God Central Church Harlow - Update 23rd December

Hello and Merry Christmas. We hope you’re enjoying the season and keeping well.

It’s exciting for us as we come towards the end of 2010 to be able to announce that we will be having monthly Sunday afternoon meetings, starting at 4pm, during 2011 at the Harlow Playhouse!

Dates for your diaries are
January 30th
February 27th
March 27th
April 24th
May 29th
June26th
It would be great if you would like to come along and see what God is doing and please feel free, in fact we’d encourage you, to pass these dates on to anyone else who might find them useful as we feel God is calling us to keep gathering and these meetings are a fresh avenue to do this by!

In addition we’d ask for you to pray for God’s guidance for us and the ability to keep building people up into all that God would have them be for His glory.

Once again thank you for reading

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Ben & Clare

God Centtral Church Harlow - Update 10th December

Lots has been happening this week so we wanted to share some of it with you for prayer and praise.
We’ve seen God help out members of God Central Church with their business this week as well as another member make a marvellous recovery from a major operation.
Today we had the opportunity to talk to the manager of a potential venue for monthly Sunday ‘gatherings’ which we feel God is leading us into as we continue to gather more people by His grace. The meeting went extremely well and we’re now praying for a favourable response and the opportunity to build on-going relationships.

In addition to the new facebook page mentioned last week - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newfrontiers-God-Central-Church-Harlow/172936906063349?ref=ts&v=wall
We’ve also updated our current website with dates for January, a couple of new videos, resources etc. Please take a look at www.Godcentralchurch.org and if you know anyone in and around Harlow who isn’t connected to an existing church please forward onto them as we’re keen to make new friendships and see lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Could we ask you to pray specifically for new contacts to come from whatever source as God has really been speaking to us about lights coming on, an increase in profile, new people looking in and we really are desperate to see this!

In addition prayer for guidance and wisdom as we seek God over the next steps in the exciting yet scary adventure we’re on with Him in making Him more famous and building a church in Harlow would be very much appreciated.

Thanks as always for reading, God Bless
Ben & Clare

Newfrontiers God Central Church - Harlow (Update 3rd December)

Hi and hope you are enjoying, or at least overcoming, the wintry weather which has set in around the UK.

Despite the wintry conditions it’s been very much full steam ahead over the past couple of weeks for us as a group as we reflect on God’s faithfulness in 2010 but also look forward with excitement to what He could do in 2011!

We feel called to hasten our efforts to reach new people in Harlow during the Christmas period knowing that God is with us. In particular we will be running some more internet advertising as well as getting more stationary produced and distributed within our town.

We’re also closing in on the specifics of our more public next phase where we hope to be meeting roughly monthly on Sunday afternoons in the early part of 2011 as we seek to not only worship Jesus but gather more people from around Harlow. As always if you know of anyone new to the town, not connected to another Church or simply exploring Christianity please pass our details on to them. Our dates for January 2011 are now on the website www.Godcentralchurch.org

Lastly we’ve started moving our Facebook profile over to God Central Church so if you could search ‘God Central Church’ or type this link into your browser you’ll see our work in progress including a new video!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newfrontiers-God-Central-Church-Harlow/172936906063349?ref=ts&v=wall
Please make sure you click the like button at the top by ‘God Central Church’ to be kept informed of goings on.

Thanks for reading and keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Newfrontiers God Central Church - Launch Event

Thank you to the many of you who came to support and serve us on Sunday Evening and those of you who have faithfully supported us in prayer.

There is a difference in counting but we had between 93 & 97 people in what turned out to be a warm, friendly environment at the Harlow Playhouse.

There were many guests who had heard about the event from a number of sources and so please pray that we’re able to build friendships with those who God is calling us to build with.
I think there will be many more coffees in the next couple of weeks, praise God.

God was so good to us right from the outset and although the evening wasn’t without hiccups, the biggest being having our speaker Colin held up on the motorway!, God blessed us with His presence and made sure His kingdom was extended and everything ran smoothly.

It was great talking to people at the end about what God had done and spoken to them on the evening.
In particular if you were one of those people who met with God either in prophecy, prayer or healing please could you drop me an e-mail at info@harlowchurchplant.org as we’d love to hear more of what God did.

We’ll be in touch with more details soon but in the meantime know that God is good and God is for His people!

Keep smiling

Ben & Clare

Faceboook Update - God Central Church 1

Thanks for your continued support through what has been a busy but exciting week.

We’re looking forward to Sunday evening’s launch of our new name and the start of our next gathering phase and are genuinely excited by what God has planned. Throughout the week we’ve been praying and seeking Him and feel God has talked about new people coming to faith as well as existing Christians, especially those new to the town and alone, being drawn into our launch team. In fact we’ve already received enquiries and are looking forward to making some new friends on Sunday evening.

Please do let anyone you know who lives in or around Harlow and isn’t connected to an existing Church know of the event as we’re really wanting to make the most of the opportunity God has presented us with to proclaim His unquestionable goodness and to further extend His kingdom in Harlow. It’s a 6pm start at the Harlow Playhouse, full details on our website www.harlowchurchplant.org

Prayer requests would be for the practicalities in putting on the meeting in a new venue to all go smoothly and for key people to be drawn to us. We’re already almost at 30 people before the meeting and would love for that number to be significantly higher as a result!

