FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE 10

So... 21 years old this month. Traditionally, this is the point at which someone comes of age. Although the 'coming of age' is quite a variable thing around the world, it generally means the age at which you take on adult responsibilities. At one time it was the age that you could vote, when a woman could move out of her parents' home legally, and in many countries, it's the age when it becomes legal to drink alcohol.

For us at Kingfisher, our 21st birthday has a deeper significance, in that many years ago, God gave us a prophecy that I have talked about on occasion in the past regarding the history of Kingfisher being divided up into seven-year periods. The first seven years of our life as a church was to be a time of establishing in hardship and need. The second seven years was to be a period of restoration of all those things that were stripped of us in that first seven years. That second set of seven, the years of restoration, culminated in the planting of our second church, which was a visible restoration of the mandate to plant a network of churches that God had given us right at the start of our life. The third set of seven - the set of seven years that comes to an end this month - was to be known as the years of fulness. Having had our vision restored, we would begin to move into operating in the arena that God had always designated for us...the national and the international stage. And we have seen the launch of the international network in Africa and India, the establishing of a national profile in terms of our work in the community and among LD adults, highlighted by the launch of the Social Enterprise. The time of the fulfilling of our God-given mandate, the time of coming into our true, God-given identity.

And now, we are coming of age. One of the implications of us as a network together reaching the age of 21 is that we are now expected to be spiritual adults. Not just as a numbers thing - you know, now we're 21 we're automatically considered spiritual adults - but because the next seven years are going to be years that require spiritually mature people to step up to the mark and rise to the responsibilities of Kingfisher being in that place of having national and international impact. To handle greater blessing in a mature way and to be the mature, prophetic voice that God is positioning us to be. The next period in the life of this network is to be a period marked by maturity. This is the expectation Jesus Christ has of us, and that maturity will be shown in a number of ways:

Mature community

Having come through the fire of the past year, where community has come under a lot of strain, what comes out of this is a passionate commitment to building something that truly honours God, where how we treat each other

really matters and how we have a unifying vision of what a God has called us to be and how he has called us to get there. Throughout life there are 'refiner's fire seasons' - times when God allows pressure to grow and pruning to happen - for the purpose of forging something of great value. This is true at an individual level and at a community level, and our community has certainly experienced a 'refiner's fire season' over the past year - but as a result, God has birthed a deeper, more committed, more mature community among us.

Mature spiritual habits

Mature believers don't just read the bible in a 'get in, get read, get out' fashion, they "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within (them)" (Colossians 3:-6, NASB), recognising that "Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. (Hebrews 5:14 NLT)

Mature witness

God is giving us greater visibility, both in this country and internationally. In this country, our Treasure Seekers ministry is gaining national recognition, whilst internationally the network is growing with hundreds coming to faith in Christ in Africa and India. With greater exposure comes greater responsibility to be credible, reliable and consistent witnesses. "But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. (Luke 12:48 NLT)

At the age of 21 Jesus Christ is calling his own-up church to take its place in his greater plans. What an exciting year we have ahead of us!

Kingfisher comes of age!

THE NETWORK

“When someone has been given much, much will be required in return.”

Luke 12:48

At the end of the Sunday service each week James or Ollie announces that there are people from the prayer counselling team who will be sitting at the front of church who would ‘love to pray for you’. So who are these people that sit at the front of church on Sunday evenings?

We are the prayer counselling team and we certainly love praying for people after the service; but we are also a team that love to pray with people at other times as well. We are passionate about seeing ‘God’s people restored’. We aim to provide safe and confidential places where people who are hurting can grow towards wholeness through the ministering of God’s grace and healing. To put it another way, we love to meet with people to give them an opportunity to share the issues that they struggle with, or that are holding them back.

These may be things that come from their past or current situations: perhaps from damaging relationships or painful experiences from the past or present – either caused by others or from their own making; they may be beliefs held about themselves or others that affect how they feel about themselves. We believe that through faith in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit God can and does bring healing and freedom to us all, and we can become the person that God created us to be.

So what is prayer counselling? It’s the opportunity to meet with 2 members of the prayer counselling team, in a safe and confidential session, to talk and pray through these issues. Each member of the team is trained and commissioned by Kingfisher church to meet with those who seek help. They provide the opportunity to explore and pray through the issues brought to the sessions.

