The forthcoming general election this Thursday is shaping up to be one of the closest fought elections for nearly 30 years. The three main parties are vying for contention as to who will end up in power on Friday 7th May. The prospect of a hung parliament or coalition government is a strong possibility.

How should we view these elections as the church? How do we engage with the political affairs of our nation as God’s people?

Firstly, we should pray for those in government, whatever their political allegiance. Paul exhorted Timothy to pray firstly for ‘Kings and all those in Authority’ (1 Tim 2:1-2). The future government that will be formed after May 6th needs all our prayers, especially with the economic challenges facing the nation. King’s Church is already involved in helping to facilitate regular prayer breakfasts with local MPs in Manchester Central & Manchester Withington.

Secondly, we should all vote on Thursday, if we have that right & privilege in the UK. How we all vote is our own personal decision, and no one party can really be seen to reflect all the values of the Kingdom. However, we are called to seek the peace and prosperity of the city and nation that we live in (Jeremiah 29:7). We want the UK to be a peaceful and prosperous nation – politicians and governments can play their part in this.

Thirdly, we should be those who speak and demonstrate the truth of the Kingdom into all spheres and areas of society. We are the yeast within the dough of our nation, we are the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13-16) – we make a difference in the world around us, including in the area of politics as we live, speak and act as a prophetic community.

Edmund Burke once said: ‘All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing’. This Thursday, we have a chance to actively engage in the affairs of our nation as we prayerfully vote in the general election.

But over and above that, and beyond the result of the election on Thursday – we have a mandate to be a prophetic community into society, demonstrating the righteousness and justice of God’s Kingdom, wherever we go and in whatever we do.

Gavin White

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Philippians 2:1-3 (ESV)

Paul’s statement, that his joy will be complete (lacking nothing) by the Philippian church being in full accord and of one mind, is one of paramount importance to us today. Being of one accord – or in full agreement with one another – is crucial in our response to the move of God in our time. Consider the rapid growth of the first century Church:

Acts 4:24 in the NASB translation records how they lifted their voices to God with one accord and then later in that passage we read “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.”

Consider also that in the Tower of Babel story (Genesis 11) God says of the people there, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” If God says this about people He is not in relationship with, how much more does He say this about us: His children, His redeemed, filled with the Holy Spirit and clothed with power from on high.

Brothers and sisters, God is moving powerfully in our time: we need to pray earnestly about how we can be a part of everything He is doing now. We need to ask ourselves, “Are we of one accord with our brothers and sisters in Christ?” We need to ask ourselves, “Are we following the apostle’s teaching?”

The response can be in many ways: perhaps we should get involved in a Church in the Home; perhaps we should ask God how we can be involved with the church plant in Liverpool. Whatever our response, let’s ensure we’re of one accord with our brothers and sisters in our midst, and then nothing which you purpose to do will be impossible for you!

Matthew Harkness

Last Sunday night, I attended School of Life at Copthorne Hotel in Salford. School of Life is held monthly by New Life Church in Salford, which was planted out of King’s Church just over two years ago.

The aim of School of Life is to teach and equip people on practical life skills. The topic of the night was managing our time at work, at home and in general day-to-day living as a Christian.

Two members of King’s Church, Mark Lawrence and Rachel Rongong, took turns to speak about managing time at work and at home.

Who’s stealing my time?
Mark taught us that time is more valuable than money. Money can be regained, but time cannot. For a lot of us they could be Facebook, interruptions, procrastination, lack of self-discipline, over-thinking etc.

Mark gave us examples of how Jesus managed his time well, how he made decisions and set his priorities right when his schedule was interrupted on his way to heal Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5).

I learnt that the more I value myself as a person, the more I will value my time and that I must not let life control me. Life is a gift from God, so I have to make it count.

I’m busy because I’m blessed
After that, Rachel spoke from her own life experience as a teacher, mother of five, worship group leader and Church in the Home leader.

She gave practical ways of organising time and money. They included simple things like keeping a diary, using storage boxes and looking for bargains.

I once heard someone say that there are so many things to be done today that if I don’t spend time with God, they’ll never get done. Rachel taught us that God blesses us with time when we choose to give him our time, and when He tells us to do something, there’ll always be time.

I came away from that night totally awed by what I had learnt. It was as though Mark and Rachel’s 20-year experiences had been condensed into 2 hours – and I felt so privileged to have received all that wisdom.

Wan-Phing Lim

You may not be aware – but there are a bunch of young people – aged 12-18 at King’s Church, who are set to be the next generation of leaders in both Church and society. So we thought you should know a little about them…

The youth meet every Friday night for football, games and entertainment, alongside impacting teaching, life-challenging talks and testimonies.

