God Is At Work!!

           About a month ago, I had written a post about the beginnings of Gateshead Presbyterian Church and promised more post on GPC to help you get acquainted with our brothers and sisters over there. Today, and for the next several weeks I want to continue with that. In preparation for writing this blog post, I have been reading a few of the update which Bill Schweitzer (the pastor) sent out over the past several years. Today I would like to introduce you to evangelism at GPC.

            This of course happen just from members of the church talking with their friends and neighbors in informal conversations as school and the like, but another and related part of evangelism at GPC is the evangelistic home group they have each semester called “Christianity Explored” GPC’s website says the following about the homegroup:

Christianity Explored (CE) is an informal introduction to Jesus Christ and his mission to save people like ourselves.  CE consists of ten weekly sessions meeting in a home.  The most recent courses ended in May 2011; the next courses are scheduled for January 2012 (there, however, is a follow-on course to CE called Discipleship Explored that will be held in September-October 2011). Everyone is welcome--from the most sympathetic church goer to the convinced atheist.  We shall respect your background, and you can tell us as little or as much about yourself as you feel comfortable. 

The basic format as I have shared with some of you is as follows:

1.      A meal and fellowship

2.      Bible study and watching a DVD on the topic for that week

3.      Coffee/Discussion/Fellowship

          The coolest thing about this though is that God has been using it over the past several years help people in Gateshead hear the gospel and to bring people to Christ. In one of Bill’s more recent updates, he wrote of how, “The last few meetings [of this year’s main Christianity Explored] were greatly blessed, both in terms of the main discussion and in terms of informal dialogue.” His update also tells how the homegroup ends up with a “Day Away” and how one of the young men in the group, named Lee, professed faith in Christ that day. However, as Bill also wrote, “This is an illustration both of God’s grace and of the spiritual condition here in England, one requiring much patience” because Lee had attended a previous CE and the follow up plus 6 months of church attendance leading up to this. Also, for the third year in a row the whole group showed interest in attending the follow up.

            The reason why I’m sharing this is that this is an example of why it is important that God’s Word is preached in England and that there are more faithful churches built up there. The soil is dry, but God is at work and He is bringing people to himself through faithful churches like GPC. That is what I am going to be a part of, particularly as I will be working to reach out to college students at the University of Newcastle. When I read about what God is doing I can’t wait to be over there. I hope this excites you as it does me and encourages you as you pray.

In Christ,

Benjamin