It's Christmas!

It's Christmas and the sands of 2012 are fast running out. It's been a while since the last blog but much has happened since early June.
For a start we've now moved up to Thetford! What a hassle but what a relief - to be actually living in the town in which we're planting the church. No more midnight runs back to Braintree on Tuesday nights - yippee!
The church has now consolidated to a size and depth that we can now sustain a weekly Sunday meeting - so every Sunday afternoon finds us at the Carnegie Room, the biggest hall in the town. Numbers usually vary bwtween 20 and 30 but we expecting to gather much more folk by this time next year.
Some of our teenage girls have become Christians - which is wonderful. We're trusting God for a bigger harvest next year.

As for what's next - as Noddy Holder would yell, It's Christmas!

Letton Hall 2011

Letton Hall 3-5 June 2011 - our first weekend away together as a new church! All told there were 37 of us there at various times over the weekend with most staying the whole time.

We laughed a lot, cried a bit and encountered God as a church. he reminded us that being jusified by faith  means that our acceptability before God is a settled issue. No more striving and no more doubts! We were also provoked into taking God's promise for us to be a multicultural and multinational church more seroiusly - we need to start making plans on that one. Finally we were stirred to look to our future with God with real faith and not with fear.

The only sad note of the weekend was your correspondent's record on the go-kart track - played two, lost two!

Hope Church Thetford - launched!

Wow - what an afternoon!

Our new church is officially launched.  The Carnegie Room looked festive with balloons, banners and nice table cloths on the tables.  Food and drink were in abundance as around 100 people gathered to support the occasion. Excellent words and prayers from Grantley Watkins (on behalf of Newfrontiers) and Tim Lovejoy (on behalf of the local Thetford churches) and then Maurice Nightingale (a regional leader of Newfrontiers and old friend of mine) deputised for the indisposed Mayor and cut the red ribbon! A special cake was presented and I (and Dan Morgan) were presented with commemorating trophies while our wives received flowers. Oh - and we worshipped God helped by Mikey and the band down from Wymondham and I gave a short word explaining what this was all about!

A great afternoon - let's have many more as our numbers grow and we start to look and act the part.

JC21 - the third meeting!

Well, we're starting to get a lovely trickle of new people coming along now. And some hail originally from other countries - Portugal, Poland, Lithuania and South Africa are represented to date. This is great - fulfilling exactly the vision we believe God gave us of planting an international church right in the centre of Thetford.

And let me say a big hats off to the ladies who faithfully bake terrific cakes and other goodies for us Sunday after Sunday. Our church is growing in all directions at the moment!

JC21 - the second meeting!

Well - the show's really on the road now! About 40 gathered to hear the how Jesus Christ, alive and dealing with people today, can help people be free from their pasts. And most of us do have pasts that we're only too well aware of. Sam from our church testified how her past had led her to the brink of suicide although you wouldn't know it now if you met her.

Several people responded to an invitation to let Jesus begin to turn things round.

All very wonderful, it's great to start feeling established as a new church but we're only scratching the surface so far. If you're reading this and you're wondering if there's a God out there who really exists and can really reach you then please come along to our next JC21 in a fortnight (Sunday 3 April at 3.30). We promise not to embarrass anyone but welcome you with drinks and treats!

JC21 - the first meeting!

Hope Church Thetford feels really under way now as 40 or so of us gathered at the Carnegie Rooms in Thetford to have our first Sunday afternoon meeting. We had quite a few guests and Grantley Watkins' presentation of "Why do I matter?" had everyone gripped. Of course, the appeal at the end of the meeting wasn't to come more to church but to come and receive the living Jesus Christ as Saviour. And discover reality, not religion! Some people responded and that was great - what we're really here for in fact.

A word too about all those who worked hard to get the PA and technical stuff working, welcomed people warmly on the door, looked after the children with enthusiasm and patience and, of course, those who baked lots of yummy goodies - heroes of all of you!

We do it again in two weeks - Sunday 20th March, 3.30pm at the Carnegie Rooms in Thetford and the subject is "How can I be free of my past?"

Please come and find out what this is all about!

JC21 - One Week To Go!

It's a Saturday evening at home and tomorrow looks like a pretty quiet day. But this time next week! We're poised now to open up on Sunday afternoons for the first time next Sunday and I can feel those butterflies a'fluttering!

But we're ready to go now as a new church plant and particularly ready to start receiving guests and start sharing the reality of the saving love of God with everyone. JC21 (Jesus Christ in the 21st century) is the name we've given to our first set of Sunday meetings when we'll be helped by my friend Grantley Watkins and his team down from Wymondham.

So, if you're reading this and are not sure whether to come along or not, I promise that everyone who comes we'll welcome warmly (and the kids), we'll have drinks and treats and you'll soon get to know what Hope Church Thetford is about.

I can't wait to start posting entries which will speak of how God has really blessed people in all sorts of different ways through this new church plant. Watch this space!

2011 - new year, high expectations!

Hi everyone - last night about 20 of us gathered at The Bell Inn in Thetford to hear the plans we have for Hope Church this year. You'll see them elsewhere on this website but, to be honest, I think we're all pretty excited!

We're using Tuesday evenings up to March to have our Vision and Values course - so everyone who's joined up so far will know what they are letting themselves in for! Our New Frontiers distinctives will be made nice and clear.

Over March and April, I'm so glad that Grantley Watkins and his team will be doing JC21 with us. We'll be going public on Sunday afternoons, meetings at the Carnegie Room and I hope loads and loads of people come along! We're so serious about our mission to the town.

Then, in the autumn, the church will be laying on an Alpha Course for anyone and everyone intereasted in discussing and exploring the life-changing truths of the Christian faith.

We're now big enough to absorb visitors on Tuesday nights without them sticking out like a sore thumb. So, if you're reading this and are interested, please drop me an e-mail or, even better, come along and meet us all.

It's going to be a busy but a highly satisfying year I think.