Aspects of Grace

I can't believe that grace is completely free and can change lives as emphatically and deeply as it has amongst the student and twenties community at Citygate Church. It's a glimpse of glory to see life after life radically and deeply enriched by the presence of The Holy Spirit, doing a deep renewing work amongst His people. Now I am not painting a picture of a bed of roses, and it's not always sunny, it doesn't always feel like things are going right - but when it comes back to looking at the tangible and evident fruit of God - it's clear that something's going on amongst us.

I have recently been encouraged, really excited and inspired by a great book I can recommend called "No Perfect People Allowed" by John Burke. It's about creating a come as you are culture in The Church, welcoming everyone (just as they are) and creating an obvious culture which sees everyone in Church as a work in progress. I have loved the way John talks about community which welcomes the gays, the living-together-unmarried's, the single parent, the drop out, the homeless, the broken and the emotionally needy - making people feel welcome and relaxed (whatever their like, or their past experiences) but not selling out on Biblical Truth. Wouldn't that be incredible?! 

: A place where everyone feels valued (because in reality God values us all equally), everyone knows they may be at different places spiritually, but that that no question is invalid and no person is off limits to the Grace and community of God. What would that look like in Citygate? Where we'd welcome the "special" person, or the person who genuinely believes that God is somewhere out there, but hasn't found Him yet. A place where the emotional wreck could sit down and feel that everyone isn't starring at them, where a house mate could come along and not feel targeted as the newbie - but each and every person loved with a genuine love and care for them, just as they are. No strings attached. 

"...it's not always sunny, it doesn't always feel like things are going right - but when it comes back to looking at the tangible and evident fruit of God - it's clear that something's going on amongst us..."

In the book John tells of a close gay couple who came along every Sunday, sat quietly in their seats during the meeting and just took it all in for well over a year. It took a whole year for them to experience, test and see that this was a genuine bunch of loving people who really cared who they were, and that their God was not just as loving - but loved them more. After a year, they made a connection, made a commitment, and God saved them. The point? It's about loving someone no matter what they look like or do, but who they are. Being patient and still more patient when they get it wrong and don't understand, but patiently loving everyone who walks through the door and into our lives. I've come to understand it's not us that changes people, not our well thought out theology, events or intimate times of quality worship - but God and only God by His Holy Spirit who decides the time is right to save someone and change them. Maybe it's strange, but I have found that incredibly liberating. I don't save someone, stop them mucking up, or push them into Gods presence at 5SmoothStones, but God alone can change someone and save someone. Now that's freedom!

Next Saturday we're at a training tract called So Who Am I? - looking at how we identify ourselves and secure ourselves in God. He's called us out to be raised up; these sessions will radically impact our perceptions, and as we welcome God, we expect Him to meet us where we're at. Join the day, it's free and in the evening we'll celebrate all of God's goodness at our annual welcome dinner. Evening tickets on sale this Sunday at £10 incl formal three course dinner (with drinks), for your chance to join in buy them from the students & twenties team.

So Who am I?
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=241157592600034

Annual Welcome Dinner
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=263317413707149

No Perfect People Allowed
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/1865110/No-Perfect-People-Allowed/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=no+perfect+people+allowed&urlrefer=search

Autumn Arrival

It’s that time of year when you realise summer is well and truly over, there’s a long old winter ahead and the town... is buzzing with new student life! Welcome to all the new students, twenties or randomers that find their way to be a part of the wonderful community of Citygate students and twenties – we love living and sharing life together.

So if you’re new, you probably think what an interesting bunch of people – and you’d be right! We come from all walks of life, are at different places in our relationship with God, but each one of us sees the draw of God on their life, and together we live life. I’ve been reading a book called “No perfect people allowed” by John Burke (highly recommend BTW) and it’s been a challenging and exciting read, looking at how to create Church culture that welcomes everyone, but doesn’t become liberal and sell out on biblical truth. 

"That got me thinking – how do we welcome everyone, just as Jesus does; yet not sell out and whitewash sin and poor behaviour? I look at the earthly life of Jesus and see a perfect man – a God-man who was 100% righteous and holy, but who spent his days hanging out with the mess up’s, the down and out’s, the no-hoper’s. How on earth?!"

