DECEMBER 2017
ISSUE 25
K I NGFI S H E R FAMILY Great Challenges, Great Opportunities What a year this has been! A year of growth, of faith challenges, of new ventures such as sponsoring 26 Dumagat children in the Philippines to attend school, providing them with accommodation, food and classroom materials; a year of stepping out into the challenges that God has placed before us, specifically in the form of six key words.
where we treat each other graciously, where we use our words to bless and not to curse, where we come into agreement (which is what confession is) with what God is doing here and we speak that out to each other. How has that been for you during this year? When people have been like sandpaper to you, rubbing you up the wrong way? When people have different views than you do on BUT GOD subjects like…BREXIT? Has that We believe that God can bring confession stood firm for you? A something amazing out of what seems season of change which requires a like a setback, or a difficult situation. season of grace. My confession was For me and the elders of Kingfisher that I believe this will go down as Kingsway, that was the right but being a golden season for us. difficult decision to close that church and bring two congregations together here at Tredworth. Right but hard. But God was promising to bring something good out of this, and I have to say that today, the majority of the ✦ people who were part of the Kingsway congregation are rooted in this church, in Connect groups, serving the Lord, and I thank God for that! As I said back in January, change is not easy, 2016 was not easy for ✦ many, But God has a plan and I choose to stand firm in the light of that belief! I will not allow my faith to be defined by my circumstances.
But God
My Confession What If?
MY CONFESSION. 2017 has been a season of change for us at Kingfisher and change can be unsettling. And so, the challenge was for each of us to agree together that this is going to be a season of change that propels us forward into the greater things that God has for us. My challenge to all of us was: can we agree that together? And more than that, can we agree together that this is going to be a season of grace? A season
WHAT IF? But God; My Confession - and the final two words: WHAT IF? We have thought a lot about those two words over the past couple of years. Here’s how I put that back in January: What would you do if God said specifically to you, ‘The status quo in your life - what you have settled for and perhaps just put up with, is no
longer good enough? What if He were to say to you, ‘I want you to expect more, believe bigger, aim higher?’ What if He said, ‘I’m calling you to trust more, to act in faith more’? What would you do? What step of faith would you take? So here we are, ten months later, and I want to ask that question, not looking forward as an invitation to make a statement of faith, but as an opportunity to review. How have you responded to God’s call for you to move forward? His challenge: “You have been at this mountain long enough”? Have you yet discovered what that might mean for you this year? Have you even realised yet that you have been settled into a routine in life and that God has been challenging you to stop getting so comfortable because the journey is before you, not behind you? I asked the question of all of us ten months ago: What if you were to make a confession - come into agreement with God and agree, the status quo, and my current levels of expectation and trust and willingness to step out - I’m not settling for that any more. I’m stepping up. With the new Plus One initiative being launched, the new church at the Treasure Seekers building in Westgate Street, Gloucester being launched and many more things happening, there has never been a better time to put these six words into action in your life: But God, My Confession, What If?