Did you know that every sermon from the past 15 years is available to listen to in the Christchurch app?

Even better, the Bible feature on the app helps you go deeper. Simply search for a passage you're reading, and if we've ever had a sermon on that chapter, you'll see the relevant media suggested at the top of the page.

Some chapters even have multiple sermons to explore, giving you insights from different messages over the years.

We hope this feature encourages and enriches your personal Bible reading and study!

A Creative Invitation!

We would love to invite the talented crafters in our church to volunteer to create ae story sack for use in our toddler crèche and Parent and Toddler groups.

A story sack is a simple storytelling resource, particularly suited to very young children. It is a drawstring bag containing:
- A carefully chosen storybook
- A collection of crafted or bought items that help bring the story to life

A book will be provided — all you need to do is get busy creating suitable items and a sturdy drawstring bag to store them in. You might choose to work on your own or join forces with another crafter and make it a shared project.

What could I make?

Suggested items might include:
- Wooden, felt, crocheted or knitted figures and animals
- Small plastic models or objects linked to the story (for example, a boat, a trumpet, or plants)
- Swatches of fabric to represent settings such as the sea, a river, or fields
 
The sack does not need to contain an item for every single page of the book. A few well-chosen pieces - around 5 to 7 items - are more than enough to help tell the story effectively.
 
For ease of organisation, the name of the book should be clearly displayed on the front of the bag so that each story sack can be easily located.

When designing your story sack, please ensure that:
- Items are robust enough for frequent handling
- Materials are safe and suitable for young children
- The story title is clearly labelled on the outside of the bag
 
Looking Ahead:

In less than three months, we will host a special evening for all our crafters to come together. It will be a chance to: share your creations, celebrate the creativity within our church, and pray for our toddlers, our Mum and Toddler groups, and the families we serve.

As a church family, we have the wonderful privilege of sharing the gospel with our youngest children. What a fun way to bring the stories of the Bible to life with our children!

If you would like to be involved, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact the church office.

If you missed it a few weeks ago, Lynsey has made a Christchurch Kids Spotify Summer Playlist! Perfect - perfect for pool parties, road trips, kitchen discos!
 
Click the button below to listen to songs that parents and kids will enjoy together!

(If you haven't used Spotify before, don't worry! You can visit Spotify online or download the app and create a free account using your email address. With a free account, you can:
Listen to all of our Christchurch Kids playlists, shuffle songs, and enjoy music at no cost (with occasional adverts)
 
With Spotify Premium - a paid subscription -  extra features are included such as: No adverts, unlimited song skips, downloading music for offline listening - perfect for long car journeys!)
 

You may notice that the bins look a bit different this Sunday!

Please pay extra attention to the labels on the bins and dispose of your rubbish in the correct container.

We will provide more information soon on some new recycling rules we all need to follow!

If you are exhausted from a difficult few weeks, or struggling as you don't feel like God is hearing your prayers, can we encourage you to come to our next prayer meeting on Monday July 6th?

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

We don't need to be feeling good to come before God in prayer. We can trust that he loves us and he hears us, even when our feelings say differently. It can also be really helpful to have other people to pray with us and for us when we're finding it difficult to know what to say. There is so much comfort found in praying together as a church family.

And if you'd like to understand more about unanswered prayer, you can read Alan's blog from last week. 

On Friday 10th July from 6:30-8pm, all Discoverers are invited to come with a parent for pizza and games as we celebrate the milestone of leaving Year 6. We will also be looking at Psalm 121 together and reminding ourselves that God is with us and he cares so much about us.

We can't wait to see you there!

Sign up here!

It's very easy to read parts of the Bible or to listen to some voices in the broader Christian community and think ‘Why are my prayers not answered as I had hoped? There must be something wrong with me.’

Recently I was reading Matthew 7: "Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!". What then are the ‘good things’ Jesus promises?
 
