A Church endeavouring to show grace and love

I have just returned from our good friends in Croatia, Zdenko and Ivana.  I spent the weekend there encouraging and cheering on a pioneering work. Zdenko has a great vision for his nation that we will cheer on and partner with for as long as he wants us to

It may sound so obvious to many of us that the Christian faith is about Jesus and ultimately the fact that we have been invited into a wonderful relationship with a Father who loves us.  We are so familiar with the concepts of grace and mercy and love not legalism, that it passes us by that in parts of the world where this is not the predominant understanding of what being a Christian is.

Zdenko and Ivana with Ian and Judy Anderson

The people who are making up Light of the World Church are endeavouring to bring the message of grace and love to a country that deeply needs it.  A message that says Jesus not religious traditions is King.

I am deeply impressed with their perseverance and faith to keep going in the face of suspicion and even people talking against them as being a cult.  They love Jesus and are willing to stand for the very things that we take for granted.

Keep praying for our friends there that the mission that they have been called to, to change the expression of Christianity in that brilliant nation, will have a great impact on both church culture and the prevailing culture of the country.  Please pray for a venue for them to meet in on a Sunday morning in Varazdin.  Pray that many will find Jesus through the growing ministry there.

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New Year, New Alpha Venue

On Tuesday 22nd January, we will embark on a new term of Alpha, but this time at Bill's cafe/restaurant in town.

We meet at 8pm in the upstairs rooms where we will able to choose from a range of teas and coffees from their menu. You may even decide to treat yourself to one of their delicious cakes!  Don't forget to invite your friends to meet with new people and investigate the great gospel that we so enjoy.

We will be joined by the Foundations course who we will drink coffee with and then go into our different groups. 

How Adrian Holloway will end his talk on Sunday, so you are ready!

I’ve just spoken to Adrian Holloway, our preacher for the Carol Concerts.  He told me stories of three of the carol concerts he has been at.  He saw 88 responses at Birmingham Uni, 83 at Norwich Uni, and 86 at a church in Bristol.  He is in Reading on Sunday and I am excited to see what God will do as we celebrate the birth of Jesus with our family and friends.

He will be speaking about a relationship with Jesus and will finish by using one of the verses of O Little Town of Bethlehem as a prayer.  He will invite everyone to close their eyes and pray the prayer if they want to.  He will say Amen and his talk will be over. When Sean wraps up at the end he will ask anyone who prayed the prayer to tell the people they came with. 

This is the follow up for our carol concert.  We need to continue to build relationally and if you have invited someone to the carol concert you are the best person to ask them what they thought of the talk and what they made of the response.  Sean will also let people know about the Alpha course which will be held at Bill’s restaurant from 22^nd Jan, and they will have a flyer to take away with them, why not let that be a conversation piece as you move into the new year.

These are exciting days for RFC in so many ways, but let’s keep praying that we will see our own friends and family turn to Jesus because we love them and want the best for them.

Looking forward to seeing many of you and your guests on Sunday

Back from Zim

On Sunday I returned to the Uk with 5 friends after a 2 week trip to the nation of Zimbabwe.  We had a great and humbling time spending time with orphans, the elderly, brothers and sisters in Christ from churches in Harare and of course with each other.  We were part of a team of 10 from RFC that went to support the work of Creating Better Futures and to partner with Kingdom People and Community Life Church Harare.

I feel that I am just starting to process all that I have seen and all that we encountered on the trip, but know this for sure.  The UK has much need and I know that God has called B and I to this great nation for this time.  That said I also know that he is doing so much across the world that we can learn from.  I love visiting other countries, where I can learn what it is to trust Him and lean into Him in ways that I don't do here.

It was hard to leave my wife behind with Rachel and Daniel, and I thought about them and prayed for them everyday, but God also gave me the strength to do all that he asked me to do there (which included a lot of driving in a great big truck that was ace!)

I have come back being so grateful for all that I have in terms of family and friends and also thankful that I am in a world wide family that is endeavouring to reflect the glory and mission of Jesus.  

