Sheffield Church Plant Update
On the 1st of March we took up a Special Offering with some of the funds to be used for Emmanuel’s on-going work, with the majority to be given to the Sheffield Church plant. We're so pleased to say that this offering exceeded the faith goal total that we were aiming for!
As I said on Sunday the 15th March, Jude and I are totally blown away by the generosity and faith that has been shown. We genuinely struggle for words to express how grateful we are on behalf of the new Sheffield Church plant. It’s really humbling, hugely encouraging and tremendously exciting. THANK-YOU SO MUCH!
From the beginning of this journey we’ve always described the Sheffield Church plant as a church that will be planted from Emmanuel. It will also be very much part of the Catalyst family of churches, just like Emmanuel is. We have felt so supported and encouraged all along – but the generosity shown in the Special Offering has just taken it to a whole different level, and it really does feel like we are in this together. We are praying and trusting God that this wonderful gift to the Church plant will enable us to make such a strong start as a new church.
I know that some people have been wondering and asking if Covid-19 is likely to change the timings of our plans. The big news on that front, is that we have had an offer accepted on a great house in Sheffield, and we have a buyer for our house in Oxford. We sense God is really in the timing of this, as we viewed the house in Sheffield just 2 weeks before the lockdown started. So, our plan currently is to still move at the end of July and launch at the start of September. Obviously, this situation means we will have to remain flexible, but that is still the plan!
We are delighted to say as well that we now have, including our family, 18 people (12 adults and 6 children), committed to being part of the initial team. We are still having some very positive conversations with a number of others as well. The team is a wonderful group of people and is 50% Emmanuel and 50% from other Newfrontiers churches.
It’s so incredible to see it all gaining momentum. While we have so much more to learn about Sheffield, God is continuing to grow our heart for the city. We have sensed God speaking to us about:
being contributors and not consumers.
to love God’s presence
to seek the peace and flourishing of Sheffield, alongside all the other great churches already in the city.
Please pray for us and for our team. Pray for the house to go through. Pray for all our team as they try to arrange moving and getting jobs, at a time when that is not an easy thing to do! Pray for Sheffield and that God would grow our hearts for the people.
We are very much still looking and praying for more people to join this adventure with us, if you are interested in finding out more, we would love to hear from you. You can get in touch with us at - dmay@emmanueloxford.org.
We are so, so grateful for your generosity, thank-you for partnering with us for the sake of the Kingdom.