Part of something bigger

At Grace London, we give away at least 10% of our finances to support other churches in the UK and abroad. One partner church we’ve recently supported is GodFirst in Barry, Wales. We spoke with pastor Rhys Gronow to hear their story.

GodFirst Barry is also part of the Advance Movement.

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Please tell us about yourself and GodFirst Barry.

I live in Barry, South Wales, with my wife, Rachel, and our two sons - Elliot (12) and Jude (9). Rachel and I will celebrate 18 years of marriage this October. 

In January 2019, we planted GodFirst Barry, starting in our living room with just six adults and five children. By God’s grace, we’ve grown into a vibrant community with around 60 people gathering on Sundays, including more than 20 children.

Rhys, Rachel, Elliot & Jude
 

Tell us the story of how you planted the church.

During a visit to Barry in 2013 for a friend's baptism, we had a conversation that changed everything.

I started chatting with the church pastor where the baptism was taking place and asked him to tell me a bit about the church in Barry. He shared that there were only four or five gospel-affirming churches, each with around 40 to 50 people. It didn’t take long for Rachel and I to realise that, in a town of around 55,000 people, the number of Bible-believing Christians was incredibly small. 

It broke our hearts. In that moment, we felt God stir something deep within us. We were convicted that Barry needed more gospel witness, and we were called to be part of it.

That conversation became the turning point. Over the next few years, we prayed and prepared, and in 2019, we moved back to Barry and planted GodFirst, trusting that God had brought us home for a purpose.


How have you seen God move in surprising ways?

God's provision has astounded us since we planted the church. When I stepped out in faith, leaving my job as a driving instructor to commit fully to church planting, we had no certainty about our financial situation. But God has sustained us. And a significant part of that has been through the kindness of Grace London!

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your financial support over the past year - it truly has been a tangible expression of God's provision and kindness. Through yourselves and others, especially within Advance, God has ensured that we have everything we need—not always in excess, but always enough.
 

Sundays at GodFirst

Last year's Weekend Away
 

Anything you wish you knew before church planting?!

If there’s one thing I wish I had fully grasped before planting, it’s the unique nature of ministry in a settled town like Barry.

Barry is not a transient place—it’s a town where people put down deep roots. Those who grow up here tend to stay, raise their families, and remain connected to long-standing social circles. Building trust, integrating into the community, and seeing gospel fruit is a long-term investment. People don’t just jump into new things—they watch and wait before fully committing.

The blessing, however, is that once people commit, they are here for the long haul. Ministry in Barry is not about quick growth but deep roots. If you plant well, if you disciple well, and if you build strong foundations, the result is a long-term, sustainable church community where people grow together over generations.

So, if I could go back and prepare myself for one thing, it would be this: church planting in Barry is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time to build, but what you build lasts.


How can we pray for you and the church?

1) Please pray for God to raise up strong, godly leaders who can take on key ministry roles. As we grow, we need more people equipped to disciple others, serve in leadership, and help carry the vision forward.

2) A pressing need right now is for a new building. We're at maximum capacity, with no room for further growth, and suitable venues are scarce. Please pray for wisdom on timing and finances and a clear way forward. We need God's guidance and provision.

3) Finally, please pray for our evangelistic efforts. Despite the limitations of our meeting space, we long to present the gospel so that people encounter Jesus for themselves. Several individuals regularly attend our services but have not yet committed their lives to Christ. Please pray that God draws them to salvation and that we would see baptisms in the months ahead.

We are so grateful for your prayers and partnership in the gospel. Thank you for standing with us as we seek to see Jesus glorified in Barry.

Think FAST

Kafui is committed to making a difference in the lives of young people. Alongside being part of our church family, he's CEO of FAST, a charity dedicated to supporting youth in Battersea. In this conversation, Kafui shares his journey, the mission behind FAST, and how we can support their work. Read on to learn more.

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Tell us about yourself.

