Can I ask for your help?
Hi friends,
I'm back from a great week at WTC and ready to go! How are you? I'd like to ask for your help with one thing (although as that one thing is our mission as a site, it's really quite a lot of things...).
This Sunday
It's our second birthday since launching as a site meeting weekly. We'll be looking back briefly but mainly looking ahead to where God is calling us as a community. If you haven't been in a while or have been thinking about inviting someone, this Sunday is ideal for both. If it helps, there will be balloons and birthday cake.
One of the things I'll be speaking on is that we do things together. So if you can, please make time to have a read of Romans 12:1-2 (I'll paste it at the bottom of this message) and get praying so that we can discern God's will together.
We want to grow as a site, to see more people coming to know Jesus. There are two key things coming up that I believe will lead to this.
Reaching out into our community
On Monday we are starting our Revive Cafe, a drop in space offering help and support to people in our community. We've got an amazing team and I'll share more about this on Sunday.
Please can you be praying and share this with anyone who might be interested? Or anyone that might know someone, or an organisation you have a link to, we want to spread the word!
I've put a poster under the Bible verse (also on social media) with all the information. The cafe is run from Freshwater Methodist Church, 2-4pm on Mondays.
Kids and Youth
On Sunday 19th September we are relaunching Kerith Kids, which will run every 3rd Sunday, with space for pre-school and primary school kids to engage in their own teaching after we worship together.
Ken Bothamley, one of our elders, shared a word a few years ago that we would see more and more children joining us on Sundays - what an exciting vision!
Kerith Kids on one Sunday is just the start. Our aim would be to have multiple groups every Sunday for children of all ages, and things happening during the week too. We already partner with the Youth Project but there is more we could do, for example after school clubs.
You might have noticed the pattern now, but please can you pray? We need lots of volunteers, but also people that are praying for and inviting their friends, family, colleagues and neighbours, people that are part of the team discerning God's will.
If we step together into the incredible promise of Romans 12 and offer ourselves to God as a community, if we reach out to others and create space for everyone to encounter God in our Sunday meetings, and if we have healthy small groups (sign up for one here) then I believe we will see amazing things happen.
I'm praying for people coming to know Jesus for the first time, for the transformation of our communities in His name, for baptisms and healings and faith in the hard times. You are invited to join me! See you Sunday.
Blessings, Ben
Romans 12:1-2 NIVUK
‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.’