Over the last few months we have seen the Youth grow from 30 to over 60 – and it keeps growing! We have a mixture of strong mature Christians, kids who have never really heard the gospel and everything in between.

Our main aim is a bit of a secret, but since you are our Church family we’ll share. Our aim is to have fun! Yes, we are teaching them from the Word and we are seeing lives changed, and yes we are getting alongside them individually as much as possible – but these amazing women and men of God come to us on a Friday night to enjoy themselves, to feel safe and to enjoy life with the best people in the world.

King’s Church Youth is here to be an environment where young people can build lasting wholesome friendships and where they can feel comfortable in building their faith.

In order to fulfil our aim (of fun), we recently paid a visit to our related church in Blackpool. Our journey took us to a farm – an actual muddy, with animals and bad smells farm! We were privileged enough to be looked after by our friends there: fed, watered and talked about making sure we gave God all our whole lives. It all ended with a gigantic bonfire – memorable times!

On Friday nights we have started to take the boys (and brave girls) to play football before Youth (at 6:30pm) as well as having a little bit of a cafe at King’s House (from 7pm) where those who don’t play can hang out. These times are perfect to build relationships within the youth group and for the leaders to get an insight and speak into the youth’s lives.

We then have fun games and activities like ‘Challenge David George’. After this the Youth are taught from the Word, hear testimonies from the lives of the youth leaders and have ‘Business Time’. This is when we encourage the youth to reflect on what has been said.

Future events at Youth will include a trip to Alton Towers, live music, sports, girly nights, lad’s nights, workshops, a summer party and much more!

If you know any people aged 12-18, why not invite them to King’s Church Youth from 7.30pm on a Friday night at King’s House, and let them have the time of their life! Equally if as a member of King’s Church you would like to serve on the youth leaders team, please have a chat to Dave and Amy Perkins.

Dave and Amy Perkins

King’s Church held another very exciting VIP Night on Thursday 15th April, an event held to give the homeless and people that live in hostels a time to feel loved and pampered.

This was also a great way to show God’s love, and also a time to be great examples of how accepting Jesus Christ into your life will bring amazing joy. The number of women that arrived at the VIP Night was a huge encouragement, and it shows that God is moving in this ministry and bringing the harvest to this generation.

Michelle Archer shared an amazing testimony, as Kate Hancock interviewed her, on how she became a Christian. This testimony showed how God has turned her life around from anxiety, depression and meaninglessness to her receiving the most significant meaning to live, Jesus. God brought joy and happiness into her life and this was a great way of letting the ladies know that they can also receive this meaning to live.

Sarah and Louise Gregg’s performance was a great success as the ladies enjoyed singing along to the songs. ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ by Cyndi Lauper was one of the favourites as people started to dance and sing along to it.

It was an amazing feeling to see that the women really enjoyed being with us and being looked after. I had the chance to help out in the pamper room and I felt blessed to be able to show these women love, and also to be able to take part in creating some funky hairstyles and getting to know more about them. It was a really fun experience.

We want God to be the centre of everything at the Ladies VIP Night, and the prayer room that we had upstairs was a great way to show that. As well as praying aloud we created pictures that illustrate what God has been speaking to us about in these VIP Nights and the prophetic words that had been brought.

In helping out with the VIP Nights for a while, I can see that they have escalated and it is just a great way to plant the love of God in the hearts of the homeless and people that live in hostels. It was a great experience to have enjoyed a night with the ladies, and also for them to enjoy being with us, but it was even more amazing to have impacted them with the love and live of God and to help them know that the meaning of life is to serve God.

Ruth-Anne Burgher

Last month, the youths from King’s Church took part in presenting a youth show on a Christian radio station called Refresh FM.

Dave Perkins, Louisa Cole, David Smith, Simeon Nelson and myself were involved. We learnt a great way of being in Christian ministry, and that is through the radio.

The topic of the show that we hosted was ‘Are young people really as bad as the media make out?’

This was a very significant topic to choose. We discussed how we can make a difference on the media’s opinions of young people and what we have to do in order to make these changes.

It was also great to hear an adult’s view from Tim Nelson who works with youth offenders in Longsight. He shared that what we need is love and encouragement in order to make a change.

Serving on the radio was a great opportunity and confidence booster for us as youth because we learnt that we have a voice and that we can make a difference today.

