Chads News - 19th June 2025
19 June 2025 12:00
Dear Church Family,
Yesterday I attended a one day conference on church multiplication, the theme of the day was ‘missionary discipleship’, giving a focus both to being with Jesus and being sent out by Jesus. Like any conference, there were some outstanding moments and some moments when I realised I’d tuned out and was more interested in checking WhatsApp and sports scores! By the middle of the afternoon I realised my brain was full, I’d heard five or six people telling us what they thought “the most important thing to focus on in your church is….” I tuned out and instead of tuning into WhatsApp and cricket scores, I tried to tune into the voice of the Holy Spirit. “Lord, what is the most important thing for us at St Chads at the moment?”
Attempting to answer that question is one of the most important things I do as leader of St Chads. (much more important than WhatsApp and even more important than cricket!) I realised I had too many potential answers in my head and realising that itself caused the Holy Spirit to guide me back to three things I sensed from God. Firstly, the call I shared at our vision Sunday, to give God space. If there is too much going on in our heads, it’s a good sign that we need to create space to be still with God. Secondly, a sense to carry on what he has already given us to focus on: Glorifying God, Loving Community and Following Jesus, these capture a life which is God-orientated and prayerful, which is soaked in love and building community and moving forwards in the direction Jesus is calling us to. Thirdly, to create some space in the diary with Katie and Dave to discern together what God is calling us to focus on as a church family in the autumn.
When we consider listening to God and creating space for him, I want to highlight two ways we’re doing that in July. The first is our Original Design Evening, which is in church on Tuesday 8th July. Some of you will have done original design evenings in the past, if you are newer to St Chads we haven’t done one for a while. It’s a low-pressure environment to have a go. They are a really beautiful way to practice listening to God for words of encouragement and identity for others in a relaxed joyful yet deep way. I absolutely love them!
The second is our 100 hours of prayer in Sanctuary from 7am on 16th July to 11am on 20th July. I would love to encourage everyone in St Chads to commit to signing up to spend an hour in prayer in Sanctuary during those days and nights. The Sanctuary is the very heart of the LifeCentre and St Chads and a place to meet with God. As I have prayed about what it means to give God space, he keeps calling me back time and again to this invitation to spend time with him and for Sanctuary to be a place of encounter. I’ll share more below, but I urge you to join in with this, it isn’t a special thing for a few keen people, this is an invitation for you.
Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine.
love,
Richard
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