Hatfield Christian Church

Be happy. Be meek. ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’ It’s a verse many of us know, and few of us want, because meek sounds an awful lot like weak. As we continue our ‘Be Happy’ series on the Beatitudes, Pastor Louis looks at the third one. In Jesus’s day, it seemed the mighty Roman Empire owned the world, not the meek, and even today we tend to link the earth with those who...

Be happy. Be sad. ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’ Jesus puts the two together on purpose, and He attaches a promise. Be honest: how much energy do you expend in avoiding sadness? Yet in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says there is a blessing waiting for those who mourn. What kind of sorrow is He talking about? And what kind of comfort does He offer in return? As Pastor L...

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ Happy are the poor? It’s an unlikely place for Jesus to begin, and He begins there on purpose. As we continue our ‘Be Happy’ series, Pastor Louis looks at the first of the Beatitudes. They are some of the best-known words Jesus ever spoke and, as John Stott observed, probably the least understood and the least obeyed. It’s temp...

Be happy. It sounds simple, but what if Jesus’ idea of happiness is far bigger, and far stranger, than ours? As Pastor Louis begins our ‘Be Happy’ series on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, we start where Jesus starts: on a mountainside, with a crowd gathered and His disciples close, as He describes what life looks like under the reign of God’s Kingdom. We’ll look at the word translated ‘blessed’ and...

Six times in Matthew 5 during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says the same thing: ‘You have heard that it was said… but I tell you.’ Neil helps us work our way through the second half of this chapter, and it’s one of the most direct, confronting passages in the Gospel accounts. Speaking into a very specific religious context, Jesus takes the familiar commands – about anger, lust, covenant faithful...

What if the words you speak could breathe life into what feels dry, broken, or forgotten? Are your words building or breaking? This Sunday, Pastor Letichia explores the power and weight of our words—from the first words spoken in creation, to the curse, the blessing, Ezekiel’s dry bones, and even Jesus’ battle of words with Satan in the wilderness. Let’s discover how God is inviting us to lay down...

As we celebrate new life bursting into bloom all around us, Pastor Louis turns our attention to a joy that doesn’t depend on the seasons or on anything else that changes. 1 Peter 1:8 describes a joy that is ‘inexpressible and glorious’ – a joy so deep it defies description. We’ll explore why: because this joy isn’t rooted in what we’ve seen or experienced, but in the unchanging, ever-blessed God H...

Why do you come to church? It’s a simple question, but our honest answer says a lot about what we think church is actually for. Neil Bester takes us to 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul calls the church in Corinth to move past spiritual immaturity and into a bigger vision for why we gather: not to be served, but to build one another up. Every gift, every word, every act of worship is meant to strengthe...

Men and women – made in God’s image, made for each other, and yet, as Proverbs puts it, still something of a mystery to one another. In this message, Pastor Louis explores what it means that we’re ‘one, yet two’ – one humanity, bearing one image, expressed in two distinct ways. We take an honest look at a passage many of us find puzzling or uncomfortable: 1 Corinthians 11, and Paul’s teaching on h...

As we end another Faith Promise pledge season, Pastor Louis looks at a simple but sobering reality: the further something moves from its centre, the harder it usually becomes to maintain its integrity. Most organisations that expand lose quality. Yet for 2 000 years, the Church has done the opposite – pushing consistently outward from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, without losing what it star...

Hatfield Elder, Dr Rodwell Jacha, shares what happened when his workplace stopped feeling separate from his calling. Drawing from Acts 1:8, Dr Jacha unpacks what it means to be a witness – not just in Jerusalem (the places we know best), but in Judea (our wider circles), Samaria (the uncomfortable, unfamiliar spaces), and to the ends of the earth. Through personal stories, he shares real moments o...

We kick off our Faith Promise pledge season with guest speaker Howard Williams, joining us from Alive Lincoln in the UK, as we look at what it means to be sent. In Luke 10, Jesus sends out seventy-two ordinary people – not with resources, status, or a plan of their own, but with a simple mission: ‘Go, and carry My peace with you.’ ‘The harvest is plentiful,’ Jesus also tells them, ‘but the workers...

