This update comes from the CEM blog . Thank you to all those churches who have faithfully given to our New Churches Initiative over the past year, enabling Roger to do this work, patiently planting, watching, and tending the seeds of kingdom growth in this part of Gloucestershire.
As you may know Roger has been working on behalf of the West of England Baptist Association during the past nine months. This required actioning a visitation programme in the well-to-do area of Painswick, Gloucester.If you receive the CEM magazine you would have read that its proved to be a difficult area to make any substantial progress in planting a Church. However, Roger has persevered and decided it would be appropriate to have a house Christmas Party to encourage awareness that the intention is to develop a "Fresh Expressions" or "Emerging Church" community group.
The response to the selective invites was very positive with some twenty people attending. Roger engaged with Brian, his able team member, the people assembled in both single and group discussion. All this amongst the beautifully decorated venue, with excellent Christmas music and sumptuous food which made for a very worthwhile and entertaining evening.
We look forward with a great measure of optimism that new people from this event will swell our numbers in the new year. Giving us lift off to a new community group which will allow people to explore their lives and understand more fully the message of Jesus Christ and his impact on our world.
