A new chapter begins

I am so encouraged.


After all the months (and years) of praying, giving and planning we have now had our first Sunday meeting in our new venue - The King's Centre, Burgess Hill.


It was such an electric atmosphere and it was so good to see the place rammed full and to hear the voices of people worshipping God. Though we knew that lots of people would be interested in seeing the new building, we did not fully expect that over 430 people would be there on our first Sunday. As I said, I am so encouraged.

It was a great privilege for me to be able to preach the first message in The King's Centre - reminding us to be more excited about the presence of God than a new building.  The picture to the right shows the view from where I was standing. It was quite an amazing moment for me.


We are on a steep learning curve in terms of running our own building. We recognise that not everything was as good as we want it to be. Please bear with us over the next few weeks, especially in the following areas:

ACOUSTICS AND SOUND

Our technical team did an outstanding job to get us up and running for Sunday morning - they had very little time and worked incredibly hard. We were aware that the auditorium would present some challenges regarding echo and reverb. However, until we were able to get 400 chairs and people in the building we could not fully analyse the sound. Please be assured we are aware that the sound is not as we want it to be. We are working hard on finding the right solutions and will be liaising with acoustic specialists, however, this will not be completely resolved immediately. Please be patient as we try to find the best short and long term solutions.

COFFEE AND REFRESHMENTS

We are aware that some people had to queue for some time to get their refreshments last Sunday. We will try different solutions each week to try and reduce the time people have to wait. We are requesting that people do keep lids on hot drinks - this is both for safety (we do not want hot drinks spilling over children) and to prevent spillages in the building.

PARKING

We were able to get many cars on to the site which was great news.  Again, we will learn over the coming weeks the best way to park the maximum number of cars. If you are arriving from the north end of the building (i.e. coming in from Royal George Road, Burgess Hill) please park in the spaces we are able to use at Sussex Central College which is right next to The King's Centre. This will help prevent log jams at the south entrance of the building.


Thank you for your patience as we work these things through. The reason we are not publicly launching the building until September is so that we have these weeks over the summer to discover the best ways of running these areas.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

This coming Sunday (15 July) is a big Sunday for us at The King's Church Mid-Sussex.We will gather for the last time in Clair Hall, Haywards Heath before we move into our new venue at The King's Centre, Burgess Hill.

It is going to be a significant morning as we have been meeting in Clair Hall for 35 years.

As I have been preparing for Sunday I have been reminded again of the men and women of faith who have gone before us and who have made it possible for us to enjoy the kind of church that we do today.

We are the fruit of what is known as the 'Charismatic Renewal'. In the 1960's and 1970's there was a new wave of Holy Spirit activity in the UK. Men and women were being baptised in the Spirit and the freedom and joy that resulted impacted normal Sunday morning meetings. Many existing church wineskins did not want to find room for this new wine and so small groups of people began gathering in one another's homes - building community, teaching grace and being open to the gifts of the Spirit for today.

We now enjoy all of these things and, to a degree, may take them for granted. However, we can only enjoy these freedoms because of the battles that the previous generation fought on our behalf.

David Coak and John Salmon, who led our church
when it began, standing outside TKC's first offices
 in Haywards Heath opposite Clair Hall

We truly are standing on the shoulders of giants.  

On Sunday 22 July we start a new chapter as a church, meeting in our new venue - The King's Centre, Burgess Hill. It is such a joy to be leading this church at this time. But I know I only get to lead us into this new chapter because of the giants that have gone before me, because of the foundations they laid and because of the values they built into us as a people.

These are exciting days, but as we look forward let us also look back and remember all those people who made these kind of days possible for us to enjoy

Unbelievable Generosity - Gift Day Feedback

Stunned.

That's how I felt last Sunday morning as our finance director (Paul Wright) gave me the scrap of paper which had written upon it the total from our recent gift days.

As I had been praying for our summer gift days I felt God say to believe him for £100,000. Obviously, this is a huge amount of money. The members at TKC have given out of their skin over the last two years as we have purchased and converted an old warehouse. So £100,000 - really? Was that possible? We are in a recession after all. It seemed like a very ambitious faith goal that God had given me.

As I looked at the piece of paper on Sunday morning I was stunned.

£91,955.99

At the time of writing we have now exceed £95,000. I am praying and believing that we will indeed pass the £100,000 target.

To be so close to £100,000 was incredible. I wanted to believe God for that figure but wondered if it was really attainable - I felt like the man in the gospels who said in Mark 9 “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

And still the gifts are coming in!

When King David took up an offering for the temple in Jerusalem he said this:

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand." 1 Chronicles 29 v 14

I feel exactly the same. Who am I and who are we that we can give as generously as this. I am so grateful to God, so grateful to the church I am part of and, as I said, I am ...

Stunned.