To the human bit of me it isn’t possible, yet Jesus saw in each person what God saw – a human spirit, created out of love, to be made in the mirror image of its creator, God.  He welcomed everyone no matter their stained past, stained cloths and stained character. He didn’t judge their petty theft, porn habit or lazy attitude – but He didn't say it was right either. Instead He LOVED even when it hurt, really hurt. He shared His holiness with those who didn’t deserve it, and share’s His love with us. That’s incredible grace. Grace is defined in the Collins dictionary as kind, pleasing and indulgent. I love that! Christian’s can have pleasing and indulgent favour from God that doesn't value you on the snapshot of your life right as it is now, but on who you are. Created in God’s image, with God’s hands and breath. How valuable are we for God to actually spend time designing us from the inside out!

I still don’t get this whole grace thing, and I can’t believe God chooses people like me, like us, to be His people and love us warts n’all. He must be God to have patience and forgiveness for me! But it’s incredibly encouraging to think that a community like ours could significantly impact the culture of the entire Church. The wonderful work started (and growing) amongst us could spill over into the whole of the Citygate family, creating an incredibly welcoming and holy culture which reaches out to an entire town. That could see a whole town, university or college completely and radically over-turned by God’s freedom bringing Spirit. It’s happened before elsewhere. How cool would that be?! Dream to picture that scene.

I want to encourage you to ask questions, Citygate is a safe place to enquire. Ask when you feel you’re the only one without the answer (you’re not); find out why; satisfy your desire to be more secure in Christ. There’s an opportunity here to grow closer to God in a meaningful way, and you’re invited to take part. As it happens there’s a special training event on <<29|10|11>> where together we can look at what God say’s to us about who we are, and helped with how we can respond to Him. There’s flyer’s around now, so pick one up and see what it’s all about. So Who Am I?

There’s a gathering of guys on Tuesday next week for a BBQ round my place: looking at the role of guys in the Church. Lad's Meaty BBQ  Only kidding – it’s a social, so bring quality meat (let’s all try now) and some beers and we’ll hang out. That has got me thinking about the role of men in the church though... 

See you at cell/ Sat Film night  /Sunday (last free lunch BTW!)
James

Summary

Good Morning!

My apologies for the lack of writing that has taken place over the last few months. For me things have been a little hectic, but I'm sure they have with you too. It's been a great summer, full of God's grace even if not full of sunshine and warmth. 

June saw many of our new friends from 2011 leaving us to head back to their homes across the country for summer. We're looking forward to your return in the coming weeks, so please know you've been very missed and we can't wait to have you back.

A great group of us went to Mobilise in Brighton during the second week of July. It was an incredible time of meeting with God, and enjoying fellowship with one another. With talks from some of the great leaders of churches across the world, each of us was challenged and blessed by what we heard. 

If you want to check out some of the things we heard, you can here! I really recommend Tom Shaw's talk, as well as PJ Smyth's from the main Leadership meetings. 

Over the past weeks we've enjoyed picnics and trips to the forest, as well as our usual Sunday nights at the pub. We saw Andy and George married (congrats guys!!) and had a fantastic night watching a DVD called 'Furious Love' which turned into a spontaneous time of worship, praise and prayer.

Some people went to Newday which is Newfrontiers' youth week in Norfolk. It was a week like no other, with the presence of God falling in an incredibly tangible way, confirming that we are children of God and belong to Him, but also that we have a job to do. Check out Stuart Gibbs' message on the poor on the Newday website. 

 And the final big event of the summer was 'Together at Westpoint' which many of us have just returned from. As flood waters rose in Bournemouth, Citygate and the other Newfrontiers churches in the South and West were enjoying glorious sunshine at the Westpoint arena as we camped together. Over the weekend, God spoke to us about scaling walls and pushing into the promises of God and I encourage you to find out about lots of the other exciting things that we saw. A real highlight was seeing an incredible offering taken of £101,000. This money will go towards planting churches and spreading the Gospel. How great is it that as the church we are able to go against the tide and do the complete opposite of the rest of the nation?!! There may be a recession going on but we aren't taking part. 

And so with September around the corner, a new season is ahead. For Citygate, and for me. As a church we're excited about what God has for us. Traditionally this time of year sees many new people looking into church (not just students although we're certainly excited about that!!) so please be praying for one another and our leaders as things kick up a gear again. We want to see many saved and added to our number.