We’ll try to do a special update on the meeting early next week so until then God Bless and please keep praying for us
Ben & Clare

Newfrontiers Harlow Church Plant Update 31

Facebook Update
Hello again to most of you and welcome to those of you who have joined the group recently.
Since we last wrote we’ve been busy seeking God for the next steps in our adventure with Him and specifically preparing for our forthcoming ‘Launch Event’ on the 14th November. We feel that this event is a significant milestone for us as it both celebrates God’s faithfulness on the journey thus far whilst it also allows us to go more public and so be exposed to new people. If you'd like to see the advert it is on our homepage www.harlowchurchplant.org
Please pray that people who are new to Harlow or keen to explore the Christian faith hear of the event and are able to come along. We’ve been fortunate to have new enquiries and so already have new people who will be coming along to the ‘Launch Event’ so it’s an exciting times as we wait to see what God is doing.
Please could you also pray for protection for us as a group as we know we’re in a battle at present with a few illness’ and job problems amongst other things.
We’ll try to give you another update next week prior to the 14th but please know your support is very much valued.
Have a great week and keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Exciting news - 18th October

Lots to report since we last wrote to you all as we’ve been gathering more people from Harlow to join us on our adventure and God has clearly gone before us and prepared the way as the Study Centre which we have started using for our ‘Us Together’ meeting has room for us to grow into.

God has been speaking to us as a group about going through thirty in the same way as He took us through twenty people and we have a real excitement about the new things God is doing in and through us.

At 6pm on Sunday 14th November we’ve hired the upstairs studio at the Harlow Playhouse and will be having our first meeting which is advertised to the public. The evening will be all about God as we want to keep Him central, hence have named ourselves ‘God Central Church’ With gratitude to our friends at Jubilee Church, London we have been able to not only put on an evening to celebrate the goodness of God and publically launch our next phase but also place an advert in the Harlow Star which we are trusting will link us with new people in our town and be a catalyst for our next season of growth.

Prayer requests would be for God’s sovereign guidance as we look to put this event on and also for people who are new to Harlow, have lost their passion for Jesus or who are searching for the real meaning of life to see our advert and have the guts to come along. If you know of anyone in or around Harlow as always please pass the information on.

Please also remember to pray for protection for us as a group as we’re under no illusion we are in a battle!

Until next time, keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Update 1st October 2010

Greetings from a wet Harlow!
Thanks for your continued support. The past couple of weeks have been both hectic and significant for us as a group.

Both of our ‘Life Groups’ have been going well and it’s great to see people stepping up and helping us move the church forward. We’ve also had some new people along again which is really exciting as it’s great to see God building His church.

Another answer to prayer is that we’ve also found a venue for our ‘Us Together’’ meetings so with effect from the 7th October we’ll be meeting every other week at the ‘Harlow Study Centre’ where the folks have been extremely accommodating and generous towards us. If you or anyone you know is around in Harlow and wants to pop in please drop us an e-mail from the ‘contact’ part of our website, www.harlowchurchplant.org, and we’ll send directions etc.

Focus for prayer at this time would be an increase of God’s presence amongst us as well as His favour in gathering more people.

In addition if you live in or around Harlow can we ask you to ‘save the date’ for the evening of the 14th November and we’ll give you more details in due course.

Thanks for taking time to read this
Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Update 17th September 2010

Another 2 weeks has flown past and autumn seems to be approaching very quickly in Essex.

Our transition period is almost over and we’re into a new phase of bi-weekly meetings together and then smaller ‘doing life groups’ the other week. Everyone involved has been fantastic and it’s been great to be part of and around people who put the extension of God’s kingdom before their own desires and wants.

We are still in urgent need of a meeting room to accommodate around 25+ people in the centre of Harlow on Thursday evenings for our ‘US Together’ meetings. Please could you pray about this as it is proving to be a major obstacle.

We are now geared we feel to accommodate further growth. Please pray that more people who are new to Harlow, not linked to existing churches there or simply exploring the Christian faith find out about us and make contact with us as we are still eagerly expecting numerical growth amongst other things. If you know of anyone please direct them to our website www.harlowchurchplant.org where our current program is available as well as a ‘contact us’ page.

Continued prayer for health and protection over us as a group would also be appreciated, as we seem to have encountered more opposition again recently.

As always thanks for your continued support wherever you are
God Bless and keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Facebook Update 27 - 5th September

Well time seems to be flying at present. Since we last wrote we’ve spent time with the Newfrontiers Churches in our region at Shuttleworth where it was fantastic to be amongst many friends from all over the place as well as worship and learn about our great God.

In Harlow we’re in the middle of our transition to two groups and are actively seeking a venue to use on Thursday evenings where we can all fit once or twice a month so as to retain relationships right across the group.
In addition we’re still getting to know some of the new people who have come along during the summer so food and drink is definitely part of our agenda at the moment!

Prayer requests would be for wisdom and humility to make the transition to two groups as smoothly as possible plus God’s favour and direction in finding a suitable venue too use on Thursday evenings once or twice a month.

In addition please keep praying for more of God’s presence with us and for more new people moving to Harlow to find out about us and join us in our adventure of making Jesus better known.

Thanks for reading and we pray God will bless you
Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Update 23rd August

Update 26

Well it’s been a crazy few weeks within Harlow Group. No sooner had we returned from hospital with Amelia than another couple Lee & Caroline went in and came out a couple of days later with their second daughter Bethany! Again thanks for prayers and support.