I am of Ghanaian descent but was born and grew up in North-East London. I joined Grace London in March 2020 after moving to Battersea for work and was blessed to marry Etornam the following September. In June 2023, we welcomed to the world our bundle of joy and very opinionated daughter, Xorlase.

Etornam, Kafui & Xorlase

Please tell us more about FAST.

FAST London is a youth charity based on the Patmore estate that works to support young people aged 10-19. The estate is statistically deprived, and young people have less access to opportunities and are at high risk of all forms of abuse.

We provide three levels of support: 1) open access sessions, including football and cooking,  2) small group interventions and mentoring and 3) ‘keywork’ where we work with parents, social workers and other professionals.

I have been the CEO since 2019 and am responsible for strategy, fundraising, partnerships and governance. I also play a leading role in our Christian youth project.
 

Afterschool cooking session

What’s the vision behind FAST?

The ultimate goal of FAST is to glorify God in how we approach our work and through the impact we make in our community. Our vision is to create, "a community where young people grow up with a healthy sense of trust, resilience and hope for the future." It consists of four key elements:
 

Community. We want young people to belong and know they are unconditionally loved regardless of their gifts and shortcomings.

Trusted relationships. We seek to model and facilitate healthy relationships between young people and ourselves (as authority figures), and between peers.

Resilience. We seek to equip young people to deal with life’s challenges.

Hope for the future. We explore what the Christian faith says about life’s big questions. We also encourage young people to work hard and aspire to a better future in their careers and personal relationships.

We want to model Jesus by practically providing for young people whilst also telling them the spiritual truth of the gospel. Another key desire of ours is to provide opportunities for people who are passionate about sharing the gospel an opportunity to serve whether full-time or volunteering.
 

FAST football training

How can we pray for you and FAST?

Personally, please pray that I grow more in love with God and find complete satisfaction in him. As an extension of this, please also pray for protection over my family.

Secondly, we are blessed to have great relationships with young people and their parents. Please pray for wisdom and boldness to share the gospel, particularly through our Exploring Christianity sessions where there has been real spiritual hunger.

Finally, please pray for partners and finances to further our mission. We have an urgent need to try to raise an extra £150k in the next 18 months and are seeking God’s provision. Please consider becoming a foundational partner and giving monthly to us. 

Praise God for what he’s doing through Kafui and FAST. If you’d like to support FAST financially or through volunteering, please contact them (info@fastlondon.co.uk). They’re looking for volunteers to help deliver their weekly sessions (4-8.30pm) and those with expertise in photography, social media, and fundraising.

More than a meal

As Londoners, we love sharing a good meal, whether hosting a dinner party, meeting for life group, or exploring the hundreds of restaurants that line our streets. Food is always a great way to bring people together from all backgrounds and cultures. But, I wonder how often we consider the command in Luke 14 when Jesus says, “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind”  (v13). This kind of hospitality is profoundly counter-cultural.

Over the last 18 months, Grace London has partnered with London City Mission’s homeless ministry in Waterloo, Webber Street. It flows from our passion to practically love our neighbour and share the gospel with our local community. On the first Thursday evening of each month, a team of volunteers hosts a community meal, including a short evangelistic talk.

Here are a few things I’ve learned through this ministry since we began in 2023.


Dignity is powerful.

Jesus shows us the power of dignifying the least, the last, and the lost. Dining with the sick, the sinners, and the outcasts, he demonstrates and calls us to be a community that loves those others overlook.

One of the precious things about Webber Street is the dignity it bestows. Guests leave feeling hopeful and lighter in spirit, having been genuinely listened to and encouraged. Our team of chefs also blesses them with a lavish meal, even as fancy as ‘Coq no vin’! Putting in extra effort is one way to honour and love our guests. 
 

Three of our volunteers, Paulina, Estera & Lucy

Building relationships is key.

Webber Street does much more than feed people. One guest commented that if he needed food, he could sit outside Tesco and wait for someone to buy him a sandwich. But at Webber Street, he finds not just food but community: a place where he can build genuine relationships and be known. Building a community here displays Christ’s compassion for the marginalised, who often feel ignored and isolated.