For me, I'm going to be leaving Bournemouth and so for now, this is the last of the blog posts until new FPers take it over and have the joy of sharing the weekly news with you. Keep your eyes peeled and be as encouraging and supportive to Alex Holgate, James Grunnill and Ana Clara Cabral as you were to me. 

There are lots of new members of the Students and Twenties team so look out for those giveaway red hoodies!!

Finally, remember those of us who aren't with us. Pray for those you know. And in particular, remember Charlotte Young who is currently in Kenya, Yolanda Studer who is in Germany, and Josh Martin who is in the USA. (I know there are countless others spread across the UK and abroad so support and remember them too!) Stef Wyper moves to Canada in about 10 days too!

Citygate Students and Twenties are an incredible community, and there are great and mighty things ahead. 

With thanks for your love and support over the past year, and with prayers for many blessings ahead.

It's been a blast.

Much love, 

Vicki

xx

Sunday and Monday

Now, it's not to say that exciting things don't happen on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday etc...it's just that Sunday tends to be 'church' all day. And Monday nights are normally fairly signifcant as well.

This week with the weather not being in our favour, we returned to trusty O'Neill's for lunch. Greg Haslam, the leader of Westminster Chapel had been visiting us and peached over both the morning services. A fantastic time with Greg, we were very blessed by his message. Last Sunday was also the second Sunday of the Gift Week for the building project. Certainly a challenge to stir us!


Lunch was a fun affair, with around 60 or so people crammed into O'Neill's. In some ways it was rather foruntate they had no draughts! Certainly meant that there wasn't lots of competition for food. With Citygate not finishing until the afternoon was well under way, it was about 4pm when lunch had finally begun to draw to a close and people headed off to work, revise, and relax for the afternoon.

Seemed as if everyone had a great afternoon, and lots of you were out at the pub in the evening too! ...You can see why I said that Sundays are effectively a whole day of being Church together.


Last night, two of our elders Andrew and Russell visited PPP (I reckon they're just jealous we have so much fun on a Monday night!) and gave us some teaching under the heading of 'Angels and Demons'. It was great to see around 45 of you out and about, ready to listen and engage. I hope the night proved interesting, and has challenged the way you live! If you've still got questions, make sure they don't go ignored.

With such a busy couple of days, and a rather late night last night (oops!) you'll be pleased to hear that the week ahead isn't looking so busy.

Next week all ladies are invited to an evening of films and food in Charminster on Tuesday (check Facebook for event info) and on the Saturday we'll be having an open mic night with BCC over in Winton/Moordown area.

Also make sure that you sign yourself up to LOST in the City and buy your ticket by transferring pennies! Again check Facebook for more info.

If you need us, James and I are the only at the other end of the phone/computer etc.

Happy Tuesday Friends
xoxo

Roped Together to Climb a Mountain

Church, when you consider what it is, is in many ways, a strange idea. People from every strata of society, every corner of the earth, and with interests so varied they're almost polar opposites. And yet, that's the Bride of Christ. There's something beautiful about the church, but it requires unity, and love, and a softness of heart, that we would have the grace to get along and run with what God has called us to.

Obviously this is much 'in the headlines' with the Gift Week we are currently in, but I think that the picture of each person roped to another, together climbing a mountain is a very helpful one. We rely on each other, our progress is not about the one, but about the collective. We move together, and climb together.

Students and Twenties are roped together, but we're also roped to the wider church too. And so we should be. It was great to hear of so many attending Why Citygate - get stuck in ASAP! It's vitally important to you, and to the church.

Last night, we gathered together with our friends at Gateway Church in Poole for a prophecy workshop. Pete from Gateway led is in an incredible time of worship, before Rich gave some guidelines and direction for the evening. Gathering in groups we then began to pray and prophecy over each other, for some it was the first time doing anything like this, for others it was a great chance to grow as you didn't know the people you were prophesying over. A really great training evening, which hopefully blessed all that took part, and gave you increased boldness and confidence to move in the prophetic.

Lets keep meeting together, encouraging one another and helping others to climb the mountain with us.

I'm excited to see what's ahead. You should be too!

Vicki x

BBQs and Birthdays

This week saw both Joel turning 18, and me turning 20. Definitely an excuse to have probably our biggest BBQ of the year yet. Out to Mill Lawn, which is rather becoming a bit of a Citygate spot, and with the two big fire pits cooking huge amounts of food, the BBQ was soon well under way.

