Christ Church Manchester News - 31st May 2010

So yesterday was a sad Sunday at Christ Church Manchester as it was the Mawson families last Sunday with us! Booooooo.

They are moving to Plymouth. I hear rumor that living by the sea, in an area with more sunshine and less rain than Greater Manchester is deeply rubbish. So I give them a couple of months before they decide that living in the Glorious North of England is by far the better option. Everybody repeat after me “SUNSHINE AND SEA IS RUBBISH. HILLS AND RAIN ARE AWESOME.” repeat this every morning 10 times and I promise everything will be ok…....

Prayer - We are going to run some prayer meetings. Why? Because prayer works and we have a bunch of stuff to ask God for and even more stuff to thank him for. We will have a series of three meetings at a variety of times and locations. You may see one prayer meeting at a time and place that is difficult for you but this shouldn’t cause you to panic. We are conducting a small experiment of running these meetings at different times to see what suits people best. This is not to say that we will then fix on one time and location for all prayer meetings until Jesus returns. No. We are flexible like a very very bendy thing.

The basic theme of these meetings is Momentum. It seems to me that as a church we are gaining some momentum (visitors, growth, salvation etc) and we want this to carry on and increase. I am expecting God to move, speak and blow our minds. You really don’t want to miss these. Seriously.

So the first Meeting will be on June 15th at 730pm. This will be held at a venue in the centre of Hyde. Stu Gosling will let you know more details as soon as he has them.
The second will be an early-ish Saturday morning thingy on July 3rd. I (Tim Simmonds) will let you know the time and location.
The third meeting will be an mid week early morning affair on July 12th. Alistair Metcalfe will let you know the time and location.

I honestly believe that when we pray God listens and gets involved.

Minan - Keep praying. She is making progress, but it is slow and painful. We want to see her healed and we want her Mum and Dad (Alex and Anna) to know God’s presence with them.

There will be no emails or blogs from me for a couple of weeks as we are going on holiday. We are going to Dorset and Cornwall where it is warm and sunny. I fully expect this warmth and sunshine to be really annoying.

SUNSHINE AND SEA IS RUBBISH. HILLS AND RAIN ARE AWESOME.SUNSHINE AND SEA IS RUBBISH. HILLS AND RAIN ARE AWESOME.SUNSHINE AND SEA IS RUBBISH. HILLS AND RAIN ARE AWESOME.SUNSHINE AND SEA IS RUBBISH. HILLS AND RAIN ARE AWESOME.SUNSHINE AND SEA IS RUBBISH. HILLS AND RAIN ARE AWESOME.

Christ Church Manchester News - 25th May 2010

"So always remember that Dubstep is a style of music that sounds like R2-D2 being beaten up by a Rubbish Lorry"

Usually I post this blog on a Monday and the brighter ones among you may have noticed today is Tuesday. So what was I doing yesterday? Well let me tell you a story.

On Sunday night we had The Chapel (it was our biggest night ever. Woop Woop!!). The Chapel usually finishes at about 8pm which means I am usually home and unpacked by 9pm. This week however was a little different. This week we ran The Chapels first club night - The Crypt. It was a great night. The DJ dropped a number of incredible tunes (I think that is the correct terminology…), Chapelites brought their mates along, people wandered in off the street and we generated a whole bunch of interest. We probably had 50-60 people through the door.

Anyways at about 10:30pm I realized a number of different things - 1) I am 33, 2) 10:30pm on a Sunday evening is quite late for me, 3) Parties in Student land kick off at about 11pm, 4) Christians always go home early, 5) The basslines that DJ B+ was playing may well have shifted my spleen about a foot closer to my head.

So on Monday morning I stared blankly at the people I was meeting and tried to look like I could even hear what they were saying over the ringing in my ears!

Anyways, The Crypt and The Chapel were both successful and I need a holiday to reorganize my internal organs.

So here is some spleen-shifting news for you -

Minan is improving. The prayer and the treatment is working. She has been eating and playing which is very positive indeed. Does anyone have children’s chair with a low table or attached tray that they could borrow? Minan is a little weak so it needs to be sturdy to support her.

I am sure there is more news than that but that’s all I got at the moment. If I have forgotten something that is vitally important then send me an email and I will make the necessary arrangements.

So always remember that Dubstep is a style of music that sounds like R2-D2 being beaten up by a Rubbish Lorry.

The Crypt

I have always wanted to be part of a church that creates culture. I often hear people talking about how the church needs to influence culture, but the way to do this often appears to be a little unclear (at least it does to me).

I was chatting to an attendee of The Chapel the other week and she told me that she worked in Radio. She expressed frustration that the only way church told her to influence culture was by having Non-Christian friends at her work place. She wanted more than this and wanted to know how she could create and produce culture that would be influential. She got my brain whirring.

