When I came to Manchester University as a student I had very mixed feelings. I was excited to come to a big city, meet new people and have a new adventure. I was sad to leave friends, family and the comfort of home. I was nervous of whether I would make new friends and do well at my studies. As a Christian it was important to me to find a good church to be a part of.

Over the years that I studied at Manchester University I grew to love Manchester. I enjoyed being a part of the vibrant big city. I found my studies challenging but rewarding. I made some great friends who I know I will have for the rest of my life. However, I think the most important thing I did was to find and get involved in a good church.

I found that King’s Church wasn’t a weekly service to attend. I found a people meeting together with a common purpose to see God’s Kingdom rule come on this earth through the friendship, love and devotion shown to one another and to others outside of the local church community. It was a family to be a part of. I met students on my course and at my university, in my year and years above. I enjoyed spending time and learning from other Christian students who were passionate about Jesus and making him famous. I also met families, older people, children and found a lively community of God’s people. I loved going to people’s houses, eating real food and playing with their children.

Over my years at university I found many things challenging but I had the support, prayers and encouragement of my church family. I have found who I am change as I have grown in God. I came to university as quite a shy person but have grown in confidence, knowing who I am in God and who He is calling me to be.

My best advice to Christian students coming to Manchester would be to find a good church to be a part of and get stuck in. That’s where the adventure begins!

Rachel

On 31st July I took my uncle Les to Rome on Mission 193. I had never visited Rome before, but my Uncle Les had lived there for a year in the past and so knew it well.

No sooner had we landed there than we made our way to the famous Colosseum. We quickly found a spot overlooking the part where many years ago lots of Christians were martyred for their faith in order to entertain the Roman masses. It was quite moving to think of Christians who lost their lives because they loved and knew the same Lord Jesus I do. As groups of tourists walked by we took turns in reading the prophetic scriptures in this special place. As I read the prophecies given so many years ago, I realised I was living proof that Jesus is building His Church and no-one can stop His ever-increasing Kingdom from advancing. We then prayed that the blood of the martyrs would still continue to produce fruit all over the world. We prayed especially that the light of the Gospel would shine in Italy. We also prayed that Christians across the world still suffering persecution would be encouraged and strengthened as the early Roman martyrs were.

I really found Rome an interesting place to visit. Later I visited the damp dungeon where Paul was imprisoned shortly before he died, and from which he wrote some of his last epistles. I remembered how he had written before this to the Philippians that he had learned the secret of being content in all situations.

Now for the next part of our mission – to find a man or woman of peace to receive an Italian Bibles from us. The driver from the airport to the hotel didn’t qualify – his driving was really scary and he also overcharged us! He was not a man of peace. We wondered about a waiter in a trattoria we used to eat in but he was always rushed off his feet. We talked with a priest from Benin in Africa but he went right off us when he realised we were not Roman Catholics … then on the last day my Uncle and I felt it was right to give it to one of the reception staff at the hotel. He was the only one who spoke to my uncle in Italian and didn’t reply to him in English! He was grateful to receive the Bible but he pointed out to my Uncle that he wasn’t a Christian (all the better for you to receive it, we thought!) He also said that eventually he would put it in the hotel lounge for people to read, if that was OK with us (we didn’t mind-getting even better!)

So we flew back home on 3rd August feeling that we had accomplished our mission and we know that God will do some good things in Rome and Italy. I really enjoyed playing my part in Mission 193. It’s amazing to think that there are only 87 countries left to visit before November next year.

Sunday 12th August was a bit of a different day in the life of King’s Church. The community of King’s Church Manchester gathered for our two meetings at 9:30 & 11:30am as normal – but it was slightly different as we sat and watched a DVD rather than listening to a preacher bring us the Word of God. Some of the members of the church were even asking the stewards where they could buy popcorn when the DVD started! – but this was to be no normal DVD experience! The DVD we saw was a report on different ways that finance had been sown across the world in the last 12 months. It told the story of how over £785,000 had been sown into Churches and people from Cuba to India, the Philippines to the USA, and the UK to South Africa. This money had been given by people in King’s Church, Manchester and from other individuals & churches around the world. These men and women come together under the vision and call to be ‘ministries without borders’ for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.

