PRESS RELEASE
31 January 2001

JESUS VIDEO PROJECT REACHES MORE THAN 5,500 HOMES IN WOKING

A single church in Woking has set new boundaries for local Christians using the Jesus Video Project [JVP], having visited more than 5,500 homes in the town to offer them a free copy of the Jesus film.

Members from The Coign ‘New Frontiers’ Church in Surrey were determined that their neighbours should see the story of ‘Jesus, the Man behind the Millennium’ so they organised a project using the 32 ‘neighbourhood’ groups within their church. Each group committed to visiting 200 homes in their immediate vicinity taking care to avoid areas that other churches may have already visited.

As a result of their efforts nearly 1000 people accepted videos of the Jesus film. A number of people who subsequently watched the film, then attended either the ‘2nd Look’ or ‘Alpha’ courses to learn more about the Christian faith. Many church members who took part in the project said they had enjoyed the chance to talk with people who live around them, people who normally they wouldn’t have had the chance to meet.

One group recounted how a man came running down the road towards them after they had knocked on his door. Apparently, he had been in the bath and couldn’t answer, but when he saw the team’s calling card, he caught up with the group because he didn’t want to miss receiving a copy of the video.

The visits also opened up valuable ways in which church members could show general Christian witness in action. Many people reported they were “stirred” by simply watching the film. The video also had an impact on people who had little or no knowledge of God and some who already attend church or had stopped attending, helping to deepen their faith.

The vision behind the Jesus Video project is to give the occupants of every home in the UK an opportunity to see the story of Jesus for themselves, by helping local churches to run projects in their own areas. Since the start of the initiative JVP volunteers have knocked on the doors of over 1.6 million homes in the UK to offer them a copy of the Jesus film. To date over 400,000 homes have accepted.

Local resident and JVP Field Consultant, Simon Parish, said “This is a great example of a how a church concerned for its community has been able to share the Christian message through the simple action of offering people the story of Jesus – in video format. I hope that many more churches across the country will, like The Coign, grasp the potential of this exciting project”.

Media enquiries:
Iain Taylor or Allen Moxham
EA Media Consultancy
020 7207 2154
itaylor@eauk.org

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The film JESUS - produced by John Heyman – was shot in over 200 locations in the Holy Land. 80 minutes in length, it accurately retells the story of Jesus as recorded by Luke. Now available in more than 500 languages, it is the most widely translated film in history and has been seen by an estimated 1.6bn people – a quarter of the world’s population. Titanic, in comparison, has been seen by a mere 250m. The recently-released ‘Man behind the Millennium’ UK edition has a special introduction and ending that puts the story of Jesus firmly into the context of the New Millennium.