Welcome Sudbury!
We were thrilled to welcome Sudbury Baptist church into the Commission family on Wednesday night. The church building is over 100 years old and is very close to Wembley Stadium. The elders have been coming along to the London hub for several years now, and we’ve enjoyed fellowship with Graham (the pastor) and Cathy, who tell us the story actually goes back 40 years when they were keen to become part of the New Frontiers family, but for various reasons, it did not happen. Graham told us how personally encouraged he has been by the fellowship and, in particular, the prayers from the hub, more prayer than he had experienced in a very long time!
The church is thoroughly diverse not just racially but with different ages, young and old. One elderly gentleman, who arrived from Jamaica many years ago, recalls he never felt at home in England until he joined this church; he instantly felt loved and welcomed. Segun spoke to the church about the differences it made when Kings Church Epsom joined. It was so positive to hear how we helped to create a vision for their church, helping with teaching and training and receiving prayer and prophecy. They felt they were too small and insignificant to be able to give, but as their worship team has grown, so has their influence, and they are now able to help other struggling churches. Commission gives a richness of family life he said, we no longer feel alone, we are not just receiving but all of us have something to give.
Guy then reiterated our Apostolic values, again stressing that in 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul talks of being both mother and father to the churches, caring deeply and mobilising a shared life of mission together. He reminded us we are reformed, charismatic and operate from a place of grace, where leaders lead by example but are ultimately ordinary people, there are no superstars!
There was a short time of questions and answers and the feedback was really positive. One lady said she felt it was an exciting opportunity for the church, and another said that she loved the Biblical emphasis. Guy and Segun then prayed for the leaders and the church and gave a prophecy that the church was to increasingly be an oasis, where a group north of the area, possibly Nigerian, would come with increasing numbers of prodigals. He saw more children coming too and also the poor. The water level in the oasis is rising and will meet many needs.
We left encouraged and delighted to have new members of the Commission family and look forward to many more years of fruitful ministry together.