As Christians, we recognise the importance of fellowship, and it has been a blessing to build relationships through this ministry. We have had deeper conversations as we've built trust, opening up evangelistic opportunities.

The fields are white for harvest. 

It has been exciting to see fruit from this ministry, and in recent months several guests have shown receptivity to the gospel. Praise God for the way he is softening their hearts and drawing these men and women to himself! By God’s grace, more guests have been attending our Sunday services, and as a church, it is vital that we welcome them with the love of Christ. May God continue to use us as his hands and feet!

Please pray 1) that more guests respond to the gospel, 2) that the Lord expands and uses our volunteer team and 3) that we would be ready to welcome these guests into the church with love, care and sensitivity. 

If you are interested in learning more about this ministry or are keen to get more involved, please attend our Information Session & Lunch on Sunday, 27th October, from 1.30-3.30pm at London Nautical School. The session is open to anyone and will be an opportunity to discuss the ministry, give updates, share encouragements and testimonies, and answer any questions.

 

P.S. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to meet up and chat about our Webber Street ministry. Contact me at amy@grace.london.

Church planting in Thailand

Life in Chiang Rai, Thailand, couldn’t be more different from London. The language, climate, history, and traditions would confuse and amaze us. There are no crisp mornings or packed tube carriages but tropical humidity and a slower pace of life.
 

But as in London, the gospel is being proclaimed in Chiang Rai. Daniel and Marcia planted One Light Church there several years ago which, like Grace London, is part of a global network called Advance. We asked Daniel to tell us more about the church and how we can support them.

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Please tell us about yourself.

I was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to Southern California with my family in 1985 aged five. Marcia was born in Orange County, California. We met at university and married in 2003. We have four children - Hannah (20), Isaiah (17), Micah (12), and Joseph (8). Before moving to Thailand, I worked as a lawyer, and Marcia was a homemaker/children's ministry director at Southlands, our sending church, where I also served as an elder.
 

Daniel, Marcia, Hannah, Isaiah, Micah, & Joseph.

Why did you decide to plant One Light Church?

In 2015, we made a trip to Myanmar and Thailand, and God made it prophetically clear to us and the leaders at Southlands that we should plant in Chiang Rai. After a year of preparing, in July 2016, we moved from California to Chiang Rai as a team of 18 people (11 adults, 7 children) and planted One Light Church.


What are the challenges and joys of planting a church in this context?

There are many challenges to church planting in Thailand: a new language and culture, a society given over to Buddhism and animism, differing worldviews of those joining the church, distance from family, constant goodbyes and high turnover rates.

The joys: we love living in Thailand. We love Thai people and culture. We love the pace of life and greater connection to nature and older ways of life. We love sharing the gospel with people who otherwise would never have heard about Jesus. With the rampant familial problems in Thai society, we love having a church that offers belonging to a new spiritual family. We love the privilege of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
 

What is encouraging to see in church life?

We are seeing momentum and growth among the Thai people of our community and anticipate planting a Thai congregation and appointing Thai elders. We also recently launched our first Thai cohort on the Advance Theology Course, which we translated into the native language.

We have planted a village church into an unreached people group called the Red Lahu and are seeing people come to faith in a neighbouring village too.

Finally, we have various marketplace endeavours, including an English language school and food business, and we anticipate God bringing favour and growth.


How can we pray for you?

1. We're always asking God to multiply our resources: time, finances, and people. Particularly among the local young people, we long for God to raise up more leaders. Please also pray for profitability for our marketplace endeavours and financial support to sustain life here and generously meet the material needs of those we encounter.

2. Clarity and faithfulness in stewarding what we have, particularly our youth and worship culture.

3. Vision and unity around further multiplication in Thailand, neighbouring countries, and Asia-Pacific.


Let's pray for Daniel, Marcia and One Light Church, and praise God that the gospel is reaching the nations.