What else do we do?Soul Talk – for young people (13-18 years) to meet with 2 team members to explore the difficulties they are experiencing, to receive encouragement and reassurance, and to discover or clarify ways in which they might be able to move forward with their lives. Prayer will be offered if appropriate.

Hope Listening – an opportunity for people who are not Christians to meet with 2 members of the team to explore the difficulties they are experiencing in life, and to help them to find a way forward.

Joy Through Tears – a 12 week bereavement support group for those grieving the loss of someone close. This is suitable for anyone recently bereaved as well as for those whose bereavement happened some time ago.

How do I get help? If you would like to help or more information please contact Janet Gray; on 07834 521917 or janet@kingfisher.org.uk.

News from the Network

Prayer Counselling Team – Who are we and what do we do?

The forty days leading up to Easter, traditionally known as Lent, is a time of reflection and preparation, of giving up bad habits and taking on something new and helpful. This Lent, which starts on Wednesday March 5th, we are launching a 'thought for the day' series on the theme of BUT GOD. 

Taking 40 occasions in the Bible where that phrase is used, we will be looking at how we can increase our confidence in God and gaining a new, fresh insight into how he acts in our lives and what he is trying to achieve in often difficult circumstances. 

If you would like to receive the daily But God Lent series free of charge, either by email or on paper (it will also be posted on Kingfisher's Facebook page) then you can do so by letting us know at the office. Either phone us, email us or Facebook us and we will add your details to the list. 

Lent 2014

SOME OF THE PRAYER COUNSELLING TEAM

Kingfisher church ended the year 2013 with a Thanksgiving Celebration. Many families came to (almost) see the New Year in, celebrating with a bring and share meal and dancing. Great fun was had by all and we’re looking forward to doing it again next year!

New Year’s Eve Thanksgiving Celebration

News from the Network

The Kingfisher Network in India

Wanted! People to respond step out of their comfort zone, trust God completely, get on an aeroplane and fly thousands of miles to a completely different culture. There they will experience the transforming power of Jesus Christ at works in situations very different from anything you have previously been used to.

How would you respond to an advert like that? Last November, Ollie Bennett, Stuart Seagrave and Perdie Ashenford joined James Burn on just such an adventure, as they travelled to India for a short-term missions trip to experience the growing Kingfisher Network of churches there.

Travelling to the far north of India, to a city called Dehra Dun, the team had the opportunity to minister to churches in the area and to students at the city's Bible College.

The Network in India is overseen by our National Director, Simon Haq. Although based in Delhi, Simon travels widely in Northern India, visiting Kingfisher churches and conducting evangelistic campaigns. He reports that there are a number of exciting developments on the horizon:

• The possibility of a new building for a training centre on the outskirts of Delhi. This is a church building in 5 acres of land that is no longer in use. Simon has approached the diocese and applied to take the building over

to be used as the Kingfisher Training centre.

• Simon will be applying to get Kingfisher officially registered as a recognised Christian organisation in India. This will enable us to advertise, to put on high profile evangelistic events, to officially plant Kingfisher churches, as opposed to the informal, 'underground' nature of things at the moment.

• India is so open to the gospel. On the evening before we left, Simon popped into the hotel to say goodbye, as he was travelling back to Deli that evening. As is his custom, he asked me to pray for him, and one of my prayers for him was that he would experience a greater anointing in his ministry than ever before. That was on the Sunday. We arrived home on the Tuesday, and on the Thursday I got a phone call from Simon. He had, that day, been the speaker at an evangelistic crusade in Delhi. He has got up to speak in some fear and trepidation, because the meeting was being held in an area

that is experiencing real tensions with Hindus becoming increasingly militant against Christians, with reports of Christians being assaulted and intimidated and so on. Simon, whose primary calling is as an evangelist, got up and preached the gospel...and saw 500 people gives their lives to Christ! I am in awe of these people who literally risk their lives to preach the gospel. They act like they are in the book of Acts, and they experience results like they are in the book of Acts! We can learn so much from these people!

There will be other opportunities to travel to far-flung places to experience Christianity in a different culture and see God do amazing things in the process. How about considering whether God is calling you to an adventure like this?

Animals invade Tredworth!

