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Stoke Church Working To Lift Its City
10 February 2011
Stoke-on-Trent was once a thriving industrial city, built on Britain's global success as a textiles manufacturer and exporter. Today, Stoke looks and feels like it has seen better days.
Within the city, however, there is a growing push to see a more proactive approach to the challenges ahead, as Mal Fletcher found on his recent visit to the city.
Prominent business leaders, key journalists and church leaders are among those who are trying to lift Stoke's vision of itself and its future.
One of those people is James Galloway, senior leader of the Bethel City Church, which in the past three years has grown to become one of the region's most progressive and community-active churches.
Mal Fletcher spoke to civic, business and church leaders from across the city and region in an event hosted by Bethel.
'This is a city with a great past. I believe it also has a strong future,' said Mal. 'There's no ignoring the significant challenges we face in a city like Stoke, but the future is a product of human choice, not just technology, social change or economic forces.'
'The negative growth Stoke has seen in recent decades actually provides the city with a unique opportunity, to build from the ground up, using the strengths of its past as a platform for its future.'
When asked how the city might use its industrial past as a launching point, Mal replied, 'Part of the strength Stoke in its industrial heyday, was the fact that people found here not just a place to work, but a community based around the workplace.'
'Many of the most successful mills in cities like this actually worked to ensure their people were housed and knitted into a community.'
'There are great opportunities for Stoke when it comes, for example, to the IT sector, where the most successful companies have built communities in and around their workspaces. Stoke could, in time, repeat this - but with IT or something similar, rather than mills.'
The leadership day was a preparation for the 2020Plus Leadership Event to be held in October, hosted by local businesses and bringing together high-level business, corporate and civic leaders.
The event, co-hosted by the 2020Plus think tank on social change, will seek to spark new ideas and confidence for change.
Whilst in Stoke, Mal Fletcher also spoke for Bethel City Church in a Sunday service. 'This church is going places. Its people are vibrant, visionary and very much feet-on-the-ground when it comes to producing long-term change for the good of its city.'
For more on BCC, visit: www.bethelcitychurch.com.
For more news on the 2020Plus event in October, watch this space...
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