Chads News - 23rd April 2025

 Dear Church Family,

What a weekend!!

Festivals at St Chads are always special, I think we celebrate and praise in such a beautiful way, and this Easter felt especially special!  I arrived at the Maundy Thursday after a long day with, I admit, low expectations and then so many people arrived and then the Holy Spirit turned up!  There was such a peace and joy and rich faith in the room.  That continued all weekend, there was a depth and a powerful sense of engagement at our Good Friday hour at the cross.  Then I went into the prayer room after that and the sense of God’s blessing on us as a church hit the next level.  The work Sharon, Anna and Florence had put into the prayer room was so beautiful. The profound engagement in the gospel they had captured in the prayer activities really helped me connect with God and I felt so encouraged to be part of a church with such a mix of gifts, faith and creativity.

On Saturday we saw lots of families from our community engage with the brilliant Easter trail and for many coming into the church building was the highlight, lots of the children wanted to stay and were urging their parents to engage more with Jesus.  That was accompanied by many visitors to the prayer room through the day and a lot of tears an wide-eyed wonder at meeting with God.  When I spoke to Sharon before the evening service, she was glowing with excitement.  This sense of God with us flowed into Saturday evening’s ‘Still Hope’ service, as it was a brand new initiative we had no previous experiences to know if anyone would come!  Thankfully many of you did and I will never forget the expressions on your faces as you left! It’s hard to put evenings like that into words, we had encountered the presence of God!  Each individual spending time with our creator and yet collectively experiencing the same thing, the Holy Spirit filled the room and the memories are so precious I don’t know how to describe it.  

Sunday morning was also breathtaking, a wonderful sermon from Katie and joyful worship at 9.15am and then at 11am we had probably our biggest service for years. Thank you to all who gave up their seats and sat on the floor or had children on your laps. To see people of all ages, many guests of those being baptised and to celebrate together and hear Kim’s testimony was just …. Wow!

Trying to capture a weekend like that in words on a page feels too thin and limited, but I do hope you were able to taste some of what I’ve described and if not this weekend, then let’s keep inviting God to send his Spirit on us in similar ways.  The joy of baptisms and the conversations we had with those returning to church and coming back to God, urge us on to keep seeking God.  I passionately believe that there is a link between our increased commitment to and momentum of prayer as a church and greater experiences of God.  I have spoken to friends around the country who experienced similar things to us over Easter weekend, I know of 3 other churches who also had their highest ever attendance on Easter morning and when I visited Luke and Jack’s church in Oxford on Sunday night at least 15 people gave their lives to Jesus in that service and that was their 3^rd service of the day and the quietest they’d had!  What we’re experiencing in part here in Romiley, God is doing around the country and there have been a number of reports and studies to verify this. These include a report by our mission partner the Bible Society on what they are describing as ‘The Quiet Revival’ – you can read their report here.

So how do we respond to what God is doing? God always works in partnership, what he initiates, he calls us to join in with.  So we don’t sit back and let it happen, we let him stir our hearts and draw us to our knees to ask for more.  Let’s prioritise sharing Jesus with those he is at work in, including those coming back to him.  Let’s keep praying, keep being open to more of the Holy Spirit, keep asking and inviting God to come.  Let’s carry on with what God has called us to do, (unless he tells us to stop!).  We have invested so much time and love into building relationships in our community, I believe many of those we have connections with could start becoming more spiritually hungry to know more of God.  Are we ready?

with love,

Richard.

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