I have Christian friends outside of Christchurch who are heroes to me.  (As you read on I'm sure many of us know similar people.)

One hero is a man who had been ill with a neurodegenerative condition. His testimony was that he had been prayed for many times to be healed. He remained seriously ill. Yet, in his increasingly poor health, he rejoiced that through his illness he had come to know that the love Jesus had for him was far more profound than he ever previously realised.  I could hardly have a conversation with him without him rejoicing in the wonder of the cross, God's kindness to him, and the joyous anticipation of seeing Jesus face to face.

A lady I knew as a teenager would repeatedly volunteer that her favourite hymn was I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. I thought this odd given all the amazing hymns she could have chosen until the third verse hit me:

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of his love for me.

This lady was blind yet her unfailing hope was she would one day see Jesus, who loved her, face to face.

So where am I going with this?  We pray.  We pray for healing or a miracle or a change in circumstance. We pray for bread.  But what if as we pray Jesus wants us to have ‘good things’ that are better than physical bread - an overwhelming sense of his love for us, an unshakeable understanding of his goodness towards us, a profound hope for the future.

Not for one moment do I doubt that God heals today. Not for one moment do I doubt God can change circumstances in an instant. So we pray asking God for what we see as our need. We should be humble enough to ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to pray with us. We should be persistent in prayer. And sometimes God will answer a prayer for bread by giving us bread. But sometimes Jesus will answer our prayer by giving us so much more than we ask, he gives us the ‘good thing’ of himself - and he is the eternally satisfying bread of life.

Does a night of competition and strategy, great coffee, and learning a new game sound like your dream evening?

Then look no further! Come along for a free-to-play board games event at Brickworks on Wednesday 1st July! All ages  welcome!

There will be a large selection of games and the café will be serving up food and drink throughout the evening. Come by yourself or bring your friends along and see you there!

If you'd like to find out more beforehand, join the WhatsApp community group here.

This Saturday at 9:30am will be our penultimate women's book study through 'Side-by-Side'.

We will be looking at chapters 12, 13 and 14 so please read these beforehand if you can. But if you don't manage to read all of them please still come along on Saturday!!

This will be another great opportunity to spend a couple of hours together and dig deeper into what it means to love each other well. And why not stick around and grab a coffee afterwards with someone you meet on Saturday?

 If you haven't already, sign up here so we can gage numbers for pastries!

On 17th July from 7:30-9:30pm, the teens will have their summer party at Tredegar Park!

School’s out, so join us at the park for the ultimate summer evening hangout! Expect snacks, crazy games, music, and plenty of good vibes. Grab your mates and join us as we kick off the summer holidays in style!

Discoverers! Bring a parent and join us for an evening of pizza and fun as we celebrate our Year 6 leavers and look at Psalm 121 together.

We will meet on Friday 10th July from 6:30-8pm. We can't wait to see you there!

It's always a joy to gather together to pray. It is good to thank God for evidence of God's grace and mercy amongst us as a church. We continue to pray that God, in his mercy, will open the eyes of those who don't yet know him. And we pray that God will increase our love of, and dependence on, Jesus.

This coming week we will be praying for our young people, particularly in relation to social media. And we'll pray for our political leaders in these increasingly challenging times. If you're able, please join us at the church building on Monday 22 June at 7:30pm.

We’re taking a break with Wednesday Warm during the summer.

Our last one will be the 24th June and we will resume on the 9th September.

On the 5th July from 7:30pm, there will be a team meeting for all volunteers with the babies and toddlers at Christchurch.

Come along  to have some cake, encourage each other and support one another in the wonderful privilege of showing Jesus' love to the youngest members of our church family!

Sign up here!

Next Saturday will be our penultimate women's book study through 'Side-by-Side'.

This will be another great opportunity to spend time together and dig deeper into what it means to love each other well.

Sign up here and see you lovely ladies on June 27th!

