THURSDAY, MAY 17

Multi-site Guru!

Today I am in Brighton meeting up with a group of six church leaders who are also grappling with leading multi-site churches here in the UK. I am delighted that Jim Tomberlin, a good friend to King's and an expert in the multi-site field, is facilitating the day - I'm confident he will be worth hearing and will bring fresh insights to help us progress with our own multi-site situation! Jim recently posted this on Twitter:

‘You can stumble to two sites, but you have to plan, think, and restructure to get three or more sites' (Lyle Schaller)

I found this very helpful - and thought provoking!

Tomorrow Jim will be here in Catford with the King's team - hopefully his specific input for our situation will help us avoid any pitfalls as we move forward. I have recently finished reading his new book called Better Together which deals with church mergers, something we have also done with the initiative of our Downham friends. It is definitely worth a look!

Lastly I am looking forward to preaching on Sunday as part of the ‘Inspired' series... and I will be sharing some important news!

 

THURSDAY, MAY 10

Four Sundays!

We have four very different Sundays coming up! Next Sunday, 13th May, we have Joel Virgo speaking at our five meetings. Joel leads the Church of Christ the King (CCK) in Brighton and heads up Newday. He and his wife Kate have become good friends of ours over the last few years and we are looking forward to Joel's ministry and having their family, including their four young children, with us for the day!

On the 20th May I will take the next in our ‘Inspired' series out of Hebrews 11 with the life of Abraham, that massive Bible character, as the subject of the day - but I will also be sharing some important news of how we plan to respond to the continued growth we are experiencing here at King's...

On the 27th May we have another visiting speaker - Andrew Wilson, a gifted teacher and writer. He has written several books; Incomparable, his book on the nature of God, received great reviews and Andrew's latest book, If God, Then What?, is a great read as well as a great resource as we defend our faith to those who don't know God.

On the 3rd June, I will be preaching in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Deb and I would especially value your prayers as we will be teaching together at a session for elders and their wives in Harare, and I will also preach in Bones' church on the Sunday. We are delighted that our friends Ian and Clare Stell, who know Zimbabwe well, will be travelling with us.

 

THURSDAY, MAY 3

I'm a fan...

... In fact, I am a BIG fan of Holy Trinity Brompton, the Alpha course and Nicky Gumbel!

Tonight at King's we start our next Alpha course. Along with many other churches in the UK and all over the world, we have run this course for some years. In our case this has been every term for the last 15 years and at every course we have seen people saved. God has blessed Alpha and King's has been blessed as a result! I would again encourage everyone to pray for Annie and her fantastic team as Christ is presented to many seekers over the coming weeks.

Some time ago I had the privilege of shadowing Nicky Gumbel who leads HTB, and saw how they deal with being a multi-site church. It is good to have contact with churches and leaders who are ahead of us on the path of growth. So - we are extremely excited that Nicky Gumbel will visit King's next Tuesday evening, 8th May. We have moved our monthly celebration from Wednesday to Tuesday on this occasion to accommodate Nicky's diary - HTB's own Alpha course takes up his Wednesday evenings and he could not miss it!

You will remember that due to its popularity, this is a ticketed event and so, sadly, if you do not have a ticket you will not be able to come into that meeting. Can I ask as a matter of urgency - if you have taken a ticket and now realise you cannot attend, please return it to the King's office! We have a waiting list of those who would like to be there.

Later in May (Friday 18th) Nicky will be taking part in Pentecost 2012 at Earls Court. This will be an evening of prayer and worship and apart from Nicky, Pastor Agu Iruku (Jesus House) and Gary Clarke (Hillsongs) will also be taking part. Further details via this link.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29

Welcoming newcomers

Today I met with over 40 people who are new to King's! In these sessions, designed specifically for those who have recently joined us - or who are still thinking about doing so, there were many great questions about our church which I trust I was able to answer to their satisfaction. These are also really helpful occasions for me to connect with people who are joining us, as well as helping new folk to connect with us.

I always ask newcomers what they like about Kings; their replies today included the preaching, receiving a warm welcome, the fact that we are a diverse church, our great children's work and our commitment to work amongst those who are disadvantaged in our community. I am very encouraged by these responses from those I met today and I am grateful to God that we continue to be a growing church family!

I hope that you all enjoyed Phil Varley's message opening up our latest series called Inspired, based on Hebrews 11 - that famous chapter on the heroes of faith. As I do my own preparation for the series I am already beginning to experience an increase in faith for all we are about as a church and all that is before us.

With that ongoing vision and mission in mind please remember that our next Alpha course begins at the Catford site with a meal next week - Thursday 3rd May at 7.15pm. Contact the church office to sign up!

 

SUNDAY, APRIL 22

�508,000

Our church here at King's gave an amazing £508,000 to our multi-site building fund in the last year, including a remarkable £90,000 in March alone. It is quite difficult to find the words to express my thanks to you all for this amazing amount of money raised, especially taking into account the fact that this follows £1 million raised in the 17 months before - and with an economic backdrop which is the worst it has been in a number of decades. God is at work in our church! We are witnessing God's blessing on so many fronts and here is yet another indication of that blessing.

In the light of all this I would especially value your prayers as the Elders, Trustees and I continue to grapple with the joys of leading such a growing church; it seems we are continually experiencing an Acts 6 moment. If you don't know what I mean, read the chapter! Having to make appropriate practical and pastoral responses following gospel breakthrough was the pattern for the early church and we are seeing some of the same!

In the coming weeks we will be launching into a new teaching series from Hebrews 11, looking at the lives of the ‘heroes of faith', learning lessons and receiving encouragement and inspiration from their stories. Mick Taylor has helped us prepare this series before he takes a three month sabbatical from May - we look forward to benefitting from this time of investment in his ministry when he returns. It is amazing to realise that he has been part of King's for over seven years! Sabbaticals are a way of investing in our ministry staff, refreshing them and enabling them to bring yet greater blessing (and even more effective work!) to King's. Please pray for much fruit from this time for Mick!

 

THURSDAY, APRIL 19

A fantastic response...

What a joy to return from a lovely week's holiday in Sidmouth to see each of the three sites of King's church packed for the 11 baptisms taking place throughout last Sunday. Powerful testimonies and a great word from Mick Taylor, these provided the foundation for another remarkable response to the gospel with 5 people making a first commitment to Christ and 17 people responding for baptism. And this is the third week running we have seen well over 1400 in attendance - we continue to grow at a fast rate with hundreds of new people stepping towards us.

So, this week I began looking (again!) into ways we can provide more room for people across all of our sites, while also taking some time out on my regular study week to do some background reading and preparation.

I am now looking forward to this coming weekend when Deb and I, along with Mick and Val Taylor, are leading a weekend away for pastors and wives from the London training base. Our aim is to help these (usually!) younger leaders and their spouses to establish a strong marriage that will strengthen and not detract from their ministry. Deb and I will return to London in time for me to attend our 5 meetings this Sunday at Kings - these will include parents bringing their babies to dedicate themselves to the task of godly parenting at all our morning meetings. We expect many visitors - look out for them and give them a friendly King's greeting! It looks like it could be another High Sunday!