Church Plant, Middle East

Get To Know?

Church Plant, Middle East

Catalyst is a family of churches working in over 40 nations around the world, and in our 'Get To Know' series, there's an opportunity to introduce some of those churches a little more - giving an insight into the many unique contexts that Catalyst churches are working into around the world. There's also a chance to hear about encouragements and challenges, and different ways to be praying for our brothers and sisters across the family.

Joel & Amie tells us about their experiences of spending the last several years planting in the Middle East.

After meeting and falling in love serving together in a large Church in the centre of London we followed the leading of the spirit to move East, landing in the Middle East, in a city that is truly ‘global’. We had faith for God to establish an indigenous church in

the centre of our new city, and from there to see multiplication. From those who have gone before us, we knew that language was key… so initially we embarked on a 2 year language and culture learning journey. Thankfully we weren’t alone, having gathered a group of 12 people, mostly from Newfrontiers churches in the UK.

The first few years were filled with lots of language lessons, making new friends, making mistakes, getting upset with taxi drivers and most encouraging of all meeting and building relationships with a handful of local believers.

Which meant that when we publicly “launched” in December 2018, there wasn’t just a bunch of Brits tripping up on their words, but a sweet sense of what we’d hoped and prayed for. Like many new churches and particularly those in city centres over the last few years we’ve seen people come and go. But along the way, we’ve seen God continue to build and establish the community here, which is now around 40 people, of which more than 50% are local believers. Some of the locals amongst us have joined after moving to the city and a handful have also come to faith with us, through dreams and God appointed friendships.

Over the past few years as we’ve seen the church established, we have also been truly blessed by the arrival of not just one but two captivating energetic boys, now aged three and one.

The city we call home now makes London feel small and rather quiet to be honest, it’s growing each day and so is the general sense of people questioning “what’s life about” as inflation rises and the government continues to make decisions that baffle and isolate

the people. But we know we truly have the words of eternal life and are continuing to dig deep, build family in the Church, equip and strengthen local believers to take the message of Hope and share it with their friends and family. One of the most encouraging things we’ve seen recently is a local believer starting to serve full time for the Church and it fills us with faith for this great nation that there are people like him, hungry for the presence of God, obsessed with the Word and motivated to do all he can to see the Kingdom come. The hope of the nation is surely in the hands of our local brothers and sisters as they increasingly take the lead.

The soil here really is dry and sparse, with many strongholds seemingly insurmountable and yet it is in this barren land that see a glimpse of God at work, the hope of new life, salvation and a sense of the Spirit beginning something and so we believe for springs and rivers to flow, to see relationships, communities and workplaces transformed. Read the full version of this article on our blog

Prayer Points

• For the presence of the Holy Spirit to flow into this city, in and through our church and in our own hearts • That we will see many lives and communities made new • Indigenous leaders to be strengthened and grow in their faith and leadership

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