Churches on a Mission
ARISE!
BRINGING HOPE with Jo Willis by Finley Hammatt
Jo Willis became the leader of C3 Hope church in June 2020 and has been working hard to evangelise through innovative programmes, youthful worship and work both within and outside the church community. We caught up with the fatherof-three to learn more about how he came to faith and how he puts his faith into action at C3 Hope. Jo grew up in a Christian home; “My parents love God, and did a lot of work with the kids’ ministry at our church; I always kind of had a faith”. However for Jo, a pivotal moment in his walk with God was at the age of fourteen, when he went to a Christian youth festival called Soul Survivor. At the festival, there were talks on a broad range of Christian topics, but one stuck out. “I can remember a moment, one night where the guy was talking about Isaiah 6:8.” In the verse Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord asking who will go for Him, and Isaiah responds. Jo recalls a similar moment, saying,
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“There was a call, you know, asking who will go, and I stood up, saying ‘I’m gonna go, send me. Of course, the reality is it hasn’t all been plain sailing since then: there have been rocky times for my faith,” he shares. “But through the church I’ve seen God move in supernatural ways. It’s been mind-blowing to see. But also humbling to know that… whatever I do, God is sovereign over it”. Devotion to Christ can be expressed in so many ways, and Jo demonstrates this through his work at C3 Hope. “I pray that my church will be a beacon of hope, especially when it’s dark”, he says. The community work at C3 Hope takes place through the Hope Community Foundation, a conjoined charity. A central role of the charity is to feed people. Jo described the system as a “food ladder”. For the most vulnerable people, the Foundation provides up to four emergency food hampers although that programme is means tested and the aim is to try to move
people on to the community grocery. In the community grocery people pay three pounds and are able to choose from a wide variety of products. Jo describes the community grocery as a place where “people get a bit more dignity”. But this is not the only way that C3 Hope serves the community. Jo mentors young people, the congregation does litter picking around the S2 area, they have set up a community nursery and a pay-what-you-feel café. There’s also a jigsaw café for over 55s which aims to reduce loneliness and alienation, problems which Jo has seen skyrocket during the coronavirus pandemic. “The Bible talks about God putting the lonely people into family”, comments Jo, which is something he has tried to bring about, saying that “family is one of our core values”. Jo believes that the church has to “not just talk about family, but really become family and look out
