Minister’s Letter March 2026
Dear friends,
Warm greetings to you in the name of Jesus.
My thanks to all who have prayerfully participated in our current Stewardship Campaign. 2026 will be an important year in building up the work of ‘teams’ at Christchurch, and moving forward positively in our mutual vision for evangelism, mission, and growth. Our next step will be to re-iterate and promote the importance of prayer. Prayer waters all the seeds we are planting through our work with the local community – and each week we are engaged in scattering many seeds.
This was one of the reasons why I chose prayer to be the theme of our recent BB Parade service. We can all pray. All age groups. People who are active. People who are housebound. It is a joy to see our children learn how to pray. I believe we all have an instinct to reach out toward our Creator from the moment of our birth and confide in the One who sustains all life. God wants to walk and talk with us every day. We can aim to enjoy a life of ‘fellowship with God.’ Thank you for all the positive feedback I have received about our time of all-age worship at the Parade service. Children have much to teach us about prayer and trust in God. Unless we become like little children…
It is for this reason that we are pursing ‘The Prayer Course’ at Café Church. The writer and Church leader Pete Greig has produced this course as well as writing several excellent books on prayer. At session one of the Course, we were encouraged to do the following with regards to our prayer life:
- Keep it simple
- Keep it real
- Keep it going
This was the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. What a beautifully simple and inviting model of prayer to pursue! We find this teaching in Matthew 6: 5-15. In the modern paraphrase version of the bible known as ‘The Message,’ we have this encouragement;
“This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.”
Why not join us for informal worship and The Prayer Course @ Café Church? Later in the year we are also hoping to set aside a month of prayer. This will be a month where we aim to open the Church many times for an hour or so for people to come and sit quietly to pray. We will encourage people to use amongst others things our prayer for growth:
God of mission,
who alone brings growth to your church,
send the Holy Spirit to give,
vision to our planning,
joy to our worship,
and power to our witness.
Help our Church to grow in numbers,
in spiritual commitment to you,
and in service to our local community,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
I hope you will make every effort to come into the Church at least once and offer prayer for our future together.
Finally, as we journey through Lent, may we never forget the pivotal part which prayer played in life and ministry of Jesus. He often went to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5:16) He climbed mountains to pray. He frequently got up early to pray. He prayed in the wilderness. He prayed on the Mount of Transfiguration. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed from the cross where he was crucified for our sins. As always, Jesus is our example and guide. ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ (Luke 11:1)
The Lord be with you on your continued journey with Him and within the life our fellowship.
Peace and grace to you all,
In Christ,
Peter