This weekend was a busy one at Fulwood Free Methodist Church.
As our name suggests we are a part of a movement called the Free Methodist Church. There are a number of church across the UK and each year we get together to hear from God and to consider the way ahead for the coming year. It’s also the place where pastors are appointed to the different churches. It’s a great gathering.
We started the weekend on Friday night with a time of praise, worship and celebration. The building was full of people who had come together from across the country. David Roller (our Bishop) was the speaker; his message to us was an encouragement to move on and move out (available on the podcast).
On Saturday we had a special guest speaker from KingsGate Community Church in Peterborough, David Smith; again the focus was on growth and movement.
From a personal perspective it was great to hear David’s heart coming through, his heart for the church to reach the local community and on to the nations. Rather than giving us a set of methods David gave us a set of principles. From my perspective principles are always more useful that methods, it’s a bit like the difference between giving someone a fish and teaching them to fish.
David spoke in two sessions How to Start a (Thriving) Church from Nothing and Principles for Church Growth. If you are in a leadership role of any kind you should listen along.
Our speaker for Sunday, following on from Annual Conference, was Richard Taylor; speaking both morning and evening. I can’t really comment on the morning service because we had some technical issue that I was busy sorting out. In the evening Richard told his story and it was a blessing to see people responding. Both services are available on the podcast.
Richard has a wonderful testimony, a story of God’s transforming power. If you are ever in a position where you doubt whether God can really change lives listening to Richards story will make you realise that God can and does.
We are just starting out on this series of posts on Weekend Reflections and we’d love to hear your stories so please leave your comments.