No greater message to share

The apostle Paul shared that the Gospel was the message he was most proud to proclaim (Romans 1:16). For Paul, there was no greater message to share, no greater life to live than in Jesus.

What are you most proud to proclaim? What are we as a church most proud to proclaim?

It’s a challenging question. As a missional pastor of the church I want to call us to a greater confidence in the Gospel; a confidence where we are more reliant on the message than the method; a confidence that enables us to share faith in our everyday lives.

As a large, central church we run large citywide events and we release and support people on mission globally. I wonder, because of our status and location, have we subconsciously restricted mission to the big church event or the work done by others overseas? This term, I want to call us back to an ‘incarnational’ mode of mission; one that is simple, relational and local that is evident in our everyday life.  This is where our Networks are key as we share life and love Leeds, doing mission that doesn’t require big budgets or huge amounts of planning and where the Church goes out to the people.

To help serve this vision, we are setting aside one week in June (7th-14th) for our Networks to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel in a way that is simple, relational and local. There is no set method about how this should be done; it may simply mean inviting a few friends, family or colleagues over for a BBQ where someone shares how Jesus makes a difference to their life. We have a team of people available to help serve you, share testimony or a Gospel message at your event if needed.

During the same week, June Project will be serving Hyde Park, demonstrating and proclaiming the Gospel. If you live in LS6, why not consider joining them?

During #LoveLeeds week we want to see the Gospel being shared and relationships being built. So as a church, as a Network, how will we #LoveLeeds this June?

Chris

May/15: Thank you

Answers to prayer:

ACM & Prayer Gathering
We give thanks for a successful church meeting and appointment of new Church Wardens and PCC members. We also give thanks for the unity and excitement at the Love Leeds prayer gathering as we look forward to go out in mission.

Network Leaders & Love Leeds
Give thanks for all those who are working behind the scenes to make plans for Love Leeds mission,

Children & Young People
Give thanks for the ways our children and young people have been stepping out in faith and growing in bold life.

May/15: Pray for

Points to pray for this month…

Love Leeds
Pray for a wonderful spirit of unity in St George’s and in the staff team as we prepare for ‘Love Leeds’ in June. Pray for Networks to be empowered and all of us to simply invite people to informal gatherings and share the good news that Jesus is alive and works in our lives today. Finally pray for new people to begin a lifelong journey with Jesus.

ACM
Pray for the new Church Wardens and PCC members who were elected at the recent church meeting and for unity at the first PCC meeting in May with the new team.

Our Relationships
Pray for marriages over the next few weeks, to be strengthened through the Marriage Course. Pray also for those who are single, and attended the Discipleship and Singleness seminar to explore the challenges of singleness. Finally, that we would truly ‘share life’ and no one be alone.

Staff Team
Pray for our whole staff team, but particularly those with health concerns at this time.

Our Calling
Pray that God calls people to ‘step up’ to new responsibilities when others move on. Pray that people are released in their gifting and work gets done well and that the work we do is ‘pruned’ according to God’s will. “My Father is the gardener” John 15:1-2

“Let’s join with our kids in praying bold prayers.”

Jenni, our Children’s Intern, shares stories of God at work in our Children’s Network.

It’s been an incredible couple of months in the Children’s Ministry. We’ve had some amazing Sunday morning sessions; my favourite week so far was when we looked at the way that the whole Bible points to Jesus. Hearing the children explain to the leaders different ways that they saw Jesus in the Old Testament stories was so exciting! We’ve also seen the sense of community developing, with friendships growing between children and the kids being increasingly confident to share what’s happening in their lives.

“…the children of this church are massive trailblazers in the way they live out their faith.”

 

The more the kids share, the more we see that God is at work in amazing ways in their lives. In so many ways, the children of this church are massive trailblazers in the way they live out their faith. Their confidence in worship, their honesty and simplicity in their relationship with God and their boldness in the way they do mission.

 

I could share so many stories and conversations I’ve had with kids about the classmates that they are praying for or the times they’ve been able to talk to their friends about Jesus. There have been a number of Sundays when we’ve had new kids joining us because they were invited by one of the other children, but there’s one story in particular that has really inspired us in the Children’s Ministry.

Abby, aged 9, recently took an incredibly brave step out into mission by delivering a lesson on Christianity to her class at school! Abby had gone to New Wine with her family, and when they had been thinking about how to tell the world about God, Abby prayed a very brave prayer,

“I prayed that my teacher would let me teach a lesson.”

A few months later, God answered Abby’s prayer, and after learning about Passover and Easter in Religious Education lessons, Abby’s teacher asked her if she would like to teach the class about Christianity, as she knew Abby was a Christian. Abby told us,

“It was fun! I did a PowerPoint and a quiz. I wasn’t that nervous, although it was a bit nerve-wracking telling people about my opinions… lots of people said thank you at the end, and people have been asking me more about my church.”

Well done, Abby! What a great testimony!

Isn’t it amazing that the youngest members of our church family are taking such big leaps of faith with God? As the Love Leeds Week approaches, and we start to think about how we can help our friends, neighbours and colleagues get to know Jesus, let’s be inspired by Abby and the children here at St George’s. Let’s join with our kids in praying bold prayers, and asking God to open up ways for us to share the love of God with this city.

“Pray that the impact of the week will be lasting.”

Roots spent a week with young people from across Leeds and Bradford, partnering with ‘Missional Generation’, a Leeds based organisation equipping young people to be influential for God. We stayed in Woodhouse Grove School and went out to 4 mission centres across two cities to serve every day. They did this because it is great to connect with other young Christians and it is so important to show the love of Jesus practically.

Every day we had two teaching and worship sessions, then spent the afternoons out working hard on the projects. Roots were involved in gardening, litter picking and putting on children’s activities. They also handed out gift bags to bless people and told them they were doing it because Jesus loved them!

What were the highlights from the week?

“The worship sessions and talks were great.”

“There were so many different people involved.”

“The bonfire and the chance to hang out together.”

Where did you see God at work?

When the young people were serving in Bierley, Bradford, picking litter and gardening, some boys began to shout at them and threw stones at them. They just weren’t fazed by this at all, continuing to serve and work hard for God. The next day one of the boys who had been abusive towards the group came along to one of the activities we were running, and he engaged with it and wasn’t aggressive towards our young people anymore.

“There was so much joy in the team.”

“God was really meeting with people during the week.”

“Some of the kids who didn’t know Jesus came to listen to a talk and enjoyed it.”

Derek, a youth worker at Emerge, had a bad back; the young people and the team prayed for him and it was healed!

What would you say, as Roots, to the rest of the church about Bold Life?

 “Not to be scared of what people think of you and what you are doing, just tell them!”

“When I went back to school, I just told people about the week, and told them how much fun it was.”

“DO IT!”

What can St Gs pray for Roots?

Please pray that we will grow in our Bold Life and continue to share the love of Jesus with our friends, neighbours and city. Many of the young people said it brought them closer to God, so pray that they continue to journey with Him.

“Pray for the boy I spoke to Jesus about, that he would find Jesus for himself!”

“Pray that the people appreciated us going to serve and that the good work will carry on in the communities.”

“Pray that the impact of the week will be lasting.”