To launch Action Pack’s new series ‘I Promise’ we asked the children, and leaders, to come dressed up as an animals (our first session was on Noah and the promise God made to him). Sunshine Club joined in the fun too and prizes for the best dressed animals went to George Gould-Worley and Antonia Ashenford, with Evie Williams and Ethan Hartsoe as runners up.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ARRIVING AT

DEHRA DUN AIRPORT; WORSHIP AT MASIHI

MANDHLI CHURCH; TEA WITH OLD FRIENDS JOHN, DOROTHY AND

SIMON.

News from Kingfisher Tredworth

Well done Treasure Seekers Performing Arts (TSPA) for putting on a spectacular Christmas show in December. It was sensational to see everyone dressed up in their festive outfits. Again there were some amazing performances from the groups.

The Singers performed “Rocking Around The Christmas Tree“ and “Last Christmas“. The Belly Dancers shimmied to very rocked up versions of “Let It Snow” and “Jingle Bells”.

The Textiles video showed how successful it had been as a new workshop, with wonderful blankets and pillows all personalised by the group. There was a snowman (Richard) and an elf (Carl) who gave us brilliant individual renditions of Christmas songs using hand bells.

The Art & Design group showed how hard they had worked on paintings, drawings and artwork. Plus there were memorable performances on video of an exploding Christmas Cracker and a fairy who (by “magic”) reduced in size to fit on the top of a Christmas tree. Another fantastic show!

Dad’s Only toddler group The first Dad’s Only toddler group of 2014 started with a bang on January 11th with full English breakfasts for everyone!

Again a big thank you goes to Steve and Bill for providing breakfast and doing all the cooking. We have many more breakfast’s planned for this year!

Treasure Seekers Performing Arts Christmas Show

News from Kingfisher Tredworth

Impact Youth PantomimeImpact Youth Performing Arts a group which meets every Friday afternoon in term time for those in school years 3-9 staged its first ever pantomime in December 2013. And everyone had a great time (oh no they didn’t, oh yes they did!!).

The pantomime had all the traditional elements and a few new ones, with some starring puppet roles to enable those who had chosen to do puppets to make their puppets come alive with their voices. We had to have the girl who plays the boy and the boy who plays the lady of course and even at such a young age they embraced the rather odd tradition that is panto. We even had a real flying carpet – oh the wonders of technology and those who can put it to fabulous use!

The dancers did most of their own choreography and although we had a few jaw dropping “oh my goodness this is never going to work moments” with people pulling out at the last minute and line learning being left to the last minute, God is always in charge and the children all worked really hard to pull it all together. We had a packed audience and they had a whale of a time. The children enjoyed themselves so much that at one stage I thought the dame (played brilliantly) – Nabil el Bark - and the baddie Abanazer (also

played brilliantly) – Jack Jones - were going to go off and ad lib till the end of night.

It was for us a real showcase event which really showed off the talents and confidence that the children are gathering through coming to performing arts. Even though the team of volunteers who run the group is small, it was great to have people from other areas coming along to help out on the night! This pantomime was a really big achievement for the whole group.

If your child is in school years 3-9 and would like to come along then please speak to Sally Collis or Rachael Bennett. Similarly, if you feel that this is an area of

ministry God is calling you to, come and see us.

Baptism serviceThis year’s first Baptism service took place on 26th January at

Kingfisher Tredworth, with Helen Gould, Hannah White and Matthew

Black all taking the plunge!

The Tuesday mornings group at Kingfisher Tredworth has grown to such proportions that it has become difficult to accommodate everyone that comes - we often use every table and chair in the church! It is well known that our bingo session are one of the most popular events in the calendar, in addition to Bill Coopers Music Man sessions and Dave West our resident crooner.

We have many other popular sessions throughout the year, such as our theme mornings: in the past we have done South Pacific and Country & Western to name but a few. One of our most popular events is the annual ‘Big Band Sound’ featuring Dave and four of his friends who are professional musicians.

Every other Tuesday morning we have a connect group meeting in the 180 room for a bible study where we learn more about the bible and how it effects our daily lives.

Because of the large numbers coming on Tuesday morning we have started a gathering on Tuesday afternoons called ‘Senior Citizen’s Social’ which aims to give local elderly residents a quieter more relaxing session and will hopefully take some of the pressure off the morning sessions.

Our first afternoon took place on Tuesday 21st January and we enjoyed games, a quiz and a sing song as well as cups of tea, a good old chinwag and lots of laughter. Everyone went away smiling and keen to come back the following week!

