God Central Church - Update 9th September

We are incredibly grateful to God as our first Sunday went well and it was great to worship Jesus in the centre of our town with both friends and new faces alike. It was also fabulous to be able to involve the children in the service and for them to have their own room.

This week we’ve been advertising in the local paper and our prayer is that God joins many more people to us for His glory.
We have specific needs both in terms of children’s workers and parts of our worship team which we’re trusting Him for as we seek to build a significant church here in Harlow, Essex.

Please do keep praying for wisdom and protection for us all as we are at both an exciting but also vulnerable stage in our adventure at present.

Thanks for reading and hope you have a good weekend
Keep smiling
Ben, Clare and everyone at Newfrontiers God Central Church – Harlow
www.Godcentralchurch.org

Newfrontiers God Central Church Harlow - Update 1st August

Newfrontiers God Central Church – Harlow. Update 1st August

Well summer is upon us and we’re enjoying gearing up for Sunday mornings with effect from the 4th September.

Plans are going well and we’ve also seen an upturn in new enquiries from both people who have been away from church for a while as well as new Christians moving to Harlow. If you are reading this and in or know someone in either of those categories then please send us a message from the ‘contact us’ part of the website as we’d really like to hear from you.

We’re also hosting a ‘come and meet us’ evening at the Harlow Playhouse at 6pm on Sunday 14th August where people who have been following us for a while or have just heard about us can come along and hear a bit of our story so far and also our dreams for the future. We’re advertising the evening in the Harlow Star newspaper so if you’d like to come and support us or send someone along that would be brilliant and there will be cakes and drinks to whet your appetite still further!

Another date for your diaries is the 17th September when our friends at Community Church Bishop’s Stortford are hosting a worship conference. All info and booking details are on their website http://www.thecommunitychurch.org.uk/worship

As always thanks for reading this and supporting us as we seek to make Jesus more famous in Harlow.

Have a great summer and we’ll give you a further update after our ‘come and meet us’ evening on the 14th August.

Keep smiling
Ben, Clare and everyone at God Central Church

Newfrontiers God Central Church - Harlow Update 8th July

We hope this finds you well and thanks for reading and supporting us on our mission of making Jesus better known in Harlow.

Since we last wrote we’re pleased to announce that from September we’ll be meeting every Sunday morning at 10.30am at the Harlow Playhouse.

Even better they have kindly agreed that we can use 2 rooms downstairs and so we’re excited about helping the babies and children have their own space as well as the opportunity to improve our welcome and profile.

God has been so good to us we are very grateful and amazed at what He has done and is doing! He really is building His church!

In addition we’ve also been in contact with several new people in Harlow which is again really exciting as God has spoken to us about gathering more people as we move into the next season and He is already going before us and linking us with new people in Harlow!

If you are reading this and new to Harlow, know someone who is, or who lives here and isn’t part of an existing church, please send us an e-mail to info@harlowchurchplant.org or give us a call/text on 07722 969088 as we’d really like to connect with more people in our town.

Please could we ask you pray for wisdom, protection and guidance for us as a church and also for healing and jobs for some of the people in the church.

Have a good day and thanks again for reading this

Keep smiling

Ben, Clare & everyone at God Central church – Harlow
www.Godcentralchurch.org

Newfrontiers God Central Church Harlow - Update 6th May

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. It’s been a busy time in God Central church as we’ve been transitioning from 2 to 3 life groups as well as taking a fresh look at how we do things.

We’ve also been busy leafleting new areas of Harlow, working on fine tweaking our website (www.Godcentralchurch.org) as well as going to weekly ‘us together’ meetings based at either the Harlow Study Centre or the Harlow Playhouse. (A full list of all our meeting dates can be found on our website.)

If you’re reading this and new to Harlow why not pop along to one of our meetings, details are on the website or you can e-mail us from there if you fancy a coffee and chat first.

Prayer requests would be for more of the presence of God, His favour to gather more people and see lives transformed by the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In particular we are praying for men, families and musicians to help us in the next stage of establishing a significant church for the display of Jesus’ glory so if you or someone you know fits these categories please get in touch and lets have a coffee.

Thanks for reading and have a great day
Ben, Clare and everyone at God Central church

Newfrontiers God Central Church Harlow - Easter Celebration

Happy Easter and we trust this message finds you well.

Just a quick reminder and invitation to our Easter Sunday Celebration and Dedications in 2 days time.

We’re looking forward to worshipping our risen saviour and celebrating the new life He has given to us. During the service we’ll be dedicating both Truth and Amelia, 2 of our recent additions!

It would be great if you wanted to join us 4pm at the Harlow Playhouse and we have a gift for everyone coming too....

If you need directions or further information please take a look aat www.Godcentralchurch.org and if you can’t find what your looking for feel free to drop us a message from the website.

Keep smiling
Ben, Clare, Amelia and everyone at God Central Church

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

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