Vine

                    Evangelical  

                    Church

Vine Evangelical Church

Hitchen Hatch Lane

Sevenoaks

Kent TN13 3AT

01732 453209 - pastor

01732 469833 - youth minister

E- mail: VEC

Vine Evangelical Church (Sevenoaks)

is a registered company (no. 6821266)

and a registered charity (no. 1128970)

What is HopeFest all about ?

It is about the churches in Sevenoaks working together showing a united front in bringing the Gospel – the Good News –  to the town and surrounding villages.

Most of the churches in the area have been considering what might be done to communicate the Christian message to our locality in a way that would make a greater impact than is possible for any individual church. They have taken the initiative to ask an evangelist from Birmingham, Rev Nick Cuthbert, to take part in a series of very high quality multi-media events on three Saturday evenings at the Stag Theatre in November and December 2009. The dates are 21 November, 28 November and 5 December.  In addition there will be a ‘taster’ evening on 3 October.

Nick Cuthbert is experienced in conducting town-wide, parish and student missions. He is the Senior Minister of Riverside Church and is an honorary Canon of Birmingham Cathedral. The evenings will be evangelistic in purpose, but also entertaining and enjoyable including music, drama, talks on themes which touch people’s lives and interviews with some well-known interesting people who are Christians. During 2009 there will be a series of associated events leading up to the Stag Saturdays. The ‘taster’ evening at the Stag on 3 October will help local Christians gain confidence in what is proposed before inviting their friends to the main events.

Who is organising the mission?

The ministers of all sponsoring churches have formed a Steering Group, which makes the key decisions about the mission. The Steering Group is chaired by Max Sinclair. The day-to-day work is being conducted by a series of teams responsible for things like prayer, events, finance, publicity etc. The leaders of the teams meet together regularly as an Organising Committee. The Chair of the committee is Bill Lattimer, from St Bartholomew’s Church in Otford. HopeFest is being carried out in association with Churches Together in Sevenoaks and District.

What about young people?

There is a parallel initiative called ‘KnowHope?’ led by some local youth leaders. They are planning some work in local schools in the week commencing 14 November leading up to a Saturday evening event on 21 November in the Plaza Suite which will include music, cabaret and a speaker.

How do I find out more?

A programme of raising awareness among all the churches in the area is under way, including DVDs, posters, prayer bookmarks and wristbands with the prompt “HopeFest - who will you invite?”. A little later in the year the focus of communication and publicity will switch to reach the population of Sevenoaks and the surrounding villages.

For further information please see the HopeFest website.