October was an inspiring month for the diocese’s Resourcing Churches, with a number of spiritually unifying gatherings taking place in our church communities.
The Loughborough Resourcing Churches of Emmanuel, the Good Shepherd and St Barnabas, held their fourth annual church weekend, ‘Flourish '25!’
Each year they gather as three churches for a weekend of worship, prayer, teaching, food, and fellowship, with the goal to keep mission at the centre of everything they do - to grow disciples of Jesus Christ in order to plant churches for his Kingdom in Loughborough and beyond.
This year, the weekend was led by the Revd Joanna Seabourne of St. Giles Church in West Bridgford, who explored Hebrews 10 and 12 with the group, as they looked at their personal and corporate discipleship.
They were also joined by the Revd Dr Vijay Kumar of the Parish of the Resurrection, and the Revd Rob Gladstone and the Revd Sneha Ninan from Rothley Parish Church.
All of the speakers over the weekend were encouraging and challenging, and the gathering were very grateful for their time with them.
Children had a wonderful time over the weekend too with their own programme delivered by the team from Holy Trinity Leicester, another of the Leicester Resourcing Churches.
The gathering were also thankful to Simon Johnson and his band from Open Heaven Church who led them in worship from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon.
The weekend was, as always, a prayerful and reflective time as they shared where they see God at work in and around Loughborough and discerned 'what next' as they work together for his Kingdom and his glory.
Earlier in the month, in Clarendon Park, people came together for the ‘Everybody’ conference and had a blessed time with those from St John the Baptist and other churches around the diocese.
The focus for the day was the love of God - an endless topic that those present felt they could learn about and dwell in forever, recognising how special it was to be together to give God time to let the truth of the enormity of his love settle in their hearts.
With a mix of teaching, fellowship, sung worship, and time to reflect, there was also plenty of opportunity for them to explore how God's love changes us and how we can show it to others.
The group listened to a selection of seminars focussing on loving particular groups of people, and the feedback reflected just how much everybody had enjoyed the day.
Here are a few quotes from delegates:
"Excellent food for thought and brilliant teaching."
"Feel like I've been on retreat all day. Thanks for teaching/pondering and fellowship AND for creating a space for the Holy Spirit to dwell both in this place and in our hearts."
"I've enjoyed more than I imagined. What a blessing!"
“A huge thank you goes to everyone who made the day happen, and we praise God for the work he begun!”
“Everybody empowered for Kingdom Living.”