Life in the Welsh Valleys

Grace London is part of a global family of churches called Advance. The network extends from Thailand to Tanzania to Texas and beyond. One fellow Advance church closer to home is Hope Church Rhondda, located in South Wales. The founding pastor, Ben Franks, preached at Grace last summer, so we asked him to update us on how the church is doing.

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Tell us about yourself.

My name is Ben. I am married to Lois, and we have four kids: Evan (8), Caleb (6), and Ioan and Ivy – our twins who arrived in January! Lois and I grew up in Cardiff, but we now live in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, a post-industrial mining area 20 miles northwest of Cardiff.
 

Why did you decide to plant Hope Church Rhondda?

When Lois and I were 16, a preacher came to our church from the Rhondda Valley. He shared that only 0.9% of people from the area regularly attended church. All I can say is that the Holy Spirit kicked me in the gut (and Lois too). From that day on, we knew God had called us to be involved in church planting in the Rhondda Valley.

In 2012, after we had both gone to uni, the Lord told us it was time to go. So we went. We bought a house in a town called Tonypandy, moved Lois’ business to the high street, and started meeting for church in our home with another couple. Hope Church Rhondda had been born.
 

What’s been happening in the life of the church since your visit to London last summer?

It has been an exciting season for Hope Church Rhondda. In January, we took a step of faith and multiplied from one congregation to three. Our valley contains many small villages, and we long to see a vibrant, gospel-centred, and spirit-filled church in each community.

The craziest thing has been that our twins arrived six weeks premature on the Tuesday after our Sunday church launch. It somewhat threw our well-made plans into chaos. But God has been so faithful, and our team has been incredible. Sometimes, it is helpful to be reminded that you are not in control, but God is!

Ben Franks preaching to us last summer

Ben also recently started a church planting initiative across Wales. Please tell us more.

I had a dream in March 2021. I am not one for having prophetic dreams, but on this occasion, I saw a website with the domain name www.100.cymru and a title in bold: What would it take to see 100 healthy churches planted in Wales in the next ten years? Along with the question were five tabs (Pray, Inspire, Equip, Send, Support), and in the dream, I clicked on each tab for instruction on how we might start a church planting initiative. It was a bit crazy!

This September, we launched a church planting initiative called 'Cant i Gymru – ‘100 for Wales’ in Welsh. Since then, we have seen five churches planted and expect at least two more this year.

How can we pray for you?

Please pray for capacity and leadership wisdom. Life can feel hectic with two newborns, two young church plants, and the church-planting initiative. We are very aware of how much we need his help, strength and guidance in this season.

Let's pray for Ben & Lois and the rest of the team at Hope Church Rhondda. Let’s pray too for 100 gospel-centred churches to be planted across Wales!

Feeding stomachs and souls

Webber Street is a day centre for London's homeless community, located around the corner from Waterloo Station and run by London City Mission. On the first Thursday of every month, volunteers from Grace help at the centre. They prepare a meal for around 40 people, give a short gospel-centred talk and spend time eating with the guests.

Bisi is one of our deacons and oversees the ministry. She tells us more.

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Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got involved with Webber Street.

My name is Bisi and I live in north London with my 13-year-old nephew who keeps me busy. I currently work for Grace as a pastoral intern and provide administrative support for our digital comms.

It's always been on my heart to support the local community, so I was excited to get involved in Webber Street when the opportunity arose. A few members of our church work for London City Mission, and connected us with the centre. We've been helping provide these monthly evening meals for about a year now.

Why are you so passionate about this ministry?

I love how in the gospels Jesus notices and dignifies those that others overlook. Think about the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48), or the woman at the well (John 4). God calls us to be a community who, like Jesus, sees the pain of those around us, and moves towards it. He calls us to bring the good news of Jesus to those in dire spiritual poverty. He calls us not to overlook those that others might.

But we don’t share the good news of Jesus with the homeless whilst ignoring their physical needs. We address both. We give the guests a meal and tell them the good news. We feed stomachs and souls.

