holy Spirit it needs us to be the match which sparks a fire which will burn the hatred and evil out of peoples hearts and replace it with love, grace, compassion.


The journey so far...

RISE Youth Event :: Antrim Baptist :: 28/11/08
80 young people
11 different churches
5 different denominations
25 young people directly involved in organising and running

RISE Cafe :: Antrim Elim :: 30/01/09
40 young people
6 different churches
a night where young people mingled with those of other churches

RISE Prayer Room :: Antrim YMCA :: 13-15/03/09
61 People praying
10 different churches/organisations represented
different generations and ages

Now we need you again to bring about the success of our fourth event. RISE is having it's second Youth Event, in a different church. Muckamore Presbyterian Church is our venue. The target people we want to reach is young people on the fringes of Church and Christianity, those who may have gone to Church before, have friends who are Christians, and those who have slipped away...
Tomorrow night we need you to bring these people, tell others to and bring yourself if you think you are this person. We want to show those who come through the door that God is good. By hearing stories, enjoying food and laughing together to the craziness, we hope they'll see that there's more to Church and Christianity than what they've always thought.

The vision is simple. Antrim will rise...

Ben (ben@riseantrim.com)

RISE Cafe

Last night was a bit different. We had planned, organised and targeted RISE Cafe for those who don't know Jesus. But, it ended up changing.

To look across a room full of mostly Christians from different churches enjoying the free buns and free coffee was amazing. Maybe God had decided that this wasn't ever meant to be an outreach event, maybe we just did it wrong. Either way we were happy with what had happened that night.

We want to say a big thank you to everybody helped out. From those who baked, to those who gave us the venue, those who cleaned, those who performed, those who sand, those who came, those who gave and those who prayed. Without any of such people RISE Cafe could never have happened.

Maybe we are helping a wee bit to the uniting of Churches. It's far bigger than RISE. Such a feat takes a long time and a lot of work, but if we can help along the process than that's great!
Maybe having young people in the same room from different churches was enough. Maybe sharing coffee and buns was even better, maybe having a team of young people to help out at RISE, which is growing and developing, is another thing to take out of last night.

With this second event, RISE is growing. We look forward to 13th March for the weekend of 24 hour prayer.

Antrim will rise...