Why do we do what we do?
We believe in Church. We believe that, contrary to popular belief, the church is amazing
We believe that when the church looks like Jesus, when it sounds like him, when it feels like him, when it gives off his aroma everything changes. Communities are transformed, people’s lives are restored from the inside out. When the church is alive, people come alive. When the church is alive, communities come alive. If you want to change the world, the best way of doing that, we believe, is to be a part of church. In church people discover love and forgiveness and healing. They discover rhythm, purpose and passion. …

Coinciding with the New Year is a new book which we will be reading together as a church up to Easter. Written by Richard it’s about Discipleship. The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing. This may be hard, but it is not beyond us. The kingdom of God is available to every one of us. It is within reach. It is at hand. It is near. Practical and accessible, this book sets out a framework which will enable you to success in your desire to follow through on your commitment to being a disciple. Seven short chapters outline a rule of life that is easy to remember and possible to achieve. Jesus offered us life. Seven …

It was a fab weekend! Just getting together, sitting down in the sunshine, going for a gentle stroll, enjoying a cup of coffee, eating great food, were all fantastic, but it was the quality of the the teaching and the sense of what God was saying to us through each other that will really last. During the morning David and Myrtle Lawrence presented us again with the invitation and challenge of Jesus to join in his revolution of love. Once again we were moved and excited to see ourselves as change-makers, system-breakers, culture-shapers. We were encouraged once again to see how this revolution was always intended to extend to the edges of human life. God was …

A few years ago it seemed clear that god was reminding us once again about the centrality and importance of prayer in our lives. We talked together about how Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and went looking for the life of prayer displayed by the people of God at the time and how angered and disappointed he was with what he found. We also talked about the invitation god was offering us to participate in his mission to our loved world by joining him in prayer. This led us to latch upon the phrase ‘house of prayer’ and we were encouraged to both make our own homes ‘houses of prayer’ right across the community, and also …

Our boiler is finally getting fixed and the sun is coming out and so we are all heading back to the main church building for our Sunday services. It’s been a great experience worshipping together in the school and we will continue to enjoy our first Sunday of the month services there. So this Sunday we are walking down the road from the school to the church to celebrate Palm Sunday and it will be good. Entering the ‘gates’ of the church and making sure that the place is filled with prayer for all peoples we will connect again with the story of Jesus’ last week.
It’s been a late Easter and we are ready to celebrate all …

It’s been an interesting month! On the first Sunday in February we launched a new service at our local junior school (St Michael’s) and it went down a bomb. Then the boiler at the main church building broke down for the umpteenth time this winter and was finally given the last rites. So it looks like St Michael’s Church has a new temporary home at St Michael’s School… at least for the time being. Many thanks to Dave Goucher and the rest of the School staff who always make us so welcome. We really appreciate it!
What’s interesting is how just moving building subtly changes other things – changes the way we relate, the way we …

It was a bolt out of the blue. One word. “Everyone” Nothing more, nothing less.
And I knew it was a God thing.
I am excited about our new series on Sundays called “EVERYONE”. I believe that God wants us to know something simple, but deep – that this thing is for EVERYONE, that he is for EVERYONE, that this gospel is for EVERYONE, that God’s love and blessing and presence is for EVERYONE. It sounds simple and sounds as if we already know it. Which we do. It’s just that we don’t always really know it – or live as though we know it. Somehow we have categories of who is in and …

At the beginning of each month we have a slightly different routine for our Sunday gathering. At 9am we have a ‘traditional communion’. At 10.15 we have breakfast together and at 10.45 we hold an informal, more creative service specifically aimed at being accessible and meaningful to families.
The other Sunday we discussed together a new idea – holding this “Sunday Live!” service at the school rather than in ‘church’. After some worship together we introduced the idea and opened it up to discussion and reflection. Everyone threw in their ideas and prayers. People wrote down what they thought and wrote prayers to God about how they were responding. It was a good …

Over the next few years it is my hope that our church here in Twerton will learn to ‘be church’ in a fresh way. Instead of organising ourselves around our services and programmes we want to see what happens when we see ourselves primarily as people engaged on a mission.
A few weeks ago now I was reflecting about church and had an image in my mind of an orange. All my life I have been involved in church life trying to make it as juicy as possible – helping to make the worship relevant or contemporary, being involved in social programs, modernising our buildings, updating our use of technology, learning about leading services and preaching, trying to run …

A wonderful group of Young People are heading our way from Nottingham to do a 30hr Mission here in Twerton and Whiteway, organised through Youth For Christ. There will be about a dozen young people coming down on the Saturday morning ready to bless the community up in Whiteway (car washing, litter picking, football) and hand out leaflets about the Rec House to other local young people. Then in the evening they will be running a Youth Cafe at the Rec House where we hope to have some music, DJing and some dance. On Sunday they will be available to help out with Children’s work and Youth Work before heading off back up the motorway after lunch.
It’s …