Come along for a free two session money coaching course run by Linda Richley and Tiff Schmidt, starting next Tuesday, designed to empower you with the knowledge, budgeting skills and confidence to better manage your finances.

Money Coaching has been designed and developed by Christians Against Poverty, who have drawn on their 30 years of experience helping tens of thousands of people take control of their finances. Anyone can benefit from the training – from seasoned budgeting experts to those struggling to get to grips with their spending.
 
This month our course is running on Tuesday 23rd June and Tuesday 30th June from 10am-12pm. It will be an informal setting in the church building with tea and coffee provided.

Sign up here! 

Next week at Legacy, we will be meeting the wonderful Sean Edwards as he shares stories and poetry from Wales.

On Thursday 18th June from 10:30am, we will gather together to enjoy friendship, eating together and hearing a talk. Legacy is our monthly meeting for members of our Christchurch and the wider community who are over the age of 65.

There's double the opportunity next week to do something that saves lives! 

If you have a spare morning or afternoon, would you consider booking a blood donation slot? Each donation saves roughly three lives! There is currently medium availability for Tuesday 16th June and high availability for Wednesday 17th June.

Pop in for a coffee or lunch at Brickworks after you're done to treat yourself!

Sign up here! 

(Note: For health reasons, it is not recommended to book two slots in the same week!)

On Tuesday 23rd June and Tuesday 30th June from 10am-12pm, Linda Richley and Tiff Schmidt will be holding a two week money coaching course.

Money coaching is a free service designed to empower you with the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to better manage your finances.

Read the thoughts of a recent Christchurch member's experience of taking the course below!

“I’m so glad that I attended the CAP Money Coaching course. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly which made it easy to ask questions. How much I shared about my finances was completely up to me and there was no need to provide figures regarding my income or expenditure. It focused on the principles of budgeting with time given to thinking through my priorities and goals. The CAP budgeting worksheet is particularly helpful and can be customised to fit your personal circumstances. This would be a useful course to attend whatever your season of life.”

Sign up here! 

I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God. It changes me. -C.S. Lewis

Join us next Monday for prayer meeting from 7:30-8:30pm. See you there!

This Sunday, we will be baptising some wonderful people from our church who want to publicly declare their love for Jesus and share how he has saved them!

If you haven't really heard about baptism before and would like to learn more about what it is and why it's something we do at Christchurch, you can listen to a podcast episode with Lewis where he dives into questions on baptism. Just click the button below!

The days are longer and the flowers have started to bloom. June has arrived!

Check out what's happening at Christchurch this month!

2nd: Doctrine of God Course
3rd: Board Games Evening  
5th: EPIC & Teens
7th: Baptism Service  
8th: Prayer Meeting
9th: Doctrine of God Course
12th: Senior Teens
16th: Doctrine of God Course
18th: Legacy
19th: EPIC & Teens
22nd: Prayer Meeting
23rd: CAP Money Course
23rd: Doctrine of God Course
26th: Senior Teens
27th: Women's Book Study
30th: CAP Money Course
30th: Doctrine of God Course

After a short break for half term, prayer meeting returns on Monday 8th June.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Romans 8:26

What a comfort it is to know that the Holy Spirit intercedes and perfects our prayers as we come to God. When we don't have the right words, the Spirit turns our groans into prayers!

Whether you've struggled with prayer recently, or it's been something that's come easy to you in this season, we'd love you to join us as a church family to pray together.

Join us on the 3rd June for a free-to-play board games evening. There will be a wide selection of games but you are welcome to bring your own to play with others as well. Brickworks will be serving refreshments throughout the evening too.

Join the Board Games WhatsApp Community to have your say on the games that are played!

All ages are welcome!

On June 7th, it will be our absolute joy to baptise people who have come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

If you'd like to find out more about what baptism is, listen in to our recent Baptism FAQs podcast on the app (linked below)! 

 And, if you'd like to discuss getting baptised yourself, you can get in touch via this form.