As well as that we’ve had several new people along over the summer months and have also had quiet a few enquiries via the internet so it’s been a busy (and certainly for us sleepless) time!

We’d really appreciate prayers for the following 3 things at present
1) More of God’s presence
2) Wisdom and favour in making the transition to multiple groups which is looking a necessity.
3) More people to make contact and join us in our mission of making Jesus better known in Harlow

In addition we are attending the Newfrontiers Regional Event at Shuttleworth this coming weekend and so are looking forward to being with friends and catching up with people who we’ve not seen for too long! Sorry if your one of those reading this.

Anyhow thanks for reading and thanks for your continued support and prayers. We are genuinely amazed at God’s goodness to us as a group

Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Hope when life hurts - follow up

For those of you in Hrlow Group you'll know during our crazy summer we've spent the last two weeks listening to Louie Giglio talk from John 16 about how to cope when life hurts.

Yesterday whilst reading several Blogs I read PJ's Blog and was interested and inspired that he also quotes John 16. Please see a copy from his blog below which i'd recommend reading

When it comes to dark days, it is vital to put on the Kevlar before the first shot is fired…

All this I have told you so that you will not go astray…I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (The first and final verses of John 16)

Therefore, put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist… (Eph 6:13-14)

After 25 years of giving regular sermons and Bible studies, I have a huge folder on my laptop containing 50 sub-folders of different themes, containing every presentation that I have ever done. One of these sub-folders is simply entitled, “Tough Times”, and before my diagnosis with cancer it contained 40 messages or articles on this theme by me. And, because I have preached some of them in different contexts, we can safely say that I have averaged preaching on the theme of suffering twice a year for 25 years.

I am so glad that God graciously allowed me to get anchored in truth before the storm, rather than having to flounder around for anchors after it hit. Although initially shocked, I was not for a moment surprised (1 Pet 4:12) that a storm had hit because Jesus promised us that we would have trouble in this world (Jn 16:33), and I have been able to stand firm in certain knowledge of what the bible teaches about dark times.

D.A. Carson writes:

One of the major causes of devastating grief and confusion among Christians is that our expectations are false. We do not give the subject of evil and suffering the thought it deserves until we ourselves are confronted with tragedy. If by that point our beliefs - not well thought out but deeply ingrained - are largely out of step with God, then the pain from the personal tragedy may be multiplied many times over as we begin to question the very foundations of our faith. (DA Carson; How Long, O Lord?)

How Long Oh Lord

The foundation of our faith is the integrity of God. Interestingly, when suffering hits biblical characters, they often seem more concerned about the integrity of God than the issue itself. For example, Martha’s first words to Jesus after the death of Lazarus were “Where were you…?” (Jn 11:21) not “I thought everyone was supposed to get healed!”. When caught in a storm on the lake, the disciples woke Jesus and instead of crying “Save us!” they asked “don’t you care if we drown?” (Mk 4:38).

“Where were you, God? Don’t you care?” These are cries of anguish from those surprised by storms, who are yet to develop their own trust of the character of God in seasons of suffering. Without a clear theology of storms, you may find yourself subjected to a double burden – the burden that makes you suffer, as well as the burden of disillusionment with the integrity of God. A double load like that can be brutal.

I want to recommend to you the benefits of putting on your Kevlar body armour before the bullets start to fly, and I hope my blogs in the coming weeks will help you to do just that…

Update 6th August

Sorry for the lack of information lately but lots has been happening!
On a personal note we’re pleased to say that our daughter Amelia Alice was born on 31st July and from a group point of view we’ve had more new people join us on our adventure with God and are enjoying making new friendships.

Thanks for all your prayers during the unconventional labour, birth and hospital period. Thanks also for the messages of encouragement we’ve received regarding the building of a church to display Jesus’ glory in Harlow. These are much appreciated and help us keep going when things don’t go as planned.

We are facing an exciting challenge with Harlow Group which we’d value prayer for and that is potentially moving from one group to two as when we’re all around we’re now too large.

Please could pray that we receive wisdom as to how to do this whilst still holding to our values. Also please pray that we are able to make contact with more people in Harlow and also those moving to the town so as to continue growing.

One last request would be for an increase of God’s presence with all the Harlow Group members at the moment as there’s a lot of life going on!

Thanks for taking time to read this and we pray God would reveal more of himself to you in whatever is going on in your lives as He has done in ours!

Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Update July 16th

Thanks for taking time to read this and your continued support.

No baby news to convey yet but lots of other good news this week. Last Sunday we greatly enjoyed being part of the Church in Harlow at the town park where we got to meet with old friends, make new friends and above all see Jesus worshipped in our town.

Since then we’ve been able to follow up enquiries to the website and had the pleasure of meeting new people both from Harlow and also Tibet who it has been great to share time, friendship and life with.

Thank you therefore for your prayers as God has definitely answered them by bringing us into contact with several new people, we’d ask you to continue to pray that this continues to happen and we’re able to gather more people over the next few days and weeks.

We’d also ask you to pray for wisdom for us as we face a few decisions in the next few weeks about how we go forward looking at the next chapter in the life of Harlow Church Plant.

One resource we’d like to recommend to you that was shared by Lex in a Seminar at Brighton is the website www.fixed-point.org
If you’ve not come across it before can we encourage you to have a look and maybe set aside some time to watch some of the debates including the well known ‘God Delusion’ and it’s both great and reassuring to see how these set of arguments are dismissed and the Gospel Message emerges.

