Dave Sharples, here with mentee Miles Tagoe, has worked in Toxteth for three decades.,,,
Toxteth was the last place Dave and Steph Sharples wanted to be. It was 1993, the newlyweds were surrounded by serious crime and a sense of panic in their new Liverpool neighbourhood. They just wanted to live somewhere safe.
But God began to plant a vision in them for the area. “As I started to kick a ball with some of the local kids, God totally changed my heart,” says Dave.
This change was the catalyst for three decades of ministry that continues to transform lives today. Longing to reach kids in their community, Dave and Steph launched Kidz Klub in 1993.
Holiday clubs and weekly outreach meetings helped the couple connect with local families and, at its peak, Kidz Klub, based in Wavertree, was bringing more than 500 kids to church every week on eight double-decker buses.
Home visits were one of the most important elements of the ministry.
“The main thing that changed me in terms of how I do ministry was going out into the community and meeting local families,” says Dave. “We did well in excess of 100,000 home visits. At one point I was visiting around 300 kids every week and the UK Kidz Klub net- work was making around one million home visits a year.”
While Kidz Klub in Liverpool eventually closed in 2010, the long-term links it built in Toxteth remain strong. “Our heart is very much to continue the good work that God has started in our community,” says Dave.
“Ministries like Kidz Klub sowed seeds of faith, helping to make the church relevant and accessible to so many families.”
Many of the kids who went to Kidz Klub now have families of their own and are still living the area.
“I’ve known quite a few of the parents who live in Toxteth since they were kids. For many years I ran a mentoring project called Mighty Men and so was able to help many lads in our community through their teenage years. I’ve seen lads get baptised, married and go to university.”
FAMILY
Many of the lads Dave has supported have never really known their fathers, or what a good dad or family looks like, so he and his dad, Jack, have helped provide a point of reference.
“Both my parents have been supporting me in ministry for nearly 25 years. The lads who went to Mighty Men call my dad Grandpa Jack. My mum Sheila, who is in her 80s, still goes out visiting families in the community.”
As well as prayer and discipleship, the gospel has been at the heart of Dave’s work, and another ministry he has launched is having a big impact.
“In 2005, me and my friend Nick Gillard, designed the4points logo and tract to help kids in Liverpool share their faith. Within weeks it had spread to other towns and cities in the UK and is now used for mission in countries all over the world.”
The4points logo is a really simple way to start a gospel conversation and remind people to live for God every day. Through this and his other work, Dave’s aim for the families he is reaching is to disciple men and women who can go on to reach others in their community.
“I’ve been discipling a lad called Miles for a number of years,” he explains. “I knew him from Kidz Klub, then he was in the Marines for about six years. He was totally lost, then came back to faith. I baptised him about five years ago and started discipling him.
Now, he’s a leader in his own right. He’s reaching out to other lads and people in our community. He settled down, got a degree and got married.
“He’s a great example of reaching out to someone in the community, discipling them and helping raise them up as a leader to reach the next generation.”
Walking around the area and giving out the4points tracts also helps Dave connect with and support people outside the church. “Being in the community you bump into people and find out about their needs,” he says. “One family phoned me one Monday and said, ‘Dave, I’m really sorry to bother you but we’re desperate. We’ve not eaten since Friday.’
“It’s unbelievable to see people in that situation in this day and age, with food poverty, being unable to pay the bills and having their electricity cut off.
“But by being out in the community walking from prayer house to prayer house I get to meet people and find out about these situations. It’s a great way to meet new people too.
“It’s exciting to see what God is doing and that after nearly 30 years we’re still in a position to be part of seeing his kingdom being established in our community.”
Asked how other churches could increase their impact in their own areas, Dave looks back to the things that helped him over the years: reaching kids and their parents through kids’ outreach, doing home visits and finding ways to make church accessible.
“If you want to see a community transformed you’ve got to reach families and see people coming to faith, being discipled and going on to raise up other local leaders,” he says.
From Direction Magazine issue 232
