I remember walking in to my father’s church after the break-in. The gang behind the attack had used sledgehammers to smash up the kitchen, toilets and most other parts of the church, they even pushed the upright piano out into the street and broke it up in broad daylight.
People had rung my father to tell him this was happening, but no one rang the Police.
This was the climate of fear in Salford during the mid 1990’s.
In the hardest of times you are often tempted to ask the question ‘how bad can this place get’, my wife Karen and I dared to ask a different question to God after the attack. We asked God ‘how good could this place be’ because we believed God had more for Salford than this.
For years we had worked with young people and children on the estates we had grown up in. We wanted this city to be a place where their lives could improve, they could be inspired and they could come to faith.
After asking that question I felt challenged to walk around the city of Salford so that God could show me and teach me how good this place could become.
At first I learned to bless every church I passed, and in time a good number of those churches came together to pray for Salford. Once churches started praying together, they increasingly started working together for the good of the city.
Over time I learned how to pray strategically for all the key aspects of the life of our city. From government to education, from health to arts and leisure.
I also learned to pray for, and honour those God had placed in authority, while also praying for a connection with the people of the city so that we could stop being known for complaint, criticism and abuse of those in leadership.
I learned about the great gift of creativity that had been placed on our city and the need for a hub where creativity could be nurtured and grown.
It was not a journey of weeks or months, it was years. But in time God answered our question and showed us just how good Salford was, is and is going to be.
Looking back there were many highlights and achievements, here are some of the landmarks:
→ A number of Churches in the Ordsall council ward area now count their Sunday attendance in the high hundreds not in the low tens.
→ There has been great growth in vision and political aspiration for how good this city can become.
→ There has been a significant increase in GCSE pass rates since the 1990s and all our city’s High Schools have been rebuilt giving our young people aspirational environments to learn in.
→ Many physical changes have taken place in the city that have helped lift the atmosphere, including the start of the building of the fifth RHS National Garden in Salford.
→ Salford’s economy has grown, and continues to grow, at a higher rate than the national average.
→ Salford Royal Hospital in now the leading Hospital nationally outside London.
→ MediaCityUK has created an international arts and media hub that attracts talent and investment while giving opportunity and access to local entrepreneurs and business people.
Over the last number of years we have seen significant change in our city. With that transformation has come the realisation that change is a process not an event, it needs to be nurtured and encouraged continually.
God has taught us so much through Salford, and He promises that He has not finished answering our question yet.
