ROOTS Equip Sunbury Programme
The Spiritual Life Commission calls us to live our lives in the world, to be involved in the healing of a hurting world, a prophetic witness in the face of social injustice. ROOTS Equip will explore what it means to be a prophetic witness in the face of social injustice. Not content with just dealing with the consequences of social injustice we will ask how we can actively tackle the causes, to engage, to struggle for change, and seek to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth.
The programme will include plenary sessions where we will dig deeper into the social justice theme, supported by seminars where in smaller groups we will explore the following subjects:
Salvation Army • Social Justice Network
Engaging in Education
Discovering Community Issues
‘Cut it Out’ (presented by ALOVE UK)
Neighbourhood Justice
Micah Challenge (presented by Joel Edwards)
This is not the final list of subjets to be looked at, and if you are interested in contributing to the programme we’d be keen to speak further with you, so please get in touch.
The team
Joel Edwards
Our key note speaker will be Joel Edwards. Joel is the former General Director of The Evangelical Alliance, and now International Director of the Micah Challenge. Joel is well qualified to speak on issues of social justice. Joel travels the globe inspiring the Church to get involved in advocacy with and for the poor as part of their core mission.
Micah Challenge is a global coalition of Christians holding governments accountable for their promise to halve extreme poverty by 2015. Promoting the eight Millennium Development Goals they empower Christians to speak out for justice and to turn compassion into action.
The Micah team have given a lot of thought to the theology behind social justice, seeing it not as a modern ‘add on’ to our theology by an integral part of our faith and mission. Joel’s teaching will provide you with the tools to return to your corps with a clear biblical mandate to engage with your communities and to fight for justice.
Captains Nick and Kerry Coke
Captain Nick Coke has been working with the ROOTS team to pull together the programme for ROOTS Equip. Nick has been a Salvation Army officer for nine years, previously serving as divisional youth officer for three years in South Wales. He currently holds two additional practitioner appointments as a tutor for the first-year mission module at William Booth College and Mission Partner for Multicultural Ministries at Territorial Headquarters.
Captain Kerry Coke is well known to many as one of the presentaters of Link. She is a member of the ROOTS Leadership team and hosted the celebrations at ROOTS Scotland. Both Nick and Kerry are well placed to help us ground the teaching in the Salvation Army context serving as Corps Officers of Stepney Corps working in a multi ethnic community.
Major Noel Wright
ROOTS Equip is planned and led by Major Noel Wright supported by the Mission Development Unit. Noel is the Assistant Territorial Evangelism Secretary and leads the Mission Development Unit. Noel planned the ROOTS Equip seminars at previous ROOTS Events and is passionate about the training opportunities that a weekend away together can provide. If you have ideas to contribute towards the ROOTS Equip vision, suggested speakers, or would be interested in holding a ROOTS Equip weekend in your area please get in touch with Noel at Mission.Development@salvationarmy.org.uk
Worship Leader – Matt Leeder
Matt Leeder will be with us to lead us in sung worship and explore the role music and worship has in our understanding of issues of social justice. Matt is an accomplished singer, songwriter, performer and worship leader. His band Electralyte have performed up and down the country attracting much acclaim from the music industry. Matt’s playing can be heard on many recorded works as well as being used for soundtracks on television.
He has performed to over 100,000 people – appearing as himself, with his band or as a session musician. Matt’s live portfolio has seen him perform in the Royal Albert Hall, Notts Country Football Stadium and Butlins holiday parks all around the country.
Matt began playing guitar in his early teens learning riffs from Pink Flloyd tracks and working it out by ear. He studied music at degree level a at Brunel University affiliated college and studied guitar as his first instrument. He is well versed and able to play in a variety of styles.
He also plays bass guitar and dabbles with piano, drums and euphonium! Matt is also an experienced and proven song writer. He has experience working with, teaching and training a variety of age groups and has a passion for social justice which we believe will help the sung worship support our theme and form a central part of the ROOTS Equip journey.
