All things are possible!

Like January, September is often a time in the year when we take a moment to take stock – looking at what’s just gone before and looking ahead at what’s to come.

As church we’ve being doing just that this month.

If you missed it, our Kerith Site Pastors had a conversation with our Senior Pastor Simon Benham where we heard updates of many of the things God is doing across our Kerith Church in our four locations. You can catch up with it here if you didn’t get chance to view it yet.

In Farnborough our focus has been on launching our building project as we’ve considered the legacy God wants us to leave in Farnborough and the surrounding towns. We’ve looked back at how far we’ve come since our community was first launched into Sandhurst School in September 2013. We’ve been reminded of our vision to Help people find their way back to God through communities growing in their love for God and their love for people. In looking ahead we have shared the vision of our building being a house of God and a house of the people, creating spaces where people can encounter Jesus and have their lives transformed by Him. If you weren’t able to attend the building launch evening you can hear more of our vision and see the design plans here.

We are looking forward to starting Phase One as soon as we have raised the money needed. A large part of this phase is to replace the main roof and install a heating and ventilation system.  If you’ve ever been to our building you’ll know that we have a leaky roof and it’s quite (very!) hot in the summer and cold in the winter! It’s estimated that the total costs of Phase One will amount to £950,000.

Gift Days

On Sundays 29th September and 6th October we are holding two gift Sundays to kick off our fundraising for this first phase. While we will also be applying for grants and getting creative around fundraising over the coming months, we anticipate the majority of this project will be funded through our own personal giving.

So please be prayerfully considering what you could give to this project. We realise that not all of us will be in a position to give at the moment and we certainly don’t want anyone feeling under pressure to give. We know that times are hard for many people at the moment. If that’s you, please know there are many ways you can give, not just financially, and we value them all.

However, there are many of us who can give financially and perhaps you are able to sign up to give monthly towards the building project, in addition to your monthly giving to church. There will be many of us who could give a one off financial gift across these gift days. Please be prayerfully considering what you could give to help us get the ball rolling.

Match funding

We already have some really exciting news to share around these gift days and have seen an answer to prayer – someone has contacted Mike Webber-Gant to say they will match fund up to £50,000 from these gift Sundays. So if you give £10 – it’ll become £20, if you give £1,000, it’ll become £2,000! This is an amazing kick start to our efforts and gets us that little bit closer to be able to start Phase One.

God will do it!

You may be wondering how are we going to do this - how this relatively small group of people are going to raise this amount of money?! Well, I want to remind us that we have a history of doing this as a church. In the 1980s the congregation in Bracknell raised what would amount to around £11 million today, to build The Kerith Centre. God provided in amazing ways again and again! I also want to remind us all of the words of Jesus that Duncan, one of our Elders, shared with us a couple of Sundays ago from Mark 10:27 “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God”

We serve and follow our amazing God, who can do all things. Not some, but all. Not a few, but all.

So please join me in praying for what you can give. Pray also for what others can give; for the money to come through both our generosity and sacrifice, and through His miraculous provision. Join me in believing that we will see Him turn what the world may say is ‘impossible’….into the possible!

Lastly thank you for joining us on this journey; for your commitment to the vision we have for our community in Farnborough and for your faith and generosity in all the different ways you give.

Sonia Hopkin, Site Pastor