It also showed us even more that Jesus is amazing and he is alive in us today, and that we should not be afraid to speak out in our schools and colleges. We should enjoy every minute of our walk with God and in doing this we will set the standards and assist in changing this generation and the media’s outlook on the youth of today.

It was an amazing experience, as testimonies, exciting questions and really enjoyable music were shared in this show, but the main aim was that the youth were fulfilling their goal of Making Jesus Famous.

Ruth-Anne Burgher

Refresh FM is a Christian radio station based in Longsight, Manchester. The broadcast period this year was 22 March – 11 April 2010. Listen to the King’s Church ‘Youth Hour’ podcast here.

The recent Easter concert at Bridgewater Hall was a huge success, as we saw tickets sold out and about 2,000 people turn up to worship God.

The concert started at 6.30pm with Richard Anniss giving an introduction and welcome. The band from New Life Church in Salford, which was planted out of King’s Church two years ago, performed the first three songs.

The King’s Church choir and band came on after that, and it was an exuberant display of colours, joy and energy. The mic singers at the front bounced away and the performance was simply amazing.

My personal favourites were the songs Hosanna, Happy Day and Brighter Day. Two members of the church, Gary and Emma, also came up to share their stories on how God changed their lives, Gary from homelessness and Emma from epilepsy.

The Lord Mayor of Manchester and her fiancée were also there that night, which was very encouraging. The purpose of the concert, after all, is to share God’s good news to the people of Manchester.

Halfway through the concert, Richard shared a message on giving our all to God. He used the story of Mary in the Bible, who broke her jar of expensive perfume and poured everything on Jesus’s feet. He then asked anyone who wanted to give their lives to Jesus to make that decision and stand up.

From where I was, I could see so many people stand up in response to the gospel. After that, we sang Happy Day which had the lines “The greatest day in history / Death is beaten you have rescued me / Oh happy day, happy day / You washed my sin away / I’ll never be the same / Forever I am changed.”

I felt that this song was so appropriate as a response song, because I could honestly feel the joy in the room as everyone sang it together, even more so for the people who made their decisions that night to follow Jesus.

Praise God for such an amazing night! I can’t wait to hear more stories on how God has changed people’s lives as a result of that evening.

Wan Phing

Click here to see more photos from the night.

As part of our vision to bless and reach out to the local community with the love and life of Jesus, we ran a family fun day during the Easter Holidays in Gartside Gardens in Brunswick. This was also a great opportunity to advertise and launch the Kids’ Club which starts on 17th April. Ruth Ande reports:

On Thursday 8th April we had an amazing time running the Kids’ Club launch party family fun day. A team of about 20 people from the church set up for the fun day in Gartside Gardens, Brunswick, the closest community to King’s House.

We had a bouncy castle, face painting, parachute games, crafts and giant games. As He always is, God was faithful and blessed us with beautiful weather and a terrific turnout from the local community. We lost count at around 120 children, but estimate that numbers rose to approximately 200 children plus lots of parents there on the day.

A great day was had by all, and the children were all really excited about the upcoming Kids’ Club, which starts on Saturday 17th April.

Thank you to all who were involved, before and during the day. It was a huge success and we plan to run more of these fun days in the future so watch this space!

Ruth Ande

Since being increasingly energised by praying in the spirit, I’ve been totally amazed at what God can do in the details of my life.

In the space of a week I went from mistakenly feeling alone to organising a joyous birthday meal with 52 people attending – as one person pointed out, someone to have coffee with every week of the year! It was fun to celebrate with church family and I realised it was a prophetic demonstration too.

I’d been recovering from head and neck injuries and various other challenges, losing confidence in being hospitable. I’d taken my escalating unease over my rapidly approaching birthday to the Lord and he gave me strategies to make the day very special.

I shared it with two brothers having nearby birthdays and God led me to a comfortable restaurant offering an abundant, tasty, Mediterranean buffet able to accommodate the many people God showed me to invite. Some lovely ladies helped me to make ’favours’ for each guest containing a little knight in armour and a chocolate Hero.

I had a ball! Far too excited to eat properly, I circulated the tables, soaking in the happy atmosphere of friends feasting and chatting, church family and others.

After encouraging people to break bread together, I summoned the courage to speak. Giving glory to God that so many people came, I mentioned how Elijah was a man just like us. Mistakenly feeling alone following challenges, God showed him the truth. I drew attention to the knights saying that, although we are in a battle, we are equipped and that we need never feel alone as everyone was sitting next to a hero.

Spotting a picture on arrival, someone realised that the restaurant was named after Ephesus, so we really were the church in Ephesus for the afternoon.

Lis Herron