Gathering Live
Through the year we have been very much ‘open for business’ as Countess Free Church – coming alongside people, looking out for one another, and seeing God at work in many diverse ways. We have blessed different people, and we have prayed with many. What we haven’t been able to do is gather as a church physically together in one place. This Sunday that changes …!
→Read More …Easter Day 2021
A year of pandemic disruption, hardship, loss and anguish. Now spring is emerging, the weather is changing, and Easter Day is coming! “See I am doing a new thing …“, as we look up beyond our circumstances to the one who changes things and makes new. As a church we are coming together online to celebrate the wonder of the risen Jesus – showing us new life is not just possible, but a reality.
→Read More …#ReclaimTheseStreets
The recent murder of Sarah Everard has brought to the foreground the difficulties experienced by women in our cities and across our nation. It has raised up an outcry that is palpable and carries weight – a call against a status quo that has hung over our streets for far too long.
All violence, stalking, or harassment of any form is wrong. It should be called out for what it is, and not allowed to continue. So for us at Countess Free Church we join the cry from the heart to reclaim the streets. We recognise this is a cry not just for ‘safer streets’, but for a deeper look into our society. What are the deep-seated attitudes, the imperfections in the legal justice systems and the issues with law enforcement standards that have allowed the full spectrum of inappropriate behaviour without redress through to violent acts against women without suitable recourse to justice?
We start by examining ourselves and ask where we have allowed our own attitudes to accommodate rather than stand against that which is wrong? The call to reclaim the streets is a call for a safe and just society. For us it resonates with the Kingdom visions we read from social justice commentators from many many years ago, who saw the promise of …
‘… Men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there’.
Zechariah 8:4-5
‘… the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in (this place) no more’.
Isaiah 65:19
Leading Forward from the Pandemic
At Countess Free Church we are not talking about ‘going back to church’. The simplest reason for this is that our church never shut, and has been active all through the past troubled months. Another reason is that we sense God has been leading us through right from the beginning, and now wants to lead us forward further still – so for us it is not a case of looking back …
→Read More …Discipleship, Shared Life, and Mission
The early church folk were not limited by the need or mindset of buildings. They simply met as smaller groups in people’s houses! These small (perhaps tiny) gatherings were the ignition points of ministry and mission in the areas around them.
→Read More …Family Discipleship Together
Each of us can learn from each other – a thought shared, a different perspective, or another way of ‘saying it’ can all be beneficial. This is just as true within a family as it is in a wider setting. At Countess Free Church we have been helping our families grow in their walk with Jesus by encouraging and providing resources for them to learn from each other.
→Read More …We Love …
Valentines Day this year is of course quite different. Among the difference is a shift in emphasis from the ‘romantic’ aspects of love to the other aspects of loving those who help us and look after us. The love for the NHS is a wonderful example right now, as well as a general encouragement for us all to simply ‘love our neighbour’.
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