Programme for Week – Mon Aug 3rd – Sun Aug 9th

This is to let you know what is happening this coming week for information, prayer and/or participation

Monday

Tuesday
7:30 – Tuesday evening Zoom Prayer

Wednesday
1:30 – Pastoral Meeting

Thursday
1:00 – Lunchtime Group in the Coffee Lounge
7:00 – Discipleship Group

Friday

Saturday

10:00 - Ladies' Breakfast - Chocolate Strawberry Cafe

Sunday
9:30 – Worship Music Practice in church
9:45 – Pre service prayer meeting in church
10:30 – Service in Church

Sermon preparation, prayer, reading, visits and other activities at various times. If you are unwell, or otherwise in need of help or support please let us know and we will be happy to arrange a visit for you. Please call Matt on 07597 387719.

If there are any areas of the life of the church you feel you may have a leading to be involved in, please see Matt or Tammie.

If you are last out of the church, please make sure that the back door is pulled fully to.

Don't forget that all our sermons are posted on the church website on a Monday morning – go to - https://inghamitechurch.org/Media/AllMedia.aspx



Minister's Update August 2026

Sunday August 9th is my last Sunday before I go on six weeks leave over the time of my wedding to Janet. I will be moving out of the Ferns which will be rented out to a lovely family for the time being. Janet and I will be living in Barrow, near Whalley, and I will be coming in to work part time. We are always seeking God's leading for where we are going as a church fellowship, and the next six weeks is a great opportunity for the church to explore where and how God is leading and guiding. It needs to be more than a short break until I come back and everything returns to 'normal'. We hope that God will use this time to show us all more of what he wants to build our church to be, individually and together.

We believe God has been and continues to be working in new ways in our fellowship, carefully and gently dismantling traditions, structures and cultures that we have been using for many years, in order to open our lives and fellowship to the moving of his Spirit – this has been happening particularly since lockdown, when churches had to close and we responded by asking “What does God want us to learn through this?” - and we came to understand that it was about understanding how much of what we did in the life of the church was human generated and shaped – everything that has happened since has been a working out of this – it has not been easy – we have had to try to be very sensitive to the way God's Spirit has been leading us, and we have tried to act in response to that – we have seen a lot happen in terms of change in individual people's lives and in our attitude to worship and fellowship – but that has meant not rushing ahead on our own initiative, with our own ideas – we have had to disappoint or frustrate people who have come with ideas which are good, but the time has not been right for them – some people have not got it, and moved on – what is happening has not necessarily looked like success in the understanding of the world – it has looked more like decline than anything else – but when we see the evidence of God working among us, we can be carefully confident that we are on the right track – because what we see is authenticity – people drawn to faith in Christ, not in great numbers, but clearly by the influence of the Spirit on their lives rather than by human programmes and procedures – Christians changing and growing in faith and in Christian maturity, not spectacularly, but genuinely and often under the radar of the obvious – Christians persevering under difficulty, grief and hardship that may often cause them to want to give up, but they are still with us and holding on in faith - people bearing with others in love – people not letting misunderstanding or offence be the end of a relationship, but seeking reconciliation through forgiveness – people dealing with anger, anxiety, rejection, prejudices and other debilitating attitudes, resisting and overcoming them – also seen God's continuing provision.

All these are the signs of God moving among us – we believe that he is not building a new religious edifice, but a fruitful community of fruitful people who love one another with a love that comes from their connection with God, showing themselves to be disciples of Christ, and having their hearts opened to an ever greater moving of the Holy Spirit - so we have to keep in mind what kind of wineskin we are asking him to pour his Spirit into.

Love and blessings

Matt.