But let me rewind...the weekend actually began much earlier than at a social. Saturday night was Five Smooth Stones; our big worship evening that we hold every other month. This one was stripped back, and with Tom Bettinson leading worship, the night got off to a good start I understand. Sadly I wasn't there but from what I hear it was a powerful night full of God's grace. Louis Giglio's 'Fruitcake and Icecream' video was watched, and the presence of God was overwhelming.

Saved by grace, and not by what we do? Well we ALL need to be continuously reminded of that fact.

Sunday morning was then the start of our Gift Week. The Citygate Centre, our building project is very much visible over near the Lansdowne Asda and so as we look at financing such a task, God's calling us to sacrifice and to give for His glory. Guy spoke from Romans, continuing our series that began in the New Year, and as we focussed on mountains to climb, there was a wonderful opportunity to respond and get prayer for endurance and grace in trouble and suffering.. The love of God was in the place.

With all of that as a background for the BBQ, it was bound to be a good afternoon. Sprawled across the grass, some wrapped themselves in blankets, others in hoodies... the weather wasn't quite what we were hoping for, but we did have some huge fires to keep us warm. With football, rugby, and then a walk across the forest, it was a great afternoon. Susan and Sarah were rounded up by horses, and possibly chased (has the story become a little more dramatic than we first assumed??) and the guys left by the BBQs fed some of the rather friendly ponies some left over food.

To the pub in the evening to round up another rather wonderful Citygate Sunday.

Tonight, we'll be with our friends over at Gateway Church in Poole for a prophecy workshop. Come along if you want to practice, and to grow, it's definitely going to be a good night!

With much love

Vicki x

The Latest

It's been a few weeks since blogging has been in abundance, but that definitely doesn't mean that social events or time with God has been lacking in the same way my writing has been!

The last month has probably been a little quieter, understandable when you realise that much of the rabble returned home for Easter holidays and other such things. You were very missed by the way. 

We got up to much, from our St George's Day BBQ which left James looking like a football hooligan with the amount of face paint he was wearing, to our Easter celebrations, and several trips to the New Forest for lunch. We also spent some time with our friends at Christchurch Family Church playing volleyball, and picnicking down by the Quay. 

With a week of Passion in the lead up to Easter, there was lots of praying going on, and even last week with Conurbation Prayer at Gateway Church over in Poole we were getting on our knees to seek God. Always a good place to be in!

This weekend we had a busy Sunday, with even more new faces. I don't know where you all appear from but boy do we love meeting you, getting to know you and seeing you grow in God. It always gets me excited when people get added to the church - what better place could there be. After a great morning hearing about the Church Building Project and our dreams for the future, we had a yummy BBQ at St Swithuns. 

The sun came out, and the fires were blazing. Meat was cooked and rather quickly eaten, and the afternoon drifted by in a haze of conversation and laughter. Sunday night saw us filling out the Lynton Court in good Citygate style; taking over their two biggest tables and moving half the furniture to ensure we could all sit together.

We had a great night of PPP last night too. Due to the excessive (but wonderful) number of bank holidays recently we've not been able to run PPP so it was good to get back into the swing of things this week. For those of you that don't know, PPP stand for Prayer, Praise and the Prophetic, and that's the vision for Monday nights. All of Citygate Students and Twenties gathering to give glory to God - a fairly good way to start off the week. Monday's used to be boring...not any more! 

So with all of that in the past lets start looking to the future...

This weekend is guna be a busy one. 

Saturday Night is Five Smooth Stones, one of our favourite events. A night of worship, and teaching, we'll be stripping things back this week, keeping it simple, but expecting God to do some big things. 

Sunday is the Girls' Breakfast, Church and a BBQ Lunch as well as Why Citygate in the evening... Check Facebook for info, or I'll just be repeating myself like an irritating parrot.

AND if we start looking with our telescope into the future we have...

LOST in theCity

Mobilise

Westpoint

So, all in all, you've got plenty to look forward to. 

If you are struggling at the moment and could do with some prayer, don't hesitate to contact me or James and let us know. We're here to support you, so do make us aware of things.

Similarly, if you're feeling on the edges of what can sometimes feel like a rather big group of people, let me or James know. We've got a wonderful system to make sure you cease to feel that way. 

All you've got to do is ask!

Now, with the sun shining, I'll leave you to your Tuesday afternoon. See you soon!!