Lastly for those of you in the Midlands please take a look at the Facebook group for ‘Real Life Church’ which is another Newfrontiers church plant starting in North Birmingham this summer. Hopefully this link might work! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/findreallife?ref=ts

Have a good week and we’ll keep you informed when baby arrives

Ben & Clare

Brighton Leaders Conference Video

Please use the link below to see the video of this year's conference

http://www.vimeo.com/13204217

Update 10th July

Many of you will know that Clare & I have just returned from the Newfrontiers Leaders Conference in Brighton where we had a great time meeting friends, getting lots of advice and really encountering God.

In Harlow we’ve had a lack of new people for a couple of weeks although we have had some e-mail enquiries to return home to. Please pray that these go well and we’re able to meet and build with key people in the town.
Please also pray that people moving into the town find us via our various forms of advertising and that God would bless us and allow us to regain growth momentum.

We’re looking forward to Sunday afternoon when lots of the churches in Harlow who are part of ‘heart for Harlow’ have gained use of the town bandstand and are putting on a Praise in the Park which we’ll be going to. This should be a great time as God is honoured and His people come together. If your local and free between 2 and 5.30pm please pop along.

Thanks for your continued support as we seek to build a fresh expression of Christianity in our town

Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Update 25th June

Time is flying by and to update you on recent activities here in Harlow we had a ladies pamper evening last Thursday which the ladies within our group speak very highly of and was an opportunity to bless a few friends as well!
Last night we met to discuss and pray to our Heavenly Father as we are feeling the need to press in, in prayer regarding key prophecies given to us and really see the power of God break out and enable us to establish a significant church here in Harlow.
We’ve also had responses to the website plus postcards and we’re really trusting God for fruit from these as we seek to be obedient to Him knowing that it worship of Him which must remain our focus. This has been very encouraging!
On Sunday we are visiting Jubilee Church London where Dr John Piper is the guest speaker and then having a Bar B que after so if you read this in time and live in or around Harlow please drop us a line and come along – there will of course be a certain football match on as well!
We’d appreciate your prayers for health, jobs and for people to be drawn to us via any method possible as we are expectant of God to continue to add to us over the summer.
On a personal note we are 4 weeks away from the due date for our first child and so are trusting God for a safe child birth for both mum and baby. Your prayers would be very welcome and we will of course keep you updated.
Thanks for reading and hope you’ve had a good week
Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Update 11th June

Well it’s a sunny evening here in Essex and hope the weather is good wherever you are.

In the last week we’ve tried to adjust to what we feel God has been saying to us and that is about getting more outward looking and getting out and about in Harlow to meet new people in whatever capacity we can. This will take time but we feel led into it and as such are trusting God to direct our efforts and connect us with people with whom we can build His church.

Please pray for us that we are able to gather more people, see lives turned about and fixed by the gospel and that God would give us wisdom to know what to do and what not to do.

As always if you live in Harlow or know someone who does please take a look at our website www.harlowchurchplant.org as it has more information and is up to date with goings on.

Thanks for reading this and your continued support

Ben & Clare

Facebook Update 4th June

Another 2 weeks roll past and we hope you are all well and for those of you around Essex/London that you are enjoying the summer sun.

Since we last wrote we’ve had a couple of good meetings as Harlow Group including taking Communion together for the first time. We’ve also seen a couple within the group get married, been blessed with some great teaching via Ed Stetzer and Jubilee Church Enfield as well as on a private note see the builders finish the work they were doing on our house!

It seems almost as though we’re about to start a new chapter at present as we’ve finished our first look at core values, gathered around a dozen people and seen God work miracles amongst us all for the glory of Jesus.

Now we are seeking Him for the next step. God has spoken to us about ‘Gathering, Growing and Going’ and we feel we are at the start of another ‘Gathering’ phase but that we as a group need to keep growing in our faith, stepping out for the glory of Jesus and Going to the people who are in our lives with the good news of the Gospel of our lord Jesus Christ.

Please pray that we are able to hear God’s voice clearly and that by His grace we are able to Gather the next wave of people.

In addition God has been speaking to us about prayer and we are really trying to get more of this into us corporately and individually. If you get this in time please pray for Ben tonight as he’s attending a prayer meeting later hosted by Jubilee Enfield with the aim of meeting with God, seeing Him lifted up and exalted and His kingdom greatly extended.

Thanks for reading this and please do keep remembering us in your prayers as we wouldn’t be where we are without your generous support.

Have a great week
Ben & Clare

Update 21st May 2010

Hi and thanks for reading this and therefore hopefully remembering us in your prayers.

In the past 2 weeks since our last update we’ve had a good couple of Thursday evenings enjoying Jelly Babies and Jesus! We’ve also been able to update the website, www.harlowchurchplant.org, with our own video made in HARLOW as well as more dates.

Please do keep checking the diary page as we’ve got quite a bit of stuff coming up from visits to other Newfrontiers Churches to pamper evenings, Bar-be-ques etc. so if you or someone you know is around in Harlow please get them to send us an email from the ‘contact us’ part of the website. We’ll make time for a coffee and chat especially now summer seems to have arrived!

Prayer requests would be for God’s favour in finding more people in Harlow to add to our launch team as we seek to gather the 50 people God spoke to us about who are to be a part of this initial phase. M & M’s from the last update would still be applicable.

