How We Got Here

The sign says it all really! The new building, officially to be known as ‘Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church’ will be having an Open Day on Saturday 3rd July. This will be the official opening of the building. Coalfields’ Regeneration Trust will be coming along at 10 a.m. to help us launch the day and we will be having a whole host of activities for everyone from then until 3 p.m.

There will be an evening service of celebration starting at 7 p.m.

So if you’re in the area and want to see the building for yourself, do come along!

On Saturday, the new lights in the main hall were fitted:

Glass was fitted into the top panels of the new door:

The difference this makes to both rooms is remarkable!

“And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us?
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against?”
(Our God, Chris Tomlin)

I’ve been away from St Mark’s this weekend, volunteering at a Christian student event called Passion London. The lyrics from one of the songs we sang there are taken from Romans 8, which was the theme of the sermons at the two meetings held at Wembley Arena. (If you want to know more about the global event, their blog can be read at http://268generation.com/blog/).

I feel like I have lived these verses over the past two years on our adventure to grow as a church and to move into a new building (which will be called Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church, not St Mark’s, which would be pretty confusing for this blog title!) There has been plenty of opposition, trouble and hardships to overcome, but in it all, we have known God’s presence, learned new lessons and ultimately seen that God’s will will prevail. One of the verses which held us up during this time is from Proverbs 21:30:

“There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.”

May we have unshakeable confidence that God is for us, that all things work together for good, that nothing can separate us from His love and may we grow in faith as we look back on all God has done to bring us to this place.

P.S. Photos from the work done at St Mark’s last weekend to follow!

In the middle of the work, Garry got a new guitar. Even the guitar had to be tested! I was serenaded as I scrubbed the toilet floor…!

I’ve just got hold of some photos of the work done at St Mark’s in the early stages back in February. They are a vivid reminder of all that’s been accomplished since then.

Clearing the car park

The children’s room being painted by young people:


Painting the corridor

Surforming (apparently!)

I’m reading through Matthew’s gospel at the moment and today have reached the part where Jesus talks about building on a rock. Yes, I can’t escape the building theme in any part of my everyday life, it seems! What I found particularly interesting was reading these very familiar verses (especially in our church, since we sing the children’s song about this quite often!) in a different version to normal:

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

“But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.” (Matt 7:24-27, The Message)

The idea of ‘homeowner improvements to your standards of living’ compared to ‘foundational words’ was striking to me, especially in a country where DIY is apparently so popular. (You only have to visit a DIY store on a Bank Holiday to appreciate the hold it has on the country!!) So much of what we’ve been doing at St Mark’s has been foundational. We haven’t just ‘touched things up’ or painted over cracks; we’ve had to get back to basics. There has been plenty of tearing down as well as of building up.

I also liked the idea of working Jesus’s words into our lives, so that we live out what we believe. As with anything, if we get the foundations right, it makes life so much easier in the long run.