Coventry Elim Church

As we start a new series on prayer, Pastor Duncan unpacks to us what it means to desire prayer and that we should pray our realist prayers and not just what we think we should be praying.

Pastor Duncan shares a new year message with us this week. Jesus compared his ministry to 3 things in Matt 9; a wedding, a a piece of cloth and new wine and new wineskins. We look to how God could have been forming a new wineskin in us so that we can hold something new of God for this coming year.

Pastor Duncan speaks to us today from there first chapters of Luke's Gospel. We look at the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah and their promise of a child, even when they were old.

Pastor Duncan looks at how the favour of God came to rest on Mary. What does it means that God's favour rests on us and what can we do see God's favour on us more.

As we run into the Christmas period, one of our Elders who is also our Families Worker, Shirene, looks at the wise men in Matt 2 and how they came to be with Jesus in Bethlehem.

We're thrilled to have James Aladiran back with us who leads the ministry Prayer Storm. James speaks to us from Genesis 11 and asks us if like Abraham's father, Tereh, we too get stuck in our 'Harran' places.

Today Ps. Duncan brings us a message from Psalm 124 & Psalm 121. The Psalmist asks 'where does my help come from' and in the 121st Psalm we see that is is God that watches over us.

We had Mark and Nita Pugh as our guests for our church Encounter Weekend. Mark serves as Senior Minister of Rediscover Church, the Elim church in Exeter.

He is the God of order. He enters chaos and brings order. Not the order of the graveyard, but the order of life. AND He meets us in our mess. He delights in our complexity. He meets us in our vulnerability and gently heals and mends.

There is a time to laugh. There are moments of outrageous happiness. He turns our mourning into dancing. He laughs with us…and laughs at us! There is joy in His house. AND There is a time to weep. He meets us in our sorrow. He counts our tears; they do not go unnoticed. He comforts. He counsels. He restores.

We accept the invitation to intimacy. We become friends of God. He calls us close. We ‘remain’ in Him. We meet Him in the ‘secret place’. AND We keep our distance because He is holy. We meet Him on our knees. Our Friend is to be feared. He is the Lion, as well as the Lamb. He is dangerous. Unsafe.

We love God with our minds. We thrive on teaching. We absorb, memorize, meditate on the Word. We long to learn. AND We love God with our hearts. We allow information to become a catalyst for our transformation. We read for relationship. We expect Christ to be formed in us.

We are made uniquely. I am not like you. You are not like me. I have my own ‘shape’. You have yours. AND We are ‘one’. One unique beautiful body. Different yet the same. Better together than alone.

We say ‘come and see’. We create environments and live lives that, like a magnet, attract questions, create curiosity, and reflect the beauty of our beautiful God. AND We say ‘go and tell’. We are ‘everyday missionaries’. We send people onto the frontline of mission to every corner of the city, carriers of the Father’s presence.

We are tent-dwellers. We expect movement. We are early-adopters. We are always ready to jump-on the new thing God is doing. AND We keep showing up in the same place. We know that the signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency, and so we take steady, persistent steps in a singular, holy direction.

We love ‘suddenly’ moments. Moments when His presence fills a space and everyone in the room knows it. AND We know that those moments alone won’t sustain us. We lean into daily rhythms. Spiritual disciplines. The practices of Jesus. Call them what you want; they open our hearts to the presence of Jesus and the power of the Spirit, and it’s there that we long to live.

We long for God. There’s a soul-level hunger for His presence. A void that must be filled. We are compelled to seek out ways of living that are congruent with our deepest longings. AND We are full. Full of gratitude. Overflowing with faith, hope and love. Filled with His Spirit’s power and presence. We’ve experienced abundance. We know His riches. We lack nothing. We are complete.

Gaz Hutchinson who works as our Creative Director concludes our Thrive series today. We are looking at how Paul used and encouraged others on their own journey and how if we are to thrive in life then we do it with others alongside us.

Pastor Duncan continues our Thrive series looking at the book of Colossians. This week he speaks on keeping Jesus at the centre of our homes.

This week we continue with our summer series based on Colossians called 'Thrive'. Today one of Elders Shirene unpacks the text from chapter 3 and examines what it looks like for us to live with Jesus at the centre of our character.

Do our religious practices actually get in the way of our worship of Christ? Pastor Ryan takes a look from Colossians 2:16-23 at how Paul urges the Colossian church to keeps its focus on Christ.

Continuing our look through the book of Colossians. Pastor Duncan unpacks Colossians 2:1-15 and how Jesus should be the centre of our lives and how everything should flow from that truth.

This week Duncan continues with week 2 of summer our series based on the book of Colossians. He unpacks the idea that if Jesus is Everything then he can be everything in us and through us if we place him at the centre of our lives.

We kick off our summer series working our way through the book of Colossians. Pastor Duncan looks at the first 14 verses of the book and how Paul directs us to Jesus being the very centre of the church.

Simon Foster is the Regional Leader for the Elim in the South West and Wales. Simon has a gifting in the prophetic and longs to see the church come into an intimate relationship with God.