I want the church (not just the leaders but the whole community) to create and support culture. I want to see Christian artists, musicians, designers, and whoever creating work that is meant to be consumed by the world at large. I also want to see the church producing forums and settings where secular artists can be supported. I don’t want Christian culture I just want culture.

Our first baby step towards this is The Crypt

Why do we want to do this? Because Community thrives on Culture and quality Culture creates Community. At least, I hope so!

Christ Church Manchester News 10th May 2010

This has been a strange week in the Simmonds world. I have had cops and robbers charging through my garden and my neighbours kids have been playing catch with an injured pigeon. Honestly, I love living in Manchester. Everyday offers something new and slightly strange

Anyhoo, here is some news goodness for you:

Meena - Keep thinking and praying about Meena. Therapy for Leukemia are hard on the body and she is exhausted. Remember her mum and dad (Alex and Anna) as they sit with Meena in hospital. We hope she can be out of hospital soon but Alex and Anna are having some trouble with accommodation. Lets pray this gets sorted soon!

Food - We will be eating food after church on May 23rd - I will hand out food requests on Sunday.

Rev. Sudheer Kumar of EARE Ministries (Harvest India) is visiting us in mid May and on Wednesday 19th May, 7:30pm we are hosting a special evening meeting at Trinity Baptist Church Gorton (M18 8TX). Sudheer will be speaking about the amazing ministry he leads in South India among the poor. Oldham Family Church has supported this ministry for the last four years, sponsoring a water well, providing clothes and pensions for poor people.  Further to the disastrous flood in December 2009 we held special CCM collection which is enabling the building of 2 cement houses for families made homeless when their wood houses were swept away in the flood.

India Trip A group from CCM is planning to make a mission trip out to India in October, there will be a meeting at Sue Ward’s on Thursday 20th with Sudheer for anyone interested in exploring the possibility further. Contact Sue or Clare Taylor for further info.

Colin - Once again, Colin is going on walkabout for 2 months. Rumour has it he is going to spend a month on Curry mile looking for the perfect curry, and another month in rehab to easy his addiction to peshwari nan. So, if he calls or emails you please follow the prearranged protocol and either a) hurl abuse (which is what I shall do and am looking forward to the opportunity!) b) pretend you have no idea who he is (Apparently this is what Mary will be doing) c) threaten to stop giving money to the church.

Always remember that looking directly into the eyes of a dog is an odd thing to do. Fact.

Christ Church Manchester News - May 4th 2010

This is a blog update of epic news and excitement (possibly). I promise to get to the end without crying like a 6 year old who's rabbit just died. At least I will try. Can someone get me a drink of water? (If you weren't at church on Sunday morning then you will have no idea what I am talking about. Lets keep it that way.)

Right here is some blubtastic news for you -

Rev. Sudheer Kumar of EARE Ministries (Harvest India) is visiting us in mid May and on Wednesday 19th May, 7:30pm we are hosting a special evening meeting at Trinity Baptist Church Gorton (M18 8TX). Sudheer will be speaking about the amazing ministry he leads in South India among the poor. Oldham Family Church has supported this ministry for the last four years, sponsoring a water well, providing clothes and pensions for poor people.  Further to the disastrous flood in December 2009 we held special CCM collection which is enabling the building of 2 cement houses for families made homeless when their wood houses were swept away in the flood.

For more info watch

India Trip - A group from CCM is planning to make a mission trip out to India in October, there will be a meeting at Sue Ward’s on Thursday 20th with Sudheer for anyone interested in exploring the possibility further. Contact Sue or Clare Taylor for further info.

Meena - We need to keep praying for this little girl. She has leukemia and is in hospital. The doctors are positive but we must pray. She is undergoing chemotherapy which is very tiring for her and stressful for her parents. We hope she can be out of hospital soon but Alex and Anna are having some trouble with accommodation. Lets pray this gets sorted soon!

CCM:East - CCM:City - Colin talked on Sunday about how from September we will have two locations on a Sunday. In the morning we will meet at Hyde Town Hall and in the evening we will meet at Luther King House (LKH) in Fallowfield. Don’t panic, you do not need to go to both! The Chapel is going to morph (evolve?) into a creative community/outreach/events/thingimewotsit. So on Sunday evening we will meet from 6-8pm at LKH then for a month or so in Oct/Nov we will go to Baa Bar and party with open Mic nights, DJ sets, interviews, comedy, and frivolity. Why? Because we want to be a church that creates and influences culture so that more and more people can hear about Jesus. If you have any questions please get in touch.

Anyways, there are 37 days until the world cup and 114 days until the Reading Festival. I love the summer.