Posts Tagged ‘church’

I’ve been asked that question a number of times recently. Of course, the answer I’ve given has varied according to who I’m speaking to, and why they’re asking. But if I were talking to somebody who really wanted to know, and who had the time and inclination to listen, I’d want to say five things.

Firstly, we are a Christian church. And I mean that in its fullest sense. We’re a church that is built on Christ himself. In 1 Corinthians ch 3, Paul describes Christian …

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who worked so hard preparing for our thanksgiving services. At some point I ought to write a Nehemiah-style list of all the folk who worked to get the building into a fit state for us to welcome our guests. But I’ll leave that until everything is finished; we’ve still a few jobs left before we can say that our building work is done. For the moment I’ll simply record our gratitude to all who have played a …

It’s quarter past seven on a Sunday evening. I’m at home.  It doesn’t happen often. In fact, I doubt if there have been a dozen times in the last thirty years when I’ve not been in church on a Sunday evening. Of those nearly all have been down to illness or accident (I once spent a month in hospital with my leg in traction). But today’s different. It’s Jesse who’s ill so I’ve stayed in with him and John while Anne takes Vicky to church. In God’s kind providence David …

By the time you read this, the St John Ambulance HQ will be ours and twenty-two years waiting will be at an end. God has given us that building for our own. And it would have seemed strange to write a letter from the manse at this point and not to have commented on such a major event in our life as a church. Ever since we covenanted together to form a church back in 1984 we’ve been searching, praying, …

It was in autumn 1981 that a handful of folk began to meet in Edgeley, Cheadle Heath and Cheadle Hulme for worship, Bible-study and prayer.

We had left a church that was evangelical in name but divided in doctrine and torn apart by conflicts of personality.  We had no idea what the future held for us.  We met together simply because there was no other church in the area which we could imagine joining. There was no strategy, no plan for the …