Have a great weekend and God Bless

Ben & Clare

Video Introduction to our Church Plant

Please take a look at this video which we filmed in April and will hopefully soon be accessible on the homepage of our website.

Keep smiling

Welcome to Harlow Church Plant from Harlow Church Plant on Vimeo

Update 7th May 2010

I was reminded by a friend this week of a Churchill quote ‘I’ve written you a long letter as I didn’t have time to write you a short one’ and in that vein we’re trying to put time in so you don’t have to scroll all over the page!

It’s been an amazing week for us here in Harlow. God spoke to us extremely powerfully last Sunday re-emphasising almost every single prophetic point we’d ever had before and then giving us some future direction to fast and pray over. It was great to know God is with us, isn’t He good?

This week’s group was understandably buzzing as a result with a few people sharing their testimonies of what God’s been doing before we re-listened and prayed into a recording of last Sunday’s prophecy over us as a group.

Prayer requests would be for ‘M&M’s’ by that we mean Men and Musicians, not chocolate although we won’t turn it away if it appears, both of whom God has spoken about and we are actively seeking Him for as part of the next stage of our growth.

Please also pray for wisdom, health and humility for us as we seek to extend Jesus’ kingdom here in Harlow.

Have a great week
Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Weekly Update

It’s a Bank Holiday weekend which must mean at least one BBQ mustn’t it?

It’s been a quieter week in some ways for us as Harlow Group as we didn’t meet yesterday but rather went to Stortford Community Church where they had a prophetic night with a superb guy called Julian Adams. It was good for us to be with God’s people and in His presence.

On a negative note sadly we’ve had more tiredness and illness this week so would ask for your continued prayers for good health for all our group. We really want to be all Jesus has called us to be and so long for the whole group to be fully functioning. God has been speaking to us about this and we’ll be exploring this in May when we start a mini ‘Body Building’ series.

Also please can you pray for fresh connections for us as we’ve had a quieter couple of weeks and would really like to be meeting some new people and building Jesus’ kingdom with them. In particular pray for people moving to the town and people who work at the hospital as God’s spoken about both these groups during our prayer meetings.

As always if you know anyone who you think it would be good for us to connect with then either forward this message on or direct them to our website as you can e-mail us from there. wwwharlowchurchplant.org

In the meantime thanks you so much for your continued support, we pray that God will bless you and reveal more of himself to you.

Keep smiling

Ben & Clare

Facebook Update 16

Another week flies by and spring seems to be well and truly here!

Within Harlow Group this week we’ve been busy trying to work on some updates to our website and publicity, which should filter through in the next few weeks and hopefully connect and join us with more people in Harlow.

We were also able to serve Open Door Church – Dunmow last Sunday and had a fantastic time with our friends there. We received a tremendous amount of encouragement for our work in Harlow and hope to have helped them on in their adventure with God also.

Our biggest prayer request is the same as last week and that is that by God’s grace we are able to make contact with people who are either new to Harlow, not connected to an existing church here or simply exploring the Christian faith, as we seek to build His kingdom in Harlow.

We do have some flyers and pens with our contact details on so if you or someone you know could use these or help distribute them please let us know and we’ll arrange to get them to you.

Have a fantastic week and thank you so much for taking the time to read this update and for remembering us to our heavenly father

Keep smiling

Ben & Clare

Harlow Group Thursday Night Commentary

Hi everyone my name is James and I’m part of the church plant here in Harlow.

Every Friday I’m going to be giving you a brief overview of what happened at Harlow Group the evening before so if your new and thinking of coming along you know what to expect and if your part of the group and miss an evening you won’t be in the dark.

Last night we had a great turnout with 13 people present, it started off in the normal fashion of yummy food made by myself, Ben and Clare which went down well with a side of catching up and laughter, we also had some great news one couple had some amazing news regarding a potentially troubled pregnancy which is no longer troubled and I now have a job so praise God and thank you for all your prayers.

During worship God spoke through me and Ben to the group which was both challenging and uplifting so THANK YOU GOD.

This week Lee brought some very impressive and factual teaching about the Wesley’s and the early Methodist movement after which we broke into groups and reflected and prayed.

By the grace of God the group is getting stronger and more people coming and showing interest.

We value the prayer support of all of you and pray that God will bless you abundantly!
In the words of Ben… God bless and keep smiling!

Facebook Update 15

Another week has flown past and been a really amazing one for us as a group as we’ve seen some massive answers to prayer. We’ve seen God provide a job for one person and a simply amazing healing for another. God is good.

Please be encouraged by this and know that you, and all the other people around the globe supporting us, contributed to these amazing events.

If you haven’t been to our website, www.harlowchurchplant.org, recently then have a look as we’ve altered some of the pages. In addition James from our group is now posting a weekly summary of our Thursday Harlow Group meetings so if you want to know what we really get up to why not have a read on the BLOG section.

Could we kindly ask you to continue praying for good health and employment for us as a group as although we’ve seen breakthrough there are still many more issues affecting different people in the group which remain.

Also please pray for more contact from people who are either new to Harlow, not connected to an existing church here or simply exploring the Christian faith, as it’s been great to continually have new people coming along the last few week and long may in continue.

In particular please pray that we can connect with men in Harlow as we are acutely aware that we are getting a gender bias in the group and also for people with key gifting who can really join the front lines within our ranks for the sole purpose of advancing Jesus’ kingdom in our town.

