On 31st August those of us who are involved in founding this new church are leaving our home church of Westminster Chapel. We've spent a few months getting together each week to pray in anticipation of taking this step. But it's going to be so sad saying goodbye to the amazing church family at the Chapel, even though we're not going far. I have been a part of the Chapel for over 12 years now, and there's something about the church that gets into you. The only good reason for leaving a church is to follow God's leading, and so we are. Jesus made it clear that he wanted his church to grow and that often involves the call to move on.
On 28th September we're beginning to meet in our new venue, The Horse & Stables, and to be honest, we don't know what to expect in this next season! We have to turn our back on all the security and steadiness of being in an established church like the Chapel and press into this new thing. That forces you to pray like never before, and this has been one of the passages I've meditated on:
Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word."
Isaiah 66.1–2
In other words, God is not so much interested in what we can build for him, but rather he is looking to the posture of our hearts. He is the creator, we're the worshippers. I know he wants us to engage and work hard, but there's nothing more liberating than the knowledge that Jesus is the builder of his church.
Pray
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Right now, there are three things we would most value your prayers for. First, that as we begin meeting in late September God would draw people to us and enable us to grow. Second, that we would soon outgrow our venue and that God would provide something else in the area. Third, that in speaking about Jesus the gospel would melt hearts as it has melted ours.