I also feel passionate about this ministry as I've had a pretty messy family life myself, and resonate with many of the guests' situations. It's easy to write off rough sleepers as just another homeless person, forgetting the person behind the pain. Each person has a real story, and abandonment, abuse, and rejection are often involved. Comforting and listening to those who have been through so much is a way to show Christ’s love and bring healing to those who are hurting.

How can the church be praying or supporting Webber Street’s work?

We would love prayer for wisdom as we make plans for the future. We plan to start an evangelistic course in the summer for guests who are hungry to learn more about Jesus. Please also pray for the guests from Webber Street who have started coming to Grace! We are praying that the church community welcomes these people well and Grace becomes a place of warm welcome for the marginalised and homeless. 

We are always looking for new volunteers, so if the Lord has put it on your heart to serve in this way, please get in touch (bisi@grace.london). Come and check out a session or two and consider joining the team!

Update from Glasgow

You may remember Iain Kennedy visiting Grace London in May ‘23 to preach for us. Iain leads one of our partner churches, Glasgow Grace (the same name is purely coincidental!). He and the team in Glasgow have been a blessing to us over the years, so we’ve asked him to introduce himself and give us an update since last spring. Read more below.
 

Both ‘Graces’ are part of the Advance Movement, a network of churches stretching five continents, united by a vision to see new churches planted and healthily growing. The movement seeks to see the gospel reach every nation, community, and person - for the good news of Jesus to reach the ends of the earth. Grace London is one of over 130 churches in Advance.

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Iain, tell us about yourself.

I’m married to Lyndsay, and we have two kids, Annabel (6) and Finlay (4). I was born in Glasgow, and after Lyndsay and I got married, we settled here for a few years. However, we increasingly felt called to the church plant, so we moved south. We first wanted to be part of a church that 1) honours God’s Word, 2) eagerly desires the gifts of the Spirit, and 3) is determined to reach the lost for Jesus, but not many churches in Scotland fitted that description. So, we settled in the South Coast and instantly felt at home at Gateway Church, Poole.
 

Why did you decide to plant a church in Glasgow?

After an encouraging weekend as a church exploring the gift of prophecy, we gathered for a leaders' breakfast. Over coffee and eggs, the team started to pray and prophesy over us. The prophetic words were clear about us returning to Glasgow to establish a new church, and after more than a year of prayer and discernment with the elders, we all agreed that we should plant Glasgow Grace!
 

What’s been happening in the life of the church since your visit to London last spring?

The past year has been full of new life. We have seen more and more people come to faith, including from completely unchurched backgrounds, and there have been loads of child thanksgivings! We are so thankful to God after a couple of really tough years. Only 18 months ago, we were nomads meeting in random venues at various times and were struggling financially. We have now made up our monthly deficit and have a growing team getting ready to plant in the southeast of Glasgow. The gospel is desperately needed there. With all this going on, I’m thankful for the strength of our expanded eldership team – Dennis and Lewis have been seamless and brilliant additions. 

Iain, Lyndsay, Annabel & Finlay

What’s been most encouraging about this time?

It’s hugely encouraging to see people who have come to our meetings week after week finally taking the plunge and trusting Jesus with their lives. Perhaps most surprising is the impact this is having on their colleagues, friends and family members. They keep turning up now. We pray that this is just the beginning!
 

How can we pray for you?

With growth comes great joy and added complexity. Please pray that we will both celebrate what God is doing and make wise decisions about how to go forward together as a church family. Please also pray for how we engage with what is going on in the culture around us.
 

What does it mean to be part of the Advance Movement? 

Being part of Advance has strengthened us in all kinds of ways. We have benefitted from excellent teaching, encouraging worship, financial help (including your extremely generous support last year) and prayer after prayer. These are simply the overflow of genuine gospel friendships. There are very few like-minded churches here in Glasgow, so we are very thankful to be able to walk this road with you and other churches in the UK and abroad. Thank you for partnering with us. We love you guys and continue to pray for you.