Ben is speaking at Open Door Church in Dunmow on Sunday so please pray that he’d be able to serve them well and we’d see Jesus’ kingdom extended all across Essex and beyond.

Have a good week and we’ll be in touch soon

Ben & Clare

Harlow Group Update 9th April 2010

We hope you had a great Easter. We spent time reflecting on one of the phrases common in the early church ‘Christ has died, Christ has Risen, Christ will come again!’

Since our last update we’ve been busy continuing with publicity and God has been good to us and brought us into contact with more new people one of whom has joined our group! It may not sound like much to you, but it feels like revival for us and we’re so grateful to God as it’s all His doing. We have a great God who answers prayers – our faith has risen and we ask for more contact with more people who can join with us on our adventure of making Jesus better known in Harlow.

Within our group we are still having battles for employment and health so would appreciate your partnering with us in prayer on those issues as well as connecting with new key people who can join our Harlow Church Plant.

We are hoping to do a brief summary of our group Thursday meetings on the BLOG section of our website (www.harlowchurchplant.org) so if you do know of people in and around Harlow please mention that to them so they can get a fuller flavour of what’s happening and hopefully pop along.

Ben is speaking at Kings Community Church over in Braintree on Sunday so we’d appreciate prayers for that so that Jesus is honoured, lives altered and His kingdom extended. We’re also looking forward to being amongst friends and catching up on goings on in the past months.

Thanks you so much for taking time to read this and for continuing to remember us in prayer – you are all superstars and we thank God for you (even if we don’t know you personally!)

Have a great week and lets hope the spring sunshine continues

Keep smiling

Ben & Clare

Happy Easter

Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!

Please take time to think about these simple yet life changing facts as we celebrate this fantastic period of the Christian calender.

Have a great week

Ben & Clare

The week just gone! It has been a good one.

Hello again and hope you’ve had a good week. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement for our Regional Announcement last Sunday which was well received. As a result our website has been busier but still needs lots of visits to climb above primarily estate agents whom Google finds when searching ‘Harlow Church’ due to them selling properties in Church Langley Harlow!

On a personal note been a good week as our extension has started and seems to be flying up and on a Harlow Group front also been a good week – we were in double figures again last night and felt God was really with us as we continued to look at what makes us ‘Harlow Group’ Full details on our website www.harlowchurchplant.org

We’d still appreciate prayers for health and jobs as these two obstacles never seem to be far away from us as a group though through it all God has been good.

In addition please can you pray that we are able to connect with new people in our town who aren’t in an existing church in the town but whom God can use to help us establish a significant church which extends His kingdom.

After seeing new people along for the past 2 weeks now we’re really excited about what God is doing especially as we approach Easter when we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection. We hope to be able to connect with new people at this key time!

Have a great week and thanks for your continued support and taking the time to read this update

Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Weekly Update on Harlow Church Plant 19th March

Hello and another week has passed and we hope it has been a good one for you all. We’ve had a good week too as we seek to see a significant church established in Harlow as plans have been coming together for this Sunday’s Regional Celebration and we also had Colin & Eunice Potter join us last night to share their wisdom, thoughts and strategies with us from the two extremely successful church plants they have done in Plumstead and Enfield.

We are very grateful as Colin & Eunice shared many things which have provoked me and other members of the group and I’m sure will be fruitful in giving us direction in the next phase or our journey. Speaking of which next Thursday will be the first of 4 Harlow Group sessions looking at what we want to value. We are expecting The Holy Spirit to be with us and for some great revelation – see the website ‘News’ section for more details.

We’d really appreciate your prayers for the 3 minute slot we have at Sundays Regional celebration as although not long we have lots to communicate and help to request, as getting people to log onto our website thus making it better rated by the search engines such as Google is one of our current aims – with that in mind could you maybe go there after reading the remainder of this update? www.harlowchurchplant.org

Otherwise we’d appreciate prayers for health of key members of our group and also employment as we are still struggling on that front.

Also for new people to join the plant, we sense that we are ready for some new warriors to join us, people who are prepared to join us in our Churchillian blood, sweat, toil and tears battle and so are seeking God with expectation to have more of Harlow’s mighty men & women added to us.

Have a great week and we’ll be back next week with an update from the regional celebration plus an overview of how our first evening of putting in the foundations has gone.

Keep smiling
Ben & Clare
p.s. now don’t forget to go to www.harlowchurchplant.org

Weekly Update 12th March

Once again good afternoon on a Friday and we hope you have a good weekend planned. Thank you one and all for your continued support it is very much valued!

This week has seen our website, www.harlowchurchplant.org, go fully live on the various search engines and we have already had one family in Harlow contact us via it which is really exciting! We are praying that this is just the start of things to come!

We have also taken delivery today of our first set of postcard flyers and I even had time to drop a few off whilst up the town centre earlier between coffee appointments. Your continued prayers for fruit from our publicity would be excellent at the moment as we are seeking to meet fresh people in our town, Harlow.

Last night we met as a group and it was nice to have 2 new faces with us whom we hope were blessed and will consider joining us on our mission to make Jesus better known in Harlow. We looked at what God has called us to be and were really challenged by the following passage from Isaiah 61

'The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour'

We believe that this is what God has called us to be and also discussed the reality that this isn’t going to be an easy achievement and is one we are going to have to make sacrifices for and persevere in the fight to see come to be. We really do feel God’s favour with us at the moment and yet are still in the midst of several individual battles so your continued prayers for protection and employment are vital to the life of our church plant.