A good text message

So I got a text message yesterday to tell of a response to Sundays preach on 'Parents are the Pride of their Children?', saying this:

"Hi Scott, sometimes I wonder if my teenage son is listening to anything at church and if anything I have taught him resounds.  But how faithful is God with our children!  Yesterday I received the most amazing card from him.  He had spent ages writing how much he loves and appreciates me and how he is proud of me etc etc.  I can't tell you how I felt.  Being a parent can be a thankless task at times, but worth it... God is good even when we're not."

What a wonderful message to receive.  I was reminded that I need to write my letter to my parents and also reminded me that I need to spend more time thanking my God for his faithfulness to me.  I am proud to say that I am the son of the living God and that I am living for him as best I can.

Being encouraged to go again in personal evangelism!

Have you ever had one of those moments when you hear something that just makes your heart leap.  I had one of those last Wednesday.  I didn't blog then as I was deep under cover in sermon prep but now I am back in the office I wanted to share it.

It was at the end of a gathering of friends as we were just saying the things we would like prayer for when one of them piped up that she had an answer to prayer.  Her father had been on her heart and she wanted to share the gospel with him, although he had not always been overly receptive!  So she plucked up the courage to write a letter and give it to him along with some reading material!  She poured out her heart in the letter, telling him something of her journey as she wrote it.  A few days later she had a call from her father commending her on her courage and promising to look look into Christianity again!!!

What a great story that left our little group of friends on a high!

Another guy then said he had got into a conversation with some Sikhs about healing and salvation and that they had expressed an interest, which then was followed by another story of someone sharing about church with a gardener he was working with.

Three of my friends spurring me on to pursue the opportunities that God puts my way!

Praying for salvation and looking ahead to the new term

I am growing in faith and excitement for next term already, in terms of salvation.  Why?  Because our God saves; it's what he does!  Last night as we rang the bell for Phil, you could feel the tangible presence of God increasing the faith of  each one there  to see Him save again and again and again!

We prayed for the team that go out on the streets on Saturdays to find the lost and the hurting and the broken.  They get opportunities to pray for healing and situations that they would never know about if they didn't take the brave step and use the gifts that God has given them.  We prayed that they would see fruit and that conversations would lead to conversions that would lead to discipleship in the local church. we also prayed that the gift they have would be multiplied across the church bringing courage  and boldness to all of us in our own situations to speak about Jesus and to pray for people.

We also prayed for next term.

On Saturday 22nd September we have a comic illusionist with us - Tom Elliot.  he will spend the first half doing comedy illusion, but in the second half he will tell the story of Jesus' love through stories that will give people the opportunity to hear the gospel in a light, but heart felt way.  This is an event to invite friends to.  i am not looking to fill the 123 seats we have available at South Street with Christians.  I would love to have many guests who don't yet follow Jesus or who have backslidden to come along.  The cost for the event will be £5 a ticket to cover the cost of having Tom with us and the venue.  I know it's August and we'rte all on Holiday but could you start to ask people to come along to the event.  Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday 4th September.

The Tom Elliot event will be our launch pad for Alpha, which starts 3 days later on Tuesday 25th September. We will keep the same format that we have had for the past couple of courses, that being here at the church offices with tea, coffee and homemade cake.  I know that Phil has already invited 2 people to come, and I am using this as a personal provocation to invite someone myself.  So far i know of one person who is definitely coming through the website.  

Finally on December 16th this year we have Adrian Holloway with us.  The author of 2 brilliant books that raises and answers questions about life and death and international evangelist, it is a real coup to have him with us.  If you don't know who he is then ask our youth for their feedback on him after Newday, they will definitely know of him and will love him!  We would love to put on two carol concerts one in the afternoon and one in the evening so as many people can come out and sing carols and hear the gospel reached by Adrian.  That means for each of us we need to invite at least one person to come who will agree to fill some 300 seats at each concert!!!  A big ask, but I believe totally doable considering we filled the venue last year and i was preaching!!!

As we consider these three events let's pray and ask that each would be fruitful and that we would hear the bell rung many more times next term - maybe even for one fo your friends.