Let's thank God for what he's doing at Glasgow Grace and pray for Iain & Lyndsay and the rest of the team there! 

Band of Brothers

Why was 'Band of Brothers' such a successful TV series? If you haven’t seen it, or even heard of it, then you’ve missed out on a major televisual phenomenon. It gets 9.4 on IMDB and is etched on the memory of a generation, despite only being 10 episodes. It follows the wartime travails of a US Paratrooper unit as they make their way through occupied Europe in WW2. It’s a visceral reflection on the horrors of war and the incredible sacrifices involved.

The film connected with the human longing to belong in a team. There’s something special about being part of a wider group of people united by a common purpose. Anyone who’s played team sport will know that feeling. The exhilaration of fighting together against a common enemy. The sense of dependence on each other. The way you’re encouraged to keep on going when you see your teammates persevering. Being part of a team propels you forward in a way that wouldn’t happen on your own.

I think we see the same dynamic going on in the New Testament. We see the kingdom of God spreading through different churches in different geographic locations. But these churches are not operating in an isolated way. They’re persevering together, strengthening each other, both in their example to each other and in acts of partnership. For example, in Acts 11, the Jerusalem church hears that God has done a significant work in Antioch, in bringing a number of folk to faith. So, they send Barnabas (an apostle) to strengthen this church. Later on in the chapter, as the Antioch church hears that the Jerusalem church is about to suffer famine, they send the church a financial gift.

This sets an example for the church today. We should expect to partner with other churches as a way of furthering the kingdom (and mission) of God. At Grace, we do this through our partnership with Advance. Advance is a family of churches, located across a number of different continents, that are committed to working together to plant churches and strengthen each other. 

Over the years, we’ve had great benefits from being part of the network. We’ve received pastors to preach at Grace, preached at other churches, built a number of strong friendships with folks from other churches, trained leaders together, invested in church planting and mission through Advance, and received plenty of wise input.

I’m delighted that we’ll be receiving guest speakers from four Advance churches in the coming months. I hope, as we have these speakers join us on Sundays, over the coming months, we’ll feel something of the one-heartedness that marks gospel partnership in the New Testament. As the African proverb goes, "if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”. And so, we press on together, with our brothers and sisters across the globe, worshipping Christ and seeking to advance his kingdom.

What can loving our neighbours look like?

Some of you will be aware we began a partnership with London City Mission's homeless ministry in Waterloo (Webber Street) a few months ago. For one Thursday evening a month, a team of volunteers from the church host a meal for the community, which includes a short evangelistic talk and plenty of time to hang out with guests. This ministry comes out of our desire to practically love our neighbour and to share the gospel with our community. It's been a real encouragement to see a number from within the church enthusiastically get involved in this ministry and to hear their reflections from the evenings so far. As we do this ministry, we trust that we'll see guys from this community come to join us on Sundays. I hope that we'll give them a warm welcome!

Here are some reflections from Grace London volunteers on their experience serving:

“Cooking for so many people (around 30 to 40 each week) can be quite daunting, especially in a kitchen you're not familiar with, but the volunteers have done such an amazing job - from a banging spaghetti bolognese, to a full-on roast dinner with all the trimmings!”

- Bisi Bankole

”I can honestly say serving at Webber Street is one of the highlights of my month. I've met some really great guys and even after such a short space of time, connections have already been formed. It's exciting to be able to go deeper about life and Jesus [with them].”

- Matt Thompson

”It has been such a privilege to serve and help provide a place of refuge and respite for the homeless. I have tangibly seen faces light up and spirits lighten as they listen to the gospel and have conversations with us. Their joy and optimism despite their life circumstances is humbling and encouraging.”

- Faith Koh

”It’s so encouraging to meet up with the same faces each time, build relationships and get to know the guests at Webber Street better. I love being part of a team from Grace and doing mission with my church. Exciting to see what the next few months will have in store for this ministry!”

- Harrison Clewes