Bringing Hope - a conversation with Jo Willis
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 father-of-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, “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 for those who don’t have any family”.
The community that C3 Hope has cultivated brings people together who might not otherwise have connected. Jo shared a story about one Sheffield man, who had recently been told he had only six months left to live. He had no family or community to turn to but when he saw a sign on the side of the C3 Hope building which read “Togetherness is our church”, he wanted to find out more, and started attending services regularly. There was another couple who were active members of the C3 Hope community, and volunteers at the Community Grocery. They longed to go to the beach but could not afford to take a trip. The man heard about this wish and offered to take them with him for a ‘final trip to the beach’. This was the start of a wonderful friendship for the three of them who now meet up regularly.
I ask Jo what he thinks makes C3 Hope different. “We’re all very happy clappy, and it’s loud. And it’s in your face, which I love.” However he also sees the value in other styles of worship, commenting, “I think that there is something beautiful about silence and letting God speak, that we really need to tap into.”
Because of C3 Hope’s sense of mission to the city, Jo is excited about Arise magazine and other projects coordinated by Together for Sheffield. “I’m a very collaborative person. I’m encouraged by Arise because it’s the first time that C3 has really felt like it is part of a united church around the city. This has been so illuminating because in a church, you can get so caught up in what you’re doing that you forget, there are hundreds and thousands of other Christians who believe the same thing. It feels like there’s a new desire for a unified church across the nation. The reality is, we’re on the same team doing the same thing. Same mission, different methods, maybe. It’s just wild to think that we’re able to be part of something bigger than just ourselves. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what name is on the door, we are the church. And so being part of the wider church in Sheffield during Arise 2021 was awesome.”
For Jo, ‘Hope’ is more than just a good church name: it motivates everything he does. Looking to the future, Jo is equally hopeful, and is praying for clarity of purpose and opportunity. “Particularly for the Foundation, one big prayer request would be to work out which are the doors that God has opened, and what are the opportunities that we could just walk into? Because the opportunities are there, I think. What I’d like is discernment to know what is a good thing, and what is a God thing. Recently people have been opening so many opportunities, but as the Foundation we shouldn’t be doing things that other charities are already doing really well, when we could just support those charities instead. As a Christian, bringing glory to God is my main goal so my hope for the future is that more people become disciples of God. Because there is a big difference between making Jesus your Saviour, and making Jesus your Lord.” The hope at C3 is that their work will help more people to do both.