A different approach for a season
We are excited to be starting our new preaching series, “Belonging to the Family of God” from this Sunday. As Adam shared this week, it’s been an unusual season at Kingsgate, with the 40 Days of Prayer earlier in the year – bringing so much excitement and vision for the future as to where God could be taking Kingsgate – only to find ourselves unexpectedly having to really slow down and have a re-think because Adam became unwell. It would appear that with all the Lord wants to do with his church at Kingsgate, he is really emphasising the need to prepare ourselves well and set some rock-solid foundations from which to build.
The new preaching series is a key part of that process and we’ll be covering a range of foundational subjects for the church family – things like what it means to be a genuine family, eldership, the role of deacons, membership and more. Without a doubt, these will throw up a variety of questions, and we really want to go through this season together, giving everyone in the church the opportunity to engage with the topic and to make sure we’re on the same page.
So for this term only, we are going to be switching things up with our Dinner Table Discipleship Groups because we want to make sure that no one misses out. If you’re already in a group, this coming week will be as normal, with you meeting together in the home – after that we are all going to be meeting at the Kings Centre on a Wednesday evening – 3 weeks out of 4 each month – whether you’re currently in a group or not. If you’re not in a group at the moment, this will be a great opportunity for you to join with everyone else. In fact, its really important that you come along! Those weeks will be much like normal group nights, although we will just be having cakes rather than a full meal! We’ll meet together in the Main Hall at Kingsgate where tables will be set up so your existing group can sit around a table together, like you would if you were meeting in the home. For those who aren’t in groups yet, just find somewhere to sit and we’ll make sure there’s enough cake for everyone!
What will the evening look like?
We’ll give a brief recap of the preach from the previous Sunday and suggest some questions to be thinking about, and from there it will work mostly like a normal group night. You can think through those questions together, pick up on questions of your own, go off on a tangent, pray for one another – and eat some cake! There will also be time at the end of the night – 10 minutes or so – for a bit of Q & A altogether where the Leadership Team can help clarify things that may still be unclear.
What will happen on the 4th week each month?
We want to encourage everyone to be praying together and as we’ll be at the Centre quite a bit during the month, we thought it would be a great chance to meet together in smaller groups in our homes in the 4th week, to seek God for his help and wisdom in all that he’s going to be doing with us in the coming months.
Communication is key
We’ll be looking to communicate lots to everyone over this season, so along with the Sunday Teaching going online, we’ll try to make sure you have plenty to read if you’re not able to make it on Wednesdays or have questions left hanging!
Hopefully that all makes sense. We are excited for this coming term and look forward to going through it together with you all. Jesus spoke in Matthew 7 about wise and foolish builders – the fool built his house on the sand and it couldn’t weather a single storm. The wise man built his house on solid foundations, and the storms couldn’t knock it down. God is building his house in Kingsgate Community Church – let’s do our part to ensure that it’s built to last.
Dan Jones, on behalf of the Leadership Team