Tuesday’s at Tredworth

I am very excited about what God did through us at Kingfisher Church in Kingsway last year. We saw young people turn to Christ (I just stopped for a minute to praise God for that). We had a great baptism service, two babies were dedicated, we had our Easter Celebration weekend, which included our Easter in the Park event; entertaining the Kingsway estate with music, food, stalls, games and a bouncy castle despite gale force winds and snow! Superhero Adventure was our most attended children’s summer holiday club, with over 80 children enjoying all the fun, dressing up, singing and listening to stories of the heroes of the Bible. I loved it! Little Fishes is thriving, and our midweek 180 sessions were so full of life, that it was too lively for our local community centre! Please pray for a new venue so that we can reach out to the young people in the area again.

I believe, however, that Kingfisher Church Kingsway in 2014 will be better! Three new connect groups -Oasis, men’s connect and the prayer connect group - will help people to connect with each other, connect with God and connect with their purpose. In addition to this we have regular trips to Gloucester Rugby matches, where friends are invited to meet together and enjoy each other’s company while watching the game. A new ministry group, Embrace, is also being launched. This group will reach out to people in the area who have practical and emotional needs. This will be led by Ross Nicholas and Samantha Russell. We believe that God has said to us that if we meet the needs of the community, they will trust us to guide them to God’s love. Please pray that we will see great results

of needs being met, and people being led to God as a result. We have also launched our monthly evening service, which includes communion, praise and worship and food!

We believe also that 2014 is the year that God is calling us to maturity. When praying about 2014, God led me to this verse; ‘When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things’ (1 Corinthians 13:11, NLT). It is obvious that if we are going to become more mature as Christ’s followers then we need to put away childish things, but it may not be so obvious how to put away childish things. It then struck me that this verse is within 1 Corinthians 13, which is well known because it talks about love. Therefore, what I believe God was showing me, and wanted to share with the church, is that in order to become a more mature church, we grow to love like God loves. When the first church was formed by the apostles, there were four things, as shown in Acts 2:42, which the believers were devoted to in order to grow. We want to learn as a church that in order to grow in God’s love and become more mature that we need to be devoted to being taught by the Bible, devoted to each other, devoted to worship and communion and devoted to prayer.

The Bible is God’s word, and the Bible says God is love, therefore we can deduce that in order to love the way we should, we need to read, study, meditate and obey what God says through the Bible. It’s not a case of skim reading, it is looking at the Bible as the inspired Word of God, and therefore being inspired by God’s love. The Bible tells us that we can’t love God unless we love each other, so we need to be devoted to this. Love can be shown in many ways. It could be a hug, it could be through an encouraging word, it could be sharing a meal, helping others financially, but however a person needs love, a mature Christ follower meets the need wherever they can. This does not mean that we forsake meeting with each other in worshipping God and taking communion. Remembering what Jesus did by dying and being raised from the dead is central to our faith, and it is crucial in understanding God’s love for us in order for us to love others. Finally, prayer allows us to communicate to the God whose love we are trying to imitate. Why wouldn’t we be devoted to prayer if we are to love like God loved?!

I believe this is the challenge for Kingfisher Church Kingsway not only for this year, but in the years to come. It is not easy, and it is by the grace of God that we will be able to do this, as we are nowhere near the finished article! Yet if we do show devotion to the Bible, to each other, to worship and to prayer, then I believe this will happen; ‘…the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved’ (Acts 2:47, NLT). As a church, we believe for our adult congregation to be doubled in number to 50 by the end of 2014. Please pray that we as a church will grow in maturity in all areas so we can see God add to our number this year. I hope after reading this that you are excited as I am about what God is going to do this year within the life of Kingfisher Church Kingsway.

News from Kingfisher Kingsway

Following the Call to Maturity

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”

Acts 2:42

EMBRACE LEADERS ROSS NICHOLAS AND SAMANTHA RUSSELL.

Photos from Kingfisher Kingsway

Christingle Service

Little Fishes Christmas Party

Kingfisher NetworkKingfisher ChurchMoor StreetTredworthGloucesterGL1 4NJ

www.kingfisher.org.ukinfo@kingfisher.org.uk

+441452 304339

© Kingfisher Church, 2013

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