Rather than God’s plans being derailed as some believe, God is using this time to fulfill His plans and purposes. Sharing some thoughts which the Lord has laid on his heart, Mark looks at two key parts of God's plan for His Church in this season.

God has called each one of us in a unique and specific way, requiring boldness and courage in spite of the fear we may face. Looking at the story of Jonah and the whale, we see how Jonah responded in his time of confinement, providing us with 3 key insights on how we can respond in courage to God’s call on us.

As we celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, we see that this very event was predicted 400 years before by the Prophet Zechariah at a time where God's people, in the midst of a broken city, needed reminding of God’s promises. Over 2,000 years later, we still need the same encouragement and reminder that in Jesus, all God’s promises are fulfilled.

Addressing the current Coronavirus crisis, and how we weather the storm, Mark poses 4 questions from Psalm 27 which will help us assess our foundations as we look to build our lives on Jesus.

How do we respond in a time where there is so much uncertainty, where our very foundations seem to be shifting around us? We pray. Looking at the life of Jesus, we see that prayer was His very centre-point. And as we unpack the Lord’s prayer together, we find that prayer also lies at the very core of our relationship with Him.

Did you know that God has created a rhythm for your week? Rather than an arbitrary day off, the Sabbath day was created as part of a life-giving rhythm for how you live. As we look at our second Spiritual practice, we see God’s design for the Sabbath, the benefits it brings and practical tips on how we can practice the Sabbath in our modern world.

In a world where we’re constantly being bombarded with noise and the lie that we have to ‘do’ rather than ‘be’, our first spiritual practice, Silence and Solitude, shows itself to be the perfect antidote. Modelled by Jesus throughout his earthly ministry, we look at the 5 benefits to silence and how we can position ourselves for His grace through this discipline.

We are delighted to welcome Chris Birch-Evans, STEP Charity Director, as our special guest speaker! He'll be inspiring us with stories of how STEP works with young people, and drawing out lessons we can all learn to engage and build up the young people around us.

Do you ever find yourself tired? Anxious? Run ragged by the 'breakneck pace' of life? We live in an age of advanced technology, empowering us to stay more connected, do less manual labour and enjoy a wealth of leisure time that past generations could only dream of. But if we've never had it so good, why do we all feel so wrecked? As we introduce the second part of our Encounter talk series, we consider spiritual practices that we can easily adopt every day to enable us encounter Jesus, wherever we are. Rather than accepting a one-off invitation to 'experience God', we want to accept Jesus' continuous invitation to encounter Him every single day in a new and fresh way.

When we encounter Jesus, it is always an invitation for more. As we look at the story of Jesus calling His first disciples, we learn practical kingdom insights about moving out into our calling.  But more than that, we also see that, just like the fisherman, we have a choice as to whether we stay with our nets full of fish or go deeper and follow Jesus.