AEFB

ESPOIR 2024 Presentation

After ESPOIR 2023, many of the participating churches, as well as others who were unable to take part, expressed the wish to repeat the event in 2024. The same partners are joining forces again to launch “ESPOIR 2024”: the Alliance Évangélique Francophone de Belgique (AEFB), the JONAS association and the CMM (Christ de Maison en Maison). Their leaders form the “ESPOIR 2024 Working Group”.

Our role is to initiate, coordinate and provide support. Each local church retains responsibility for its own project within the common framework defined.

Why "ESPOIR 2024"?

Because HOPE is what we are called to share. According to 1Peter 3:15: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Hope in Jesus Christ is still what people need in 2024, even if they are not necessarily aware of it. We do not communicate the Gospel out of obligation or duty, but because "Christ’s love compels us". While we are privileged to be saved in Jesus Christ, many are still lost, without hope and without God.

Our vision

It remains the same in 2024: “In these times of repeated crises, we want to reach out to people close to us who are looking for help and suffering, and bring them the Hope of the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

Objective

To initiate a simultaneous project to communicate the Gospel in French-speaking Belgium (Wallonia + Brussels) by proposing to use the same format, the same theme, the same logo (adapted for 2024) and the same dates, in order to really and concretely reach out to non-Christians.

When ?

Who?

By a single church or by several churches coming together to pool resources.

How ?

3-day format :

The framework is designed to be flexible. It takes into account the size, context, resources and creativity of the churches. Projects must follow the same format (same logo, same theme “Hope 2024”, same dates, same visibility) without being identical.

Training

Three areas of training :

  1. The training videos recorded for ESPOIR 2023 are still available at https://www.aefb.be/intranet. The password will be sent to participating churches.
  2. Training on demand and à la carte for churches, to respond more precisely to the community’s needs.
  3. A half-day of preparation for HOPE 2024 will be organised by each pastoral group from April to 15 September 2024, with the following programme :
    • 2 hours with a speaker on a theme related to communicating the Gospel. Pastoral teams are invited to propose a theme for the 2-hour presentation.
    • 1 hour with a panel of specialists in Gospel communication to answer questions specific to each pastoral.

Training and preparation will also be provided in English for participating English-speaking churches.

Literature

The CCM will again provide literature to participating churches that request it.

In the interests of unity and consistency, it is requested that the literature made available by CCM be used.

The "Finding Hope" flyer will be the main tool. It is linked to the name of the project.

Other brochures or flyers are also available (How to witness in 3 steps, Roadmap 21 days of prayer to reach the goal), etc.

Churches are invited to order CMM literature from the National Coordinator, Philippe Resse, at [email protected] by 30 June 2024 at the latest. CMM does not ask for payment, but these publications have a cost. CMM lives on donations and must continue to carry out its mission. This is why a donation to CMM is strongly encouraged. For this reason, a literature "value" sheet will accompany each order.

Prayer

We attach great importance to mobilising Christians in prayer.

To this end, the CMM brochure “Road map, 21 days to reach the goal” will be used as in 2023. The mobilisation will take place from 27 September to 17 October 2024.

Pastoral groups may organise times of prayer together with the participating churches.

Timeline

For the Espoir 2024 Working Group,
Marc Van de Wouwer