This past weekend in the west...

This past weekend En Rundell and I traveled to the west of England. On Saturday we found ourselves enjoying the teaching of Lex Loizides and Adrian Holloway in sunny Worcester.  It's great to be inspired again and to believe God at his word when he says that he is in the business of saving people.  It's also good to have a high expectation of our God and what he wants to do in the here and now of 21st century Britain, with regards to healings and miracles.

This set us up brilliantly to go along to Bridge Community Church, Bristol.  Even before the meeting started, we encountered the power of the Holy Spirit and knew that we were in for a good time.  I had the great privilege of preaching and 5 people responded to the salvation call at the end.  As for healings - one girl spoke of the fact that she had arrived with a head ache and as this was prayed for it went instantaneously, another guy who responded to a word about a damaged right shoulder for years said that there was significant change in the movement he had in the shoulder.

We prayed for diabetics and heart defects, for legs and arms and backs, and I look forward, over the coming weeks and months to hearing the full extent of what God did there.

I am always amazed at how God takes normal people like Ed and I, throws us into this sort of situation and then choses to work though us.  I love the fact that the only person who deserves any accolade is Him.  I love the fact that the Christian faith is still growing, contrary to popular news items.  i love the fact that Jesus is indeed building his church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.

I look forward to being back at my beloved RFC this weekend and having the great joy of preaching there.  I am in high expectation as to what God will do with us as we come prepared to meet with Him.

Foundations

Tonight sees the start of Foundations.  A group of us will be gathering to look at what it means to follow Jesus.  It's open primarily to those who have recently accepted the invite to follow Jesus, but is open to anyone who would like to come and have a Christian MOT!

We have seen 9 people respond to the gospel so far this year which is fantastic.  God is moving amongst us.  However we are a church who don't just want to see converts, but we want to make disciples.  8 of those who have made a commitment are with us and the other is in Luxembourg walking in his new found freedom as a Jesus follower.

We will continue to pray that we see lives transformed by the grace and love of Jesus and that in years to come, there will be an army of people that will be able to thank God that they know him.

Funday

It's only a couple of months until the South Reading Churches Fun Day 2011.  Here is a taster video done by our very own Joe Smith to advertise and help us to decide to sign up to volunteer this year.

Fun Day Volunteers Promo 2011 from Reading Family Church on Vimeo.

It will be another great day serving the local community where we meet on a Sunday morning.

Great news

We really are in a season of grace to see people respond to the gospel.  This Sunday just gone, two more guys put their hands up to accept Jesus' invite to follow him. They talked it through  with couples from the church and these two would now say that Jesus is  their Lord and Saviour.  This is incredible.  That makes 8 so far this year and all but two of those are on Sunday mornings!

As we gather together to worship Him and hear His word preached.  As we talk about Jesus and introduce Him to friends or family, we are seeing that they will turn Him.  Let's be those who continue to invite people along to either get them started on their journey or to see them cross over that line of faith to following Jesus.  Some events coming up:

1) Saturday May 14th - this is a Quiz Night and meal and is a low key  introduction to church for our friends.  Booking is through Roy Avis as you need tickets for the event.  These are £3 a ticket and that will cover the cost of the 2 course meal.

2) Sunday June 19th - to celebrate Father's Day we are once again going large.  After the morning meeting we will be having a BBQ and sports on the field.  There will also be some inflatables for kids and adults!  This is an opportunity to invite people to church and then on to a fun family environment where our guests can relax in the sun (let's pray for that) and meet lot's of friendly people.

3) Any Sunday - we are seeing salvation on Sundays as people come along, encounter Jesus and turn to Him.  It might be that your friend would say yes to coming this Sunday and they would then continue to come. One of the responses n Sunday was from someone who has been on Alpha's, Freedom in Christ and in church for years.  The other was of a guy who has read a bit of the bible and was in church for the second time!   At the end of the day, it is God who saves, it is the Spirit who enables us to have faith to receive him after several years or two weeks.  The wages are the same - eternal life with Jesus, starting from the moment we turn to Him with all our hearts!

we have dreamed of being a church of campanologists (bell ringers) and we are starting to see something of that because of God's grace!