Grace Fellowship has come a long way since our birth....but what kind of fellowship do we want to be in the future? What should our ‘compelling purpose’ be? What would Jesus want our Manifesto to be?

Ali continues our ‘Welcome to Church’ series (1 Cor 5). We see that the Corinthian church found itself in a society with very different values. Many in the church chose to tolerate values in the church that were sinful, whilst others chose to separate from society entirely, choosing only to judge them. We are reminded that message of Jesus was, instead, to permeate society - being salt and light implies ‘pure hearts and messy hands’.

Paul continues our ‘Welcome to Church’ series (1 Cor 4) and explored the question: Successful or Faithful? We are not called to be SUCCESSFUL, with what we can see, measure or judge. We are simply called to be FAITHFUL with the resources, talents and opportunities that God has given us… but faithfulness always comes at a cost.

Paul helps us look at 1 Corinthians 3 as we explore some metaphors describing what it means to be the Church: fishing, farming, building and a temple. We see that whether we are catching, growing or building, we are all in this together! No one is more is important than any other and, individually and together, we are the presence of God in our world today!

Ali shares with us how the message of the cross is the power of God and yet there is a danger that it can lose its power if we move it from the centre of what we do. Challenges come when we allow culture to set the agenda, when we become proud or when we allow fear to stand in the way of our testimony. We are challenged to pray for the next two weeks, for opportunities that God may give us to share our faith. 

Paul launches our new series called ‘Welcome to Church’ where we start our journey with the Corinthian Church. We hear the Apostle Paul’s encouraging opening statements as well as his first strong challenge for them, and us, about the importance of unity around the main thing, the cross of Jesus. We are also challenged to be a church and a people full of GRACE and TRUTH.

Michael Simms speaks to us on the importance of prayer. As well as looking at the teaching of Jesus recorded in Matthew 6, we are challenged around our conviction and encouraged that the one we pray to is beyond all we can imagine in terms of love and holiness. 

We close out 2018 by ‘Looking Ahead and Looking Back’ with the outgoing Leadership Team members. It is great to hear all they have learned from the past and what they hope and dream for the future of Grace. Two key themes emerge: ‘Don’t be afraid to break out of the box’ and ‘this is God’s Church, not our church.’

Ali continues our series Jesus BC – Discovering Christ before Christmas. We look at how the promises God made to David (building on previous promises to Adam, Abraham and Moses) pointed consistently to Jesus. We also see how David’s son, Solomon, foreshadowed Jesus as the Prince of Peace. 

Paul continues our series Jesus BC – Discovering Christ before Christmas and takes us on a fast forward journey through 500 years and 9 books of the Bible where we see two themes begin to emerge in the unfolding story of Jesus. True repentance is more important than performance, and God’s rescue plan will involve suffering before victory.