Monday, September 16, 2013

Sandy - church plant

In my previous post I mentioned the commitment of LGCC - Letchworth Elim - to the church planting vision that is at the core of our Movement.

An expression of this is the church plant that is being birthed in the town of Sandy  that is led by Michael Sijuwade (pictured here with his wife Ola) who is also on the pastoral team of the Letchworth church.

It was my privilege to speak at a Sunday service and to meet the people personally.  We thank God for the faithful and tenacious leadership that people such as Michael and Ola bring to to the extension of the Kingdom of God by planting our into new areas.

LGCC - Elim Letchworth

Dominic De Souza (pictured) is the senior minister of Letchworth Garden City Church better known as LGCC.  

Prior to coming to Letchworth Dominic was on the pastoral team of Kensington Temple, Elim's largest church. In the five years that he has been the senior leader of LGCC the church has experienced constant growth both numerically and in depth

Around 400 people were present for the morning service and, given the commitment that this great congregation church has for our Movements church planting vision, around 500 people will have been connected with LGCC during the day.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Elim / AoG leadership

Elim and Assemblies of God are the two largest Pentecostal Denominations in the UK with well over a thousand churches among them. The only difference between our two Movements is the way that we are structured and there has always been close fellowship between us

John Partington (National Leader of AoG) and myself were both  friends many years before either of us were called to serve our respective groups in leadership.

On this occasion the two National Leadership Teams held their respective meetings at the Elim International Centre in Malvern but also held a joint meeting at which we looked at ways in which our two groups could work even more closely together in the days that lie ahead.  We wish our sister fellowship God's richest blessing in everything they are endeavouring to do to extend the Kingdom of God in our nation.

CLM Coventry

Coventry Elim is one of our finest churches with three morning services to accommodate their growing congregation.

However, on this occasion I was not with our own church in the city but with Christian Life Ministries led by Martin and Esther Storey (pictured)

CLM is part of our sister      fellowship,Assemblies of God, and their state-of-the-art modern complex houses a large auditorium, conference centre and office suite.

It was a delight to be with Martin and Esther not just in the context of the church service but later in their home where I was able to spend time with them and their young family.  Although they have not been in Coventry for a great length of time their leadership gifting and pastoral heart has already had an impact on this fine congregation.  Also on the team is John Partington the National Leader of AoG