This Saturday just gone past (15th October), young adults from across South Wales and the West of England gathered at the Christchurch Centre, in Newport for a day devoted to worshipping Jesus and freshly considering what’s important for their lives.

A huge thanks to some of our worship team (Jadie Stiven, Andy Maybury, Artur Lieder, Tim & Kate Hacker, Tom Haigh) who also came across and did a stellar job leading us in worship during one of the sessions!  (You can see them in action in this photo to the right!)

The simple aim for the Priority Conference was to consider the stuff that really matters; the gospel, the church, and the mission and reflect what difference these should make in our lives. Nathan Smith from Grace Church Bristol, Gareth Lloyd from Sovereign Grace Church, Merthyr and Lewis Roderick from Christchurch Newport showed us what these priorities look like for a Christian.

Session 1 – The Priority of The Gospel (Ephesians 4:1) – by Gareth Lloyd
Gareth Lloyd takes us to Ephesians 4 and shows us the only true response to the gospel of Grace is grace saturated living. But so often our instinct is anything, everything but.

Session 2 – The Priority of The Church (Ephesians 2:11-19) – by Lewis Roderick
In a culture the exalts the individual the triune God calls the christian to community, Lewis Roderick takes us to Ephesians 2 and shows us the priority of the church.

Session 3 – The Priority of Mission (Acts 1:1-14) – by Nathan Smith
Nathan Smith gives us an overview of the book of Acts and shows us the heart, extent and power of the mission Christ calls us to.

Contrary to previous announcement, LIFE will be going ten pin bowling at the Bowlplex at Longwell Green at 7pm this Sunday. Cost will be £6 for two games. If you’re coming please CALL (07855760488) or EMAIL (nathanbowen[at]hotmail.com) Nathan Bowen in advance so he can make the appropriate bookings. Lifts will be arranged on Sunday.

“The Choice” weekend away for the singles of the 3 UK Sovereign Grace Churches took place 25th-27th April 2008 at Cefn Lea Christian Conference Centre.

Around 60 singles gathered together to worship God, experience fun and fellowship with one another, and to be taught and instructed from God’s Word regarding the choice to follow Jesus Christ, and what that involves and looks like.

The audio from the 5 meesages preached over this weekend is available to listen to or download:

Session 1: The Call to Follow Jesus (Pete Greasley)

Session 2: The Cost of Following Jesus (Nathan Smith)

Session 3: The Joy of Following Jesus (Dave Taylor)

Session 4: Following Jesus in a “Post-Modern” World (Gareth Lloyd)

Session 5: The Choice to Follow Jesus (Pete Greasley)

Today (Friday 25th April) 13 of us leave to join up with 40+ others from Christchurch and Sovereign Grace Church Merthyr for “The Choice“, the Sovereign Grace UK Singles weekend away at Cefn Lea Conference Centre in Newtown, Powys.  

Please pray for for everyone going, that we would encounter God through the worship, teaching and fellowship, and that we would seeing lasting change in our lives.

I’m sure the audio messages will be available following this weekend, but for now here’s the planned run down of sessions and titles:

Session 1 – The Call to Follow Jesus (Pete Greasley)
Session 2 – The Cost of Following Jesus (Nathan Smith)
Session 3 – The Joy of Following Jesus (Dave Taylor)
Session 4 – Following Jesus in a ‘Post-Modern’ World (Gareth Lloyd)
Session 5 – The Choice to Follow Jesus (Pete Greasley)

Here’s the Student Testiony Video from Sunday’s Student Guest Service. Thanks again to Jadie for all his hard work in being cameraman, director, producer, editor. Thanks to Sam for being a video-widow again!

Sunday 14th October at 10:30am is our STUDENT GUEST SUNDAY designed to welcome students to Grace Church and give them a taste of what our church is all about.

Our time together will include contemporary worship; testimony from current and previous students; preaching from the Bible and then a wonderful LUNCH so that the students and folks in the church can mingle and fellowship and get to know one another better.

Aside from a student lunch at the start of term, there are many ways in which we encourage students to get involved in Grace Church. We don’t do “Student Work” in the traditonal sense, but instead aim to incorporate students into the life of the whole church, rather than treat them as a special group.

There are plenty of opporutnities to serve, to get involved in outreach and evangelism and to be part of a small caregroup. We also encourage them to get stuck into our singles activities.

LIFE is our monthly evening service designed for anyone aged 18-30′s looking for reality and not religion.

LIFE is about passionate, contemporary worship; addressing issues of life from a biblical and gospel-centred perspective; and having loads of fun along the way!

LIFE meetings are based at the Vassall Centre. We encourage anyone aged 18-30 – whether part of Grace Church or not, a student or not, a believer or not – to come along and find out more about LIFE, and life to the full.

The next LIFE is Sunday 21st October at 8pm.

M28 meets once per month and is aimed at the singles of Grace Church (and their friends).

It’s about doing fun stuff together – pub quizzes, climbing, grub crawls, bowling, laser quest, etc – and developing and deepening friendships.

The next M28 is Sunday 4th November. More details of actual events to follow!