Renewal Evening 2

Back in November we held a day together with Christ Church, Burney Lane. This was a day with Helena Wilkinson, in which she shared in the morning service, took a seminar in the afternoon, and then spoke at a renewal evening. This was the first of what we hope will be a whole series of renewal evenings held jointly between CMM and Christ Church.

So in February we held the second in the series, and this time the speaker was Ian Parkinson, one of the leaders of New Wine North and East. The music group and prayer team met simultaneously to prepare for the service, and to pray for the evening to come. In the music group, alongside Roger, Annie and Helen we had Martin and Katie leading the singing, Tim on drums, Paul on guitar and Jen making her debut on sax and clarinet.

Unfortunately by the time the evening was due to start, Ian was still stuck in traffic on the M6. So after delaying a little, we began with a nice long block of praise. There were quite a number in the congregation from the local churches, so we were thrilled, as this is only the second of its kind.

Ian did arrive after a couple of songs, so he was able to speak as planned. He spoke on the feeding of the five thousand, drawing links between that story and our approach to our relationship with Jesus and also to mission.

After Ian's talk, we had an extensive time of ministry led by Peter Smith, vicar of Christ Church. Lots of people were prayed for, including the speaker! Praise God for his love - giving words and pictures to people to aid the ministry time.

Afterwards we realised that this service had taken place on the anniversary of Peter Lawrence's death. Peter used to be vicar of Christ Church, and this was exactly the sort of evening he was encouraging. It's amazing how things come full circle.

The next evening is in April and our speaker will be Heather Butler. Heather has an amazing prophetic ministry, where God speaks through her in song. Should be a great evening.