Sundays at Kerith Bracknell – where next?
If you’ve been with us already this January on Sundays you’ll have noticed the morning meeting has grown rather full! In January 2022, we welcomed an average of 341 people each week. In 2023’s first three weeks, we’re averaging 546 people attending. This is a great sign of life, as people rejoin us from the online experience and new folks find their home with us, too. It’s also a 60% increase, which is why you may have struggled to find a car parking space, get a coffee, or a spot in our kids groups this year!!
Average attendance January 2022 and January 2023
It’s a wonderful problem to have – but as Simon shared from Deuteronomy 2 in our vision talk for 2023, it’s the kind of thing we think it’s time to do something about!
“2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 ‘You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north.”
In Bracknell on Sundays, there are many things we’ve learned to appreciate about the “hill country” we’ve been around in recent years since Covid. We’ve loved being a smaller gathering, where we can see everyone in one space at one time. We’ve loved making more space for the Holy Spirit to speak to us in our meetings. We’ve loved the care we’ve been able to show one another. We’ve loved not having to “produce” two back-to-back morning meetings and so enjoy being part of the community together. So we’re keen not to go back exactly the way we’ve come, but we do feel God’s invitation to try something different that enables us to multiply to help more people and to take some of these things we’ve learned and loved with us as we “turn north” this year.
As part of this, at this Sunday evening’s Bracknell prayer meeting, we’re gathering in person to pray into this specific question:
Is the Lord leading us as Kerith Bracknell to multiply our Sunday morning meeting into two (similarly to pre-pandemic); or are we called to develop new expressions of gatherings in the afternoon/evening; or is he leading us towards both?
We’re going to be using a discernment process put together by the wonderful folks at 24/7 prayer, to listen together to how God is inviting us to “turn north”. We’d love you to play your part in discerning his voice by coming to the prayer meeting with us for 6.30pm-7.30pm, at The Kerith Centre.
Talking of 24/7 Prayer - we’re proud to be hosting their leadership conference this week (Thursday to Saturday) in our buildings on the Bracknell Site.
And, we’ll also be hearing from their Director of their “Houses of Prayer”, Jill Weber, later on Sunday evening (8pm) on our YouTube and Facebook channels. Jill is with us as part of our “Rule of Life” series, helping us create helpful habits in our following Jesus. Don’t worry if you can’t make it live, you can always catch up afterwards as it’s only online.
Have a wonderful week - especially those of you gearing up to start your Small Groups for the term. It’s not too late to join, by the way. Lots of courses and group options to go for. Have a look on our Small Groups Page (don’t forget to filter for Bracknell groups)!
God bless you,
Ben & Beccy