Lastly your prayers for us as we prepare to share very briefly about Harlow at next Sunday’s regional celebration would be welcome.
Thanks for reading and please do keep passing our web address to anyone you know in Harlow as people can make contact by filling in the form on it.

Have a great week and we’ll give you another update next week
Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

5th March Update

Afternoon everyone and hope all is well. Thanks for your continued support which is warmly received.

The past week saw us visit Jubilee Church which meets in Enfield Cineworld last Sunday and to date this was one of our highlights as not only did we meet with God but also many friendly and encouraging people. Afterwards a few of us shared some food and grabbed some time together which was great.

We have been busy working on getting some flyers printed and we should be in a position to distribute a few of these next week once they return from the printers as well as purchasing a surprise gift for everyone who will be at the forthcoming regional event on 21^st March!

Please pray for fruit from these ventures as we are determined to build a significant large local church for Jesus’ glory and so meeting people is key for us. Google are working on our website to ensure it is listed for search engines to find so hopefully that will be another method by which some of the 90,000 people of Harlow can come across us!

We would still appreciate prayers for health and jobs as James still hasn’t been able to move to Harlow although there is a possible opening which he’s hoping might materialise.

Please do keep checking our website – www.harlowchurchplant.org as we are working hard to keep the news and BLOG up to date plus the videos are a good watch too.

Have a great week and don’t forget to keep mentioning us to your friends, family and anyone else you meet!

Keep smiling

Ben & Clare

Update week ending 26th February

Afternoon at the end of a wet week here in Essex. We hope you are all well and thanks for your continued support in our church planting adventure!

This week has seen some of the Harlow Group men enjoy a men’s day entitled ‘Men of Stortford’ at Community Church where we are based which was a great day. In addition Adrian Holloway (from ChristChurch London ) came to speak at Community Church last Sunday and inspired us in the area of making Jesus known which was very timely for us as Harlow Group, as we’ve felt God nudging and reminding us that Harlow is a town consisting of 90,000 people the majority of whom need to know that there is a God who loves them, died for their sin and who wants a personal relationship with them.

In response we’re considering how to get to know more people around our town and will keep you posted once things materialise more but we’d appreciate your prayers for us as we seek to go purposefully into Harlow to grow our group.
In addition if you could continue to pray for God’s protection over us particularly regarding health and employment we’d massively value that. Plus one final specific request this week would be a job for James in our group as he urgently needs employment in order to move and join us here in Harlow all the time.

Please do keep checking our website – www.harlowchurchplant.org as we are adding new bits all the time plus it has our BLOG, News, Dates and even some videos about Newfrontiers

Have a great week and don’t forget to keep mentioning us to your friends, family and anyone else you meet!

Keep smiling
Ben & Clare

Facebook Group Update

Afternoon everyone, welcome to those of you who are new and we trust this message finds you well. Thanks again for continued support for the Newfrontiers Harlow Church Plant, we wouldn’t be where we are without your prayers and support.

We are planning to maintain these Facebook updates in addition to the BLOG part of our website (www.harlowchurchplant.org) which contains lots more info besides these updates.

Since we last wrote things have been tough and it’s fair to say we know we’re in a battle! As a group we have faced what seems like more than our fair quota of illness and employment hassles! That said God has been good to us and kept us going as well as confirming our total and utter dependence on Him. God has spoken to us regularly as a group letting us know He is with us and that we have favour with Him.

We have now established regular Thursday evening meetings which are starting to become exciting times as God is speaking to us and confirming our purpose, direction and that He is most definitely with us!

We’d still appreciate loads of prayer for wisdom and strength to keep going as the number of tasks seem to be escalating and time by contrast seems to be non-existent! We’d also appreciate prayer for God’s protection on us as a group and for jobs to appear / go better.

Lastly we’d love to meet some new people and grow in number. We have some obvious ‘holes’ in our group which we’re trusting God to fill so if you or anyone you know feels called to join us then please have a look at our website (www.harlowchurchplant.org) and get in touch via there or the Facebook group.

Have a great weekend, God bless

Ben & Clare

Harlow Group Meeting 18th February

Last night we met once more to worship Jesus plus share Shepherds Pie, cake and life with one another.

God has been speaking to us as a group lately about being in a battle, it has certainly felt that way! In line with this we drew comparisons and encouragement from scripture plus the following speech given by Winston Churchill as he address parliament for the first time as Prime Minister after taking lead of the country shortly after the outbreak of the 2nd World War.

'I say to the House as I said to the ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.


You ask what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea and air. War with all our might and with the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.


You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - victory in spite of all terrors - victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival'

God spoke to us last week from Psalm 23 with a special focus on verse 5 'You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.' and again last night as we prayed into this we felt God re-affirm that He is with us and that the battles and struggles we face He is with us in and that He and He alone will bring us through.

We had pictures of God being our support in the way a stick supports a plant and were also reminded of the footsteps poem where God carries us through the tough parts of life.

God also reminded us of the value of standing together and not retreating into our own worlds but standing together as a 'new' community united by Jesus. A picture was brought about Roman soldiers shields locking together and so being more together than apart and able to withstand together better as a community than apart.

Overall it was a good night where God was with us and lifting our spirits and blessing us because of His goodness.

