Salisbury Elim

Salisbury Elim is a warm and welcoming family church that through the the adjacent building called 'The Factory' solidly connects with the local community. My visit coincided with the announcement that the pastor Gordon Malcolm, and his wife Jackie, would be leaving to take up a pastorate at a Pentecostal church in Canada.

Beauty for Ashes Conference

Sally Livingstone leads the three Livingstone House centres that minister to those who have suffered from the effects of addictive substances. The Beauty for Ashes Conference was held at Birmingham Christian Centre and it was a pleasure to accept the invitation to speak at the first of Sally's Conferences. The worship was lead by the remarkable Godfrey Birtle. The young men who have been 'radically saved' and are at the heart of this remarkable ministry brought their own spiritual energy to this day long conference. It was a powerful day.

Wembley Christian Centre

How does she do it? Apart from leading a successful dental practice, Sokemun Ho is the pastor of Wembley Christian Centre - an Elim church and part of the London City network under the auspices of Kensington Temple.

I was present to preach at a special community service at which several community leaders were present. Brent is referred to as the most diverse borough in Britain. Pastor Sokemun expressed her churches appreciation for the community leaders, prayed with them and presented them with plaques to commemorate their presence with us. This included the current mayor, the previous mayor, head of the fire service, a representative of the police force and business leaders.

I cannot commend too highly the leadership that Sokemon Ho continues to give to the church in Wembley. She is one of our finest women pastors.

One of the greatest joys of my role is meeting our leaders during regional leadership Conferences and, given that fourteen years of our ministry has been spent in Scotland, it was a particular delight to spend two days with our pastors north of the border.

Despite the worst weather for many years with snow closing airports throughout the country and the roads being treacherous, there was an almost total turnout - one or two being absent only because it was physically impossible to get through.

Close friend, NLT member and Regional leader for the area, Kevin Peat (pictured here with his wife Margaret) invited Marilyn and I to join them and their pastors at a four star venue at Strathclyde Country park for the two days together.

St Helens Elim

I enjoyed an excellent Sunday with Phlip Fell and the team at St. Helens. Like so many of our churches across the UK, St Helens has realised that the purpose of the church is to to have a positive effect in local community and to see evangelism as going to where the people are - rather than reducing its impact to the limited ghetto of Sunday services. They also have a healthy and vibrant interaction with other churches in the surrounding area. At the close of the morning service the whole of the church stayed behind for a three course meal during which I learned of an exciting initiative that was being taken to hold services in a local pub. Well done St. Helens for thinking out of the box and getting out of the box.