Seeing what Jesus is doing!
Where is Jesus leading us in 2024?
A couple of Sundays ago I preached around this question at church. You can catch up here if you missed it.
I shared how God is leading me firstly to spend more time in His presence – and He’s calling us all to do the same. I realise everyone has very different pressures on their time – work, family etc. We all have different resources to hand also. But one thing we all have is 24 hours a day, and the choice to carve out time to spend time with Jesus. As we work out where He’s leading us, we know that we need to be connecting with Him regularly.
As followers of Jesus we hold that responsibility as individuals, we also have a privilege of meeting together to pray in community with others. We have a week of prayer & fasting coming up next week. Why not engage with some of the corporate things we have throughout the week - we will be meeting as a Farnborough community on;
Monday 29th Jan - 8-8.40pm (online via zoom)
Tuesday 30th Jan - 8-8.40pm (online via zoom)
Wednesday 31st Jan - 8-9pm (in person at Farnborough)
Thursday 1st Feb - 8-8.40pm (online via zoom)
There’s more happening across our sites on our social media and an in person prayer & worship gathering in Bracknell on the evening of Friday 2nd. You can read about other opportunities for corporate prayer during the week, and in fact the whole year, by clicking here!
I’d encourage us all engage at some points throughout the week. It’s going to be a week that builds our faith and I’m believing God will speak to us as we wait on Him.
So…where is Jesus leading us as a church in 2024?
He is continuing to reveal this and I’m sure the week of prayer will be valuable in us discovering more of this. We had a great vision evening last night where our Senior Pastor Simon led all the Kerith sites in sharing vision for the year ahead. If you missed it live, you can catch up with it here!
First off for our Farnborough community - I’d encourage each of us to join with others in small group community this year if you aren’t already. There are several life groups & courses available on our website – take a look here and get yourself signed up to one! I sense He’s calling us to be brave, push beyond the snatched conversations we have on Sundays and start getting into deeper relationships with one another.
In terms of new initiatives, we’ve got some exciting things planned – here’s a snapshot of some of them;
We are hoping to have a more tangible idea of where our building project is headed in the next few months, with a plan to fundraise and work towards realising our dreams for our building. We are always making more minor improvements and alterations, but the time is approaching when we need to raise monies for some bigger more pressing things! You’ll have noticed we have had some issues with our large screen over the past year or so. A few people have recently spoken to our Production Team to offer to give financially towards a new one - thank you to whoever those people are! We have actually explored a much lower cost solution for when it eventually dies, in installing smaller screens. This is because we sense that in this season we need to prioritise our monies elsewhere - especially getting the heating working efficiently - and we are going to need a new roof in the near future! The building fund is always open for people to contribute to - you can chose it from the drop down options here.
We are launching a food pantry very soon – this is slightly different to a how a foodbank operates and we sense this is what God is calling us to in Farnborough (we’ll hear more about it this Sunday!) We hope it’ll bless people who are in need and also welcome them into a safe and loving community where they are free to explore faith questions. We will see some small alterations to our building over the coming weeks to accomodate this, and we’re so excited to get it up and running.
We are exploring launching a mid week toddler group, providing a safe space for connection and community for local parents, carers and their preschoolers. We know these groups are a lifeline for people in this time of their life and are excited to build relationships in this way - being able to share the gospel with those who come along will be a real privilege!
Obviously this short list is in addition to the great things that are already happening in many ministry areas across our church. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll hear more about the above, and other things that are bubbling up - as well as continuing to build our existing ministries. If you’re a part of making any of it happen, in giving of your time, your money, your prayer support – thank you! All of it is done because we want to fulfil our vision statement to Help people find their way back to God through communities growing in their love for God and their love for people.
Lastly - I’d love to take a moment to call us all to prayer for our next Youth Coordinator. We are currently advertising for this role, you can take a look at it here. Perhaps you yourself would consider applying for this - perhaps you know someone you could nudge to apply! Or, perhaps you simply - and most importantly - could be praying for God to send us someone. Our young people are so precious and this role is key in supporting them and the teams that serve them so well.
I’m believing in great things for us in 2024!
Sonia