We wait in excitement to see Him build us into the people He would have us be for Jesus' glory and honour - what a challenge and wonderful adventure we're on!

5th February Update from Facebook Group

Greetings everyone and welcome to those of you for whom this is your first contact.

Thanks for taking time to read this, for remembering us in prayer and as always we sincerely pray that you will be blessed in return. God has been impressing on us the importance and need for prayer and more and more we are realising that we are totally dependent upon Him, trusting in His grace and mercy and brought up short with our total inability to make things happen.

Since the last update lots seems to have happened although it’s only been 2 weeks. We have got a website up and running so can be found at www.harlowchurchplant.org and whilst parts of this are still changing we are hoping to use this more and more in the future so keep an eye on it.

We have also finished having our initial coffee and chat times and so are excited at the prospect of running ‘Harlow group’ every Thursday evening in various homes. We’d really value your prayers for these as they are crucial for us to build together and truly become ‘friends together on a mission’

For anyone still considering popping along we’d encourage you to get in touch! The plan is still to meet from 7 till 9 including simple food and a great time together focusing on Jesus knowing it’s all about Him!

This week we’ll be looking at what God has spoken to us prophetically so it promises to be a significant and good evening!

Please do pray that God would not only direct our Thursday evening meetings but that He would also add to our number particularly in areas where we are currently weak. Harlow contains around 90,000 people and Jesus has an inheritance here of many people who yet don’t know Him, the challenge for us is massive but we are trusting in God to direct and connect us with the right people.

In addition please could you pray for protection over us as a group as we’ve had medical scares, ill health and just lots of things not going as we planned in the past couple of weeks too!

Thanks for your continued support and please don’t forget to have a look at www.harlowchurchplant.org

Keep smiling

Ben & Clare

Facebook Group Update from 23rd January

Hello again or for the first time to those of you who have joined us in the past couple of weeks since our last update. Sorry for the slight delay with this update but lots has been happening, we’ve tried to incorporate the key points below. Also apologies to those of you who have joined the group who we don’t know and haven’t sent a personal message to. With the groups size now it is hard to determine who is new and who isn’t so if we’ve missed you please drop us a reply to this update.

Thanks for taking time to read this, for remembering us in prayer and as always we sincerely pray that you will be blessed in return.

What’s happened in the past 2 weeks then? Well primarily we’ve had the privilege of meeting lots of new people, from outstanding leaders in our town, people at Community Church Bishop’s Stortford and fresh faces at our Harlow Group drop in sessions.

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves at Community Church Bishop’s Stortford where we are now based. We have been really encouraged by people from CCBS bringing words, pictures and encouragement from God for us which were extremely similar to previous words given in other settings. God is good!

Harlow Group is now up and running and we have our 4^th getting to know one another session planned for Sunday 31^st January from 3 till 4pm and then from February are aiming to meet weekly on Thursdays from 7 till 9.

If you or anyone you know of might be interested in joining or meeting us please can you forward this message onto them or ask them to get in contact via our Facebook Group page as we’d love to meet them.

We really feel we have the favour of God with us at present and would ask for specific prayer that this continues and that we honour Jesus in all we do. We would also ask you to pray that God would continue to add people to us and cause people who are living in Harlow but not part of an existing church to hear of our existence and get in touch.

Have a great week and we’ll have another update shortly plus our website should also be up and running in the next couple of weeks too.

Keep smiling
Ben and Clare

Posting from Facebook Group 8th January 2010

Happy New Year and welcome to those of you who have joined since our last update towards the end of 2009.

We are so thankful for your support and prayers as we doubt we’d be where we are without them. We sincerely pray that you will be blessed in return.

Last night we had the first of our informal getting to know each other sessions which saw 9 of us gather together for some food whilst sharing stories of the weather affected weeks we had been having. Clare and I had a great time, as we think did everyone else! We were amazed at God’s goodness in getting everyone together and giving us such a relaxed friendly feel to the group even though some people were meeting for the first time.

We must mention people’s commitment as one person had had to stay up 24 hours due to her car breaking down and another drive all the way from Manchester just to be with us! Truly humbling to be a part of and thank you so much!

Sorry to those of you who weren’t able to make it and we look forward to seeing you at one of our other meetings soon. The next 3 dates and times are as follows, Sunday 17^th January from 3 till 4pm, Thursday 21^st January from 7 till 9pm with food and Sunday 31^st January from 3 till 4pm.

If you or someone you know would like to pop along we’d love to see you just reply to this message or post on our Facebook page and we’ll get more details to you.

Prayer requests would be for meaningful relationships to be formed amongst the ‘Harlow Group’ and for us to also clearly hear God on the decisions which we are making at present for the group. Also we are trusting God to add to our number and so would appreciate prayer relating to this; that people would hear of our existence and that we would also have opportunities to share the gospel and also our vision with many people whom we currently don’t know. (And for courage to do just that!)

We’d also appreciate prayer regarding our ability to establish good relationships with the many other established churches in the town and for our relationship with the other Newfrontier Churches in the region. We have the opportunity to share briefly with Bishop’s Stortford Community Church, where we are now based, all that God has put on our hearts for Harlow next Sunday (17^th January) and so your prayers for communicating this clearly and for people to decide to support and join us as a result would be fabulous.

Have a great week and hopefully we’ll have another update shortly and are still aiming to get a website up by the end of January.

Keep smiling

Ben and Clare

Greetings

Testing blog page!