Generosity, gratitude and me: what if being generous isn’t really about giving something away – but about making God known and becoming someone new? What actually happens to a person who lives generously, over time? Scripture suggests it’s not incidental – it’s what happens when we truly grasp who God is and respond to His incredible generosity toward us. Could worship and generosity be more close...

Generosity, gratitude and fear: what if the thing standing between you and generosity isn’t a lack of resources, but a lack of trust? There’s an ancient story of a king so gripped by the fear of ‘not enough’ that it led him to enslave an entire nation. It’s an extreme example – but the same fear shows up in subtler ways in all of our lives. The feeling that there isn’t enough. That we need to hold...

Generosity and gratitude aren’t just personal virtues – they’re signs of the Kingdom of God at work. In this message, we explore how God’s abundant provision flows through us, produces generosity, and results in gratitude that overflows back to Him – the very rhythm by which His Kingdom advances. We look at 2 Corinthians 9 and the remarkable story of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, where the Ear...

What does it really mean to live by the Spirit? Is it having our heads in the clouds, or can we practically point it out? This Sunday, Pastor Sihle unpacks how we can live by the Spirit in a way that’s fully backed up by scripture. We live in a time that calls us to be more discerning and more set apart. Are you striving to live a godly life by your own efforts, or are your eyes set on living by t...

Christ sets us free — but what are we actually free for? Join us as Neil Bester looks at Paul and Peter’s teachings on true Christian freedom: not a licence to sin, but a call to stand firm in Christ, turn from destructive desires, grow in holiness and character, and serve others humbly in love. We’ll explore how being “free from” slavery to sin and legalism means being “free to” obey God as our t...

We all know what it’s like to feel worn out and ready to give up after a long season of struggle. In this message, Pastor Louis looks at Elijah in 1 Kings 19: a man who hits despair right after epic victories and finds himself exhausted, afraid, and convinced he’s all alone. We’ll explore how despair distorts our reality – how it makes us imagine the worst, forget God’s past faithfulness, and feel...

We all know what addiction looks like on the outside – but what’s happening underneath? In this message, Pastor Louis goes beyond the visible struggle to explore the inner journey of addiction: the anxiety, the broken belief systems, the hurt, and the avoidance that often drive it. We’ll unpack why addiction isn’t only about substances like drugs or alcohol – it can include food, screens, work, or...

Rejection is one of the most painful human experiences – and none of us escapes it. It can leave us hiding in shame, burning with anger, weeping in sadness, or aching with loneliness. And if left unaddressed, it quietly shapes how we see ourselves and how we relate to God. But here’s what’s remarkable: even Jesus was rejected – by His family, by religious leaders, by crowds, and by His closest fri...

We were made to reflect God’s image in the world – but something quietly shifts when we give our focus, trust, and devotion to the wrong things. Idolatry isn’t just an Old Testament problem. It’s a modern-day reality that shapes us in ways we often don’t recognise. Whatever fills our minds, captures our fear, holds our hope, and directs our lives – that is what we worship. And we become what we wo...

Anger is one of the most powerful emotions we experience. Sometimes it can move us toward justice, courage, and necessary action. But when left unchecked, anger can wound relationships, cause us to speak carelessly, harden our hearts, and slowly become something far more destructive: bitterness. Join Pastor Louis in exploring the difference between appropriate anger and harmful anger, and what Scr...

How do we live in the freedom of God’s good design for intimacy, relationships, and our sexuality in a world filled with distorted messages, shame, temptation, and the proliferation of pornography? Pastor Louis continues our ‘Faith for Freedom’ conversation with an honest focus on sex and sexuality and God’s heart for us, whether married or single. We’ll also wrestle with the realities all Jesus f...

What do you do when life feels uncertain? Most of us rush to fill the gap, don’t we – reaching for our phones, searching for answers, reassurance, distraction, or control. But what if some of the most significant moments of faith are found not in escaping feelings of uncertainty… but in learning how to lean into them? Pastor Louis continues our ‘Faith for Freedom’ series by exploring Jesus’ invita...

What if freedom isn’t what you’ve always thought it was? Kicking off the ‘Faith for Freedom’ series, Pastor Louis explores the difference between the world’s idea of freedom – often expressed as doing whatever you want – and the deeper freedom Jesus came to bring. Jesus said that He came “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners… and to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18-19). But what does that actua...