It was a powerful time as we saw the amazing fruit of money being sown. We saw and heard testimonies of people’s lives being miraculously healed, radically saved and powerfully transformed by the Good News of Jesus Christ. Included in the report was how the sowing & release of finance has helped to see the Gospel of the Kingdom preached by evangelists in India, nurses looking after new-born babies in the Philippines, and a lorry to transport church leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These stories and many more brought spontaneous applause and tears of joy as we saw the gospel being proclaimed across the world. What a wonderful commission and calling we have as God’s Church to Make Jesus Famous in the Nations!

We believe in King’s Church, Manchester that we are called to reach our neighbours and to reach the nations. The Gospel of the Kingdom needs to be taken to those who live on our streets, and to those who live 1,000’s of miles away. Our neighbours and the nations for Christ are our calling, our destiny & our inheritance. We are a sent people called to take the Good News of the Kingdom into every nation. There is no border that we cannot cross when God tells us to go into that place with his message of love, power & salvation.

Through our finances, in schemes like the £2 a week initiative, and in our regular tithes and offerings we can seed the nations with the message of the Kingdom of God. As we sow earthly riches into the Kingdom, we will reap the true riches of people’s lives being saved, healed and eternally changed by the power of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue to sow our finances and believe for the windows of heaven to be opened upon our lives so that we can be ‘blessed to be a blessing‘ both here in Greater Manchester and to the world!

(If you’re a member of the church and would like to order a copy of the DVD please go to the help desk after the meeting or contact the church office)

Be part of the miracle! Click on £2 a week (in the left column) click “print” and fill the form in to start sowing into the nations.

“King’s Church Manchester” is not a building with opening and closing hours. It is a people who used to be isolated, ordinary down to earth sinners but who have now been transformed into a wonderful community of redeemed Spirit-filled saints! By all means come and see this amazing community worship God together and hear the Word of God preached together on a Sunday in King’s House at 9.30 and 11.30am. You are most welcome! This church loves being together and we are a little bit sad our building isn’t large enough to fit everyone in at the same time; hence the present two Sunday meetings to fit everyone in. Don’t get us wrong! We have no problem with meeting with hundreds of others. We really do believe we will grow and meet with thousands of others on a Sunday. We really believe those times on a Sunday please God and make the name of Jesus famous. They also can give someone reading an article on the web a way of “finding” us!

There is however, far more to our lives than mere Sunday meetings. We love recovering the normal yet supernatural pattern of the early church as recorded in the Bible. Jesus in the Bible said he would build His Church. He didn’t mean something with a spire! We find no church buildings recorded in the New Testament; rather the emphasis is on a community who meet together with a common purpose to see God’s Kingdom rule come on this earth through the friendship, love and devotion shown to one another and to others outside of the local church community.

King’s Church members are getting more and more into the habit of opening their wonderful homes to one another and sharing a meal or a drink, breaking bread and praying together. This is now happening every week in 2007 right across Greater Manchester. There are a number of homes, which we have called “Open Homes”. These homes are “open” on certain days of the week and the church is free to meet in any home they wish. The list of these homes is available after any Sunday meeting at the Help Desk on the Middle Floor where we meet for drinks after the meeting or here on the website. There is always a contact number to phone and let the host know you are coming just to make the eating arrangements clear. You could end up sitting at a table or sitting on the stairs. They’re all very different and no-one is ever quite sure who is going to be there or what will happen. It’s always good when we meet together and by His Spirit living in us Jesus is there too!

Let’s make it clear; these “listed” Open Homes are only a kick-start for scores of other homes opening to one another across the city. To be in the church is to belong to a community. There is no set pattern to what happens in any of these homes. Over a meal with a few others you can:

• talk about anything
• listen to others talk about anything!
• laugh
• pray for a sick person and see them healed
• recommend a good film
• bring a prophetic word
• talk about sport
• say what’s blessed you when reading the Bible
• bring or recieve words of enouragment
• sing

Anything can happen!

King’s Church Manchester is on a journey. We’re going somewhere and we’ve re-discovered something from the Bible that’s helping us get there. Hospitality, warmth, friendship, informality, relationship and community are key to what church is really about. Don’t get left behind! Get along to a “listed” open home this week! And then open your own home too!