Don’t shrink back!
A couple of weeks ago we had our Site Vision Day, and I promised a follow up blog for those who couldn’t make it in person. However - if you were with us that Sunday, you still may want to read on, as there are a couple of extra things you may be interested in!
In the morning we had a chance to look back and give thanks to God for all he’s done in the 10 years since Heather and Ben Pocock launched what now call Kerith Farnborough. We’ve had three venues and three name changes in that 10 years - and God has done so much through the many people who have been part of the story so far.
Our eyes then turned towards the future, and I preached a message in the morning that encouraged us to look ahead. We were reminded of the words in Hebrews 10; “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”
As part of this we looked ahead at some of our next steps for Kerith Farnborough. We want to be people who are pushing ahead, always striving towards the goal of reaching people for Jesus. Our Kerith mission statement is “Helping people find their way back to God through communities growing in their love for God and their love for people”. We are called to go and make disciples of all nations. So, how are we going to do this through our church here in Farnborough?
We explored some of the pillars that our Senior Pastor Simon Benham had mentioned in his message the previous week. If you missed it, you can watch it here;
One of the things Simon shared was the importance of us being pillars for others - to support others, hold them up, encourage them and see them flourish. He mentioned various areas of church life where we need people to be pillars, and I highlighted a few of these for us in Farnborough. This list is not exhaustive - but it’s some areas of church where we want to keep the momentum going, to push forward, and not shrink back.
To reach the world for Jesus, our church needs pillars of;
Evangelism. We want to see people saved. Alpha is a great place for people to ask the questions they may have. So - why not invite a friend to the curry night on Wednesday 27th? You can sign them up by clicking here.
Social Justice. We have our CAP Meet & Brew meeting in our building. We are starting to plan to host a food pantry also in our building - a low budget supermarket style option to help those struggling financially. We are also exploring our global impact through a potential relationship with Compassion, the child sponsorship charity.
Worship. Our sung worship takes us into the presence of God and while we are so grateful to have the resource of our prerecorded worship, we want to be able to be more responsive to the spirit in the way that having a live band allows. If you have a passion to make this happen, why not sign up to come along to Thursday evening worshipping community?
Pastoral Care. In the coming weeks we are relaunching this as Kerith Care – Alison Verrall is leading on this with me. We want to look after each other well, coming alongside people in harder times, with prayer and practical support. We will need people to join this team - do email me if you are interested in this!
Young People. We increasingly want to see a multigenerational approach to our children and youth ministries. In particular at the moment we need more team to disciple our sprint (school years 4-6) and youth groups (school years 7-13). Simon had challenged us to measure success by loving God, loving people, and discipling others. There is no easier or more fun place to do this than in kids or youth! Drop us a line if you’d like to find out more about Kids Team or click here to express an interest in Youth Team
True Community. We want to create more spaces where people can build relationships outside of a Sunday. We are so grateful to our small group leaders who open their homes, lead and look after people that gather in them. But we need more leaders and more spaces for this. David and Corinna Stubbs have a passion to start some mens and womens ministry gatherings. They have a vision for what these could look like but want to be led by God in how these develop, and listen to Him for what people are needing. So for the ladies - our first gathering will be on Monday 9th October, sign up here! And for the men - put 21st November in your diaries (sign up to follow!)
Hospitality. We want to be a community to truly love each other, who invite people into our homes to build authentic relationships. We also want to continue to make improvements to how we welcome people to our church home. There’s a HOST Team gathering on 2nd October if you’d like to be part of helping people to feel ‘at home’ with us, feel free to come along to find out more
We’re also keen to continue with our ‘home improvements’! Here is Calum with an update on where we are with our building project.
Like Calum said, we’d love to hear from you if God is speaking to you about this, or if you feel you have skills to offer. In particular we’d love to hear from anyone who has experience of grant writing.
I hope this has been helpful for all those who couldn’t join us in person on the vision sunday. Do email me if you’d like to find out more, or get involved in any of the things I’ve mentioned here.
Please know though - this message around ‘not shrinking back’ is much more than serving! Of course, we need more people involved to do all we feel God is calling us to do. The heart of this message was to remind us to keep close to Jesus. As His followers, let’s remember to persevere in our pilgrimage with Him. There are many things that can throw us off course, but as we read later on in Hebrews 12; “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
Let’s never shrink back from Him!
Sonia Hopkin, Farnborough Site Pastor