Revive Cafe and Ekklesia
Dear friends,
If you've joined us for a Sunday since we started meeting physically again I just wanted to say I appreciate you coming along, even though it's far from ideal at the moment. Being together has felt significant to me; I hope you've been as blessed by the gatherings as I have.
If you've yet to join us for a Sunday, why not consider signing up for one? There is plenty of space in the hall to keep a safe distance from each other. There are limitations, wearing a mask is hard, but God is still good! If there's anything we can do to help you feel comfortable enough to come along please let us know :)
New Series - Ekklesia
Today we started our new series, exploring what church is and why it's important. Our key verse for the next 5 weeks is 1 Peter 2:9
'But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.'
We started with a focus on church being God's chosen people, those who have received mercy, that's YOU! The time and space we meet are less important than the reason we meet - Jesus. Our gatherings on Sundays are an expression of church, but so are your small groups, catch ups over coffee, and lots more :)
Next week Simon is preaching live as we continue our new series, sign up here. (More details below.)
Revive Cafe
On Wednesday we had a really positive meeting with Sarah Walker, who leads Kerith Revive, and Julie and Neil from CAP. They shared with us the importance of running courses like Life Skills in community, so we're starting to think about launching a Revive Cafe - this would be a weekly drop in space with refreshments where people could seek help and support.
We are in the very early stages of this idea, so for now I'm sharing it with you as something to pray about. If this is where God is leading us, please pray for a team, a venue and all the resources we need to do this really well. We want our good works to go hand in hand with the good news about Jesus.
Sunday Meetings
Because we have extra capacity in the hall now, you can probably just turn up and there will be space. However, we will have to sign you up for a free ticket while track & trace is in place, so please do sign up, even if it's 2 minutes before you arrive!
4th July - Our Senior Pastor Simon Benham is coming to preach as we continue our new series, Ekklesia. The plan is to be outside so we can sing and have masks off, but plan B will be to head in, so bring a mask just in case. Sign up here.
11th July - I'll be speaking for week 3 of the Ekklesia series on discipleship and I'll be interviewing someone too, the plan this week is to be inside, sign up here.
That's it from me for this week. I'll leave you with another verse from 1 Peter, chapter 1 verse 3:
'Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.'
Blessings, Ben