Chads News - 1st April 2026

Dear Church Family,
As lent comes to a close and we prepare for Easter, I have been reflecting and preparing my heart for a wonderful weekend ahead. Easter is such a special time of year, as we let our hearts and heads engage deeply in the good news of what Jesus has done for us. As I have prayed this week, my heart is bursting with expectancy. That is not least because lent this year has felt rich and deep for us at St Chads. We have pressed into God in prayer and worship in the midst of challenging times both locally and internationally.

There has been a rich depth to our prayer life as a church, not least for those who have been sitting quietly in God’s presence in church from 6-7pm. Taking that time to be still and dwell with God has been extraordinarily powerful. It has been enriching to deepen our faith together through reading Strahan Coleman’s ‘Thirsting’ and the brilliant blogs alongside it. (A huge thanks to all our bloggers for such wonderful writing and for sharing your heart with us. If you’ve missed any of them, you can catch up here.) Our focus on dwelling in God’s presence through our sermon series is, I believe, really helping us to deepen our times with God, alone and together. We were hugely blessed to have Sam Ward with us on Sunday, I know many of us were really impacted by his preaching.

Last Monday the Ministry Leadership Team met to reflect on what God has been doing and saying to us in recent months. We looked at a range of prophetic words God has giv-en as well as the prayer events and Sundays. We discussed themes and brought our thoughts to God and asked the Holy Spirit to highlight key things for this season. We gathered what we sensed God saying and summarised in a simple list, each of us offering the two words God highlighted for us. Here is the list for you to reflect on:

Ordinary, Peaceful, Deep, Waiting, Stay, Preparation, Natural (not man-made),
Renewal, Birthing, Newness, Freedom, Transformation, Go, Joy, Glory, Lasting

There is a sense of progression in these words, we start by recognising our ordinariness and need for God and then through the Holy Spirit’s work from preparation to renewal and into transformation, we are sent to go, just as Jesus sent his disciples. The result is God glorified and lasting fruit. My sense is that this lent has been a time of depth, of waiting and preparation and I’m praying that as we celebrate new life and freedom on Sunday, God will be stirring our hearts to ‘Go’ and to see transformation and God’s glory. Our community needs joy, it needs to hear the good news which we are letting sink deeply into our hearts. The more we dwell in God’s presence, the more fruitful our lives will be and the greater the impact we will have on our schools, workplaces, neighbourhoods and families.

With love,
Richard.

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