A weekend on the South Coast

On the last weekend of January, Roger, Helen, Marilyn and Bill travelled to Sidmouth and to Sidholme, a Christian Guild hotel there.  The weekend was organised by the Group for Evangelism and Renewal (GEAR) in the United Reformed Church, and was their annual Southern Area Conference.  It was an honour to be invited to lead the conference, and to work alongside Brian Harley again.

The hotel was almost full, and there were over 60 guests on the conference, some of whom were familiar to us, but mostly new.

Roger led the opening session with an introductory evening focusing on how God is the ultimate worship-seeker, opening the scriptures and seeing how time and time again God woos his people, seeking relationship.  This talk is based on one of the opening chapters of the Worship Workbook CMM is looking to bring out later in the year - watch this space for more information!

The prayer ministry workshop in action

The following morning Helen led a session called 'Being a worshipper', one of the talks CMM has developed over many years, focusing on David in 2 Samuel 6.  For the second half of the morning the conference divided into two workshops - Roger leading one with Marilyn and Bill about worship and Sunday mornings. Helen led another workshop with Brian which looked at prayer ministry.  Both of these sessions were aimed at encouraging local church life, and it was so encouraging to see people blessed and fired up to return to their home church situations.

After a free afternoon period the team led a creative prophetic workshop, which always brings people out of their comfort zones, followed in by a praise party in the evening after dinner.  One of the important sessions on this conference is the Saturday evening, and a lot of time and space is given for people to receive prayer ministry.  It was so encouraging to find a group of people determined to do this.

The conference finished off on Sunday morning with a communion service during which Roger spoke about the tabernacle - we enter the gates with thanksgiving, and the courts with praise, and because of the blood of Jesus we can have confidence to enter the most holy place.

Thanks so much Brian and the GEAR committee for inviting us and looking after us so well.  We pray that the conference was a blessing to all involved.