Sunday Mornings at Christ Church Manchester

We meet at Hyde Town Hall every Sunday morning from 10:30am until around 12noon. We meet together because we love worshipping, we love spending time with each other and because we love Tameside and East Manchester. Simple really.

On an average Sunday (although, they are far from average!) we turn up have some coffee, catch up with old friends and look out for our new friends. Community is important us. We want to share our lives with each other in real and meaningful ways. Sunday mornings are a small but important part of that.

Once we have had our fill of tea and coffee we will usually have a few songs of praise led by one of our worship leaders and a band of musicians. We have a number of different nationalities represented among us and so our worship can take on a variety of different flavours.

After a couple of songs the kids all go out to take part in various different activities. Kids are as important to us adults, so we like to have a lot of fun with them as well as teach them about Jesus at the same time. We run a crèche for the under 3s, a group for the 3 – 6s, a group 6-9s and a group for the 11 – 14s. We have dedicated leaders (who all have CRB checks and are well trained in child protection) for each of these groups who work hard to make sure that we offer quality kids work to our children and teenagers.

While the kids are out partying hard the rest of us listen to 25 – 35 minutes of teaching. We like to use the bible and we like our teaching to be focussed on God and real life application of the gospel. Most of the teaching is done by people who go to Christ Church but occasionally we get visiting speakers as well.

Once the speaker has finished we spend some more time worshiping together and reflecting on the teaching.

The meeting usually finishes at 12noon. At this point people with kids collect them from the children’s work. We finish off our time together by consuming tea, coffee, cake and biscuits.

Sound good? Come down and check us out.

The Chapel - Creative Community

Manchester is a city jam packed full of innovation, creativity and culture. There is so much to do and anybody who claims to be bored in Manchester is clearly not trying very hard.

In a city like Manchester the Church really needs to step up to the creative plate!

With this in mind we decided that we start The Chapel. We want to influence and create culture. We want to encourage, support and release people who are creative into whatever area of culture interests them. 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 was The Crypt. The Crypt came out of the fact I bumped into a DJ who loves dubstep and electronica, and wanted to help us out. So we ran a club night, people showed up, christians looked awkward, people danced and we partied.

What else could we do? Anything! We know artists, musicians, comedians, bloggers, tweeters, creatives and consumers. So the only thing holding us back is our imagination. You in?

If you want to know more please contact me (Tim Simmonds) in any of the following ways -  07961 233 768, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), twitter, facebook or on my blog.

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!

CCM prayer and fasting week

As Colin outlined last Sunday we are looking to finish our month of prayer with a week of prayer and fasting. In July as we joined the two churches together Jane Graves gave that wonderful prophetic word about God using the two boats to bring in a great catch. I do believe that prophesy like this really encourages us to pray.

Monday -  Pray for our broken city
Neh. 1:1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Neh. 1:2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. Neh. 1:3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” Neh. 1:4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

Tuesday - Pray for the Power of the Holy Spirit
Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, Luke 4:2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
Luke 4:14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

Wednesday - Pray for your family and future
Ezra 8:21 There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. Ezra 8:22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.”
Ezra 8:23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

Thursday - Pray for a multiplication of ministry
Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

Friday - Pray for the poor and be generous
Is. 58:6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is. 58:7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

As Colin mentioned last Sunday please seek God as to the type of fast that God wants you to have this next week. It could range from missing one meal to fasting for the whole week. My encouragement to us all, is to pray that God’s kingdom will come on our bit of earth as it is in heaven.

These themes for each day and the bible verses should serve to motivate and encourage us.

Vision rooted in God’s plans for the nations

"It's not just our bright idea that God wants to bless the people of Greater Manchester"

As we set out our vision for the city, it’s so important that we root it in the grand narrative of the Bible, nothing less than God’s great plan for the nations. This should give us real hope and confidence.

From the beginning, God created Adam and Eve to populate the nations:

Gen. 1:27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God reaffirmed this after the flood to Noah:

Gen. 9:1: Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.”

Sadly calamity struck again as people tried to make a name for themselves by building a tower in Babel that reached to heaven (Gen 11:4). This resulted in God scattering them and confusing the people by giving them many languages.

He then speaks to one man, Abraham, outlining his amazing plan, with a promise that lives on through us:

Gen. 12:1: The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

This was partly fulfilled as God gave his people a land of their own, but the psalmists and the prophets pointed still further ahead. Jesus himself carried on this great, all-encompassing theme, in his closing addresses to the apostles:

Matt. 28:19: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

It’s not just our bright idea that God wants to bless and save the people of Greater Manchester - it is part of the whole mission of God in the Bible, right up to the final curtain.

Rev. 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Our dream is that there will be many from Greater Manchester there at the final curtain.

Seeing dreams come true

"It’s not just dreams that are a gift from God – so are the strategies that must accompany them."

God created us to have dreams, and great leaders are great dreamers. Writer Bill Easum says, ‘Leaders have strong imaginations… they dream and daydream and in their minds and hearts go places most of us have never thought of, and they take us with them.’

Manchester needs people who find God’s grace to dream really big dreams. If we only dream about what we might achieve in our own resources, then our vision will be very small. Therefore we must keep asking God to give us vision.

I love being with leaders who have strong imaginations and the courage to take risks of faith.

One of the projects connected with CCM is the Oasis community project in Gorton and whenever I am available, I go down and wash a few dishes. They work with about 100 adults a week, many living on benefits, some struggling with debt, others with addictions, others with mental health issues.

Being with Victoria and the team from Oasis, seeing a dream they had a few years ago now a reality, is inspirational. And they’re not alone – many people are today running with dreams that just a few years ago were just that – dreams. 

But I’ve found it’s not just the dreams that are a gift from God – so are the strategies that must accompany them.

There are so many illustrations in the Bible about people who had amazing dreams. One of my favourites is Noah. God gave him a massive vision: the responsibility to save the world by building an ark to carry his family and two of every kind of animal. 

But more than this, He also gave him very specific dimensions and instructions, so that in his mind Noah could ‘see’ the finished ark before he had begun. This meant that he could stand against all the ridicule because he knew that one day his dream would become a reality.

Dreams have to be fleshed out in plans and strategies. Wishful thinking and sunny optimism won’t get the job done. Like Noah, the dream must have ‘an ark’ to carry the purposes of God. Having the right flexible structure for the church and churches God has told us to plant is vital for our dreams to become a reality.