BEING THE LIGHT BEYOND THE NORM

We are not content with being a church stuck on a building sharing our faith with each other. We are more than aware that there are communities beyond where we worship as a community, that do not know Jesus. We are more than aware there are hurting, lonely, burdened people who need the Light of JEsus to be shone on them. The Christian Church should always be aware of that. Some wise person once said that the Christian Church exists for those who are not yet members! We should always have a burden for those who are lost. It is not good enough that there are more people outside our church buildings than within on a Sunday morning - or at least that is what we think. We have some brilliantly times when we worship together inside - so much so, that if we shared those experiences with the people in our communities, it would be brilliant for them too. For just over a year now we have been holding Community Church. Once a month we close our evening meeting, so people do not have an excuse that this is an extra activity - and we go out to be The Light in the communities we live. This has seen our town split into three, mainly where good clusters of our members live. The aim is everyone will want to be The Light and share Jesus with others, beyond the normal building we rely on! Some do, some are yet to graps this amazing opportunity given to us as a church. We have engaged in all sorts of things from open houses, to worship events, prayer warfare, litter picking and door to door discussions. Its great! Its evangelism, Its Mission. Its an opportunity to reach the people on our door step, but together, rather than having to go alone. We have seen God use these opportunities in amazing ways, and we do thank God for that. Today groups have met to invite friends for a meal; a group met together to pray for that community and enjoy a tea together; a group went out onto the streets and (wait for it) sang and played carols. The streets with decorations are proclaiming Christmas, so we make the most of that opportunities too. Its been good. Please pray that others would grasp this vision too!

Today our morning worship celebration was well attended, with our assistant senior leader for worship (gavin drake) leading worshp, and our assistant senior leader for mission (luke johnson) sharing The Ministry of The Word. We thank God for them both