Caring for our City

For over 40 years, Emmanuel Church has been rolling its sleeves up for the good of Brighton, Hove, and Shoreham-by-Sea. Care for our City is an ongoing adventure in what it looks like for a church to seek the flourishing of people in the place it calls home. We take our cue from that strange piece of pastoral advice given to a people in exile: "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you... for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (Jeremiah 29:7). God's people were told that their own flourishing was bound up with the flourishing of a city that wasn't even theirs, and we believe the same is true of us.

That conviction shapes how we work. We're less interested in running programmes than in releasing people; helping those who share our church's vision and values use the particular skills God has given them for the good of their neighbours. Sometimes that looks like starting something new; sometimes it's partnering with someone already doing good work nearby. None of this follows a fixed strategy so much as an ongoing act of attention - asking, praying and expecting that God is already at work blessing our city; we want to join in where we find him at work.

Read more about the vision shaping this work and the biblical hope we're building towards.