Christchurch FC Return to the Pitch in Six-Goal Thriller!

Christchurch FC made their long-awaited return to action two weekends ago, taking to the pitch in Aberdare for their first friendly match in nearly a decade against Oasis Church.
After a fast-starting Oasis side went 2–0 ahead, a resilient Christchurch side dug deep, battling back to level the match at 2–2. Oasis ultimately scored two late goals to seal a 4–2 victory.

It was fantastic to see some experienced, familiar faces alongside an exciting new generation of debutants making their mark.

Looking ahead to entering the Welsh Churches Football League next season, Christchurch FC need volunteers who would be willing to give up and hour or two of their time every week for key off-pitch roles, including Treasurer, Secretary, Chairman, and Administrator.

We are also currently raising funds for a new kit. If you would like to sponsor the team, suggest fundraising ideas, or put your hand up to help run the club, please get in touch!

Email the church office or contact Jon Graham directly on 07377404842

In our most recent prayer meeting, we brought our new prime minister and new government before God and asked for his wisdom and love to be poured out into the hearts of those in charge of our country.

Let's continue to lift up our government in prayer - that Christians in Parliament would be united in their love for Jesus and would be able to create good discussion that crosses political lines.

Join us next Monday (August 3rd) when we come together to pray again. We believe in a God that cares about the biggest challenges in our world and also the smallest details of our lives. We can come to him with everything. What a wonderful truth!

Did you know that hospitals in Wales require 350 donations a day to support patients in need? We can’t supply our hospitals in Wales without donors! Giving blood is quick, simple and entirely safe. And the best part? You’re saving lives.

Welsh Blood Service returns to Christchurch on the 4th August. There are still a number of spots to fill in the afternoon.

Book your slot here.

Looking to discover a new board game with some friends this summer?

Whether it's your 20th time or your first, please come along for our free-to-play board games evening at Brickworks on Wednesday 5th August!

All ages are welcome and we have a wide selection of games to choose from to suit every taste.

The café will be serving up refreshments throughout the evening. Come by yourself and join a table playing a game you fancy or bring your friends along with a game you'd like to play together!

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

If you’re going to be away this summer, please make sure to organise swaps for the dates when you might be on a rota.


This helpful step-by-step guide shows how to do just that on the Churchsuite app!

Calling all Conquerors and Discoverers for our Summer Sports Academy! ⚽️??

This summer we'll be launching our Sports Academy! Come and learn some ball skills with plenty of team challenges and activities before we read the Bible together.

Lunch will be provided!

(Please note, parents are asked to accompany their child to this event and to sign both themselves and their child up via the form below)

Sign up here!

This summer, why not make the most of the long, sunny days by discovering more about Jesus? We're delighted to launch our Christchurch Kids Reading & Listening Challenge 2026, inviting all children to explore a wonderful range of Christian books, audiobooks, music playlists and family-friendly podcasts over the summer holidays.

Children are invited to borrow Christian books from our lending library, The Book Nook, as well as enjoy Christian audiobooks, worship music and podcasts designed especially for them.

How does it work?
You can earn points by:
Reading Christian books (either borrowed from The Book Nook or books you already have at home).
Listening to Christian audiobooks.
Enjoying Christchurch Kids' worship music playlists.
Exploring family-friendly Christian podcasts.

Each activity you complete earns points:

Read or listen to a picture book = 10 points
Listen to a CCK music playlist = 10 points
Listen to a family podcast (e.g. Faith in Kids) = 20 points
Read or listen to a short chapter book/ non fiction book = 25 points
Read or listen to a longer chapter/ non-fiction  book = 50 points

Prizes
Children who collect 100 points or more will receive a special goody bag at our Kids Celebration Gathering in September!

There will also be extra prizes for our top three point scorers. Our overall winner will receive a family takeaway pizza to enjoy!

Please Help Us Share Our Resources!
If you have Christian books, audiobooks or other faith-based resources at home, we'd love you to include them in the challenge. If you're happy to do so, please consider sharing them with other families too.

As many families will be borrowing from The Book Nook over the summer, please return all borrowed items promptly once you've finished with them. This is really important, as it ensures there are plenty of resources available for everyone to enjoy throughout the holidays.

Recording Your Points

To record your points, simply use the online form via the link or scan the QR code displayed on the poster above The Book Nook.

There you'll also find:
- Links to all our Christchurch Kids worship music playlists.
- Recommendations for family-friendly Christian podcasts that the whole family can enjoy together.

We pray this challenge helps you grow in your faith, enjoy time together as a family, and discover something new about God's love.

Happy reading, happy listening, and have a wonderful summer!
Lindsey x

Join us for our final study in Ed Welch's book on walking with others in wisdom and love.

This Saturday from 9:30-11:30am we will be looking at the final chapters of Side by Side so please read these beforehand if you can.

Our women's ministry doesn't end here! Please keep in touch with new friends you've made and continue having these discussions about living life together with Jesus and with each other.

Legacy is a family made up of church members and the wider community who are over 60 and enjoy friendship and connection together.

This Thursday, Legacy is learning to line dance! Whether this sparks memories from your teenage years or whether this is the first time you'll have taken to the dance floor, we're sure it will be a lot of fun and you might even find you have some rhythm!

Whether you are feeling weighed down by your circumstances or finding it easy to rejoice in your current blessings, we would love to join in prayer with you. Come as you are to our next prayer meeting. There is no pressure to pray out loud or to have to share everything you are going through. God knows and his Spirit helps us pray when we don't know how.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. - Romans 8:26

“The Spirit, even when you do not know how to pray, takes your core prayer and prays as you should be praying before the throne (cf. Rom 8:26).”  from Tim Keller's book "Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God."

Join us for an hour next Monday 20th July from 7:30pm.

If you can't make it but would like us to pray for you, you can submit a prayer request here.

School’s out, so join us this Friday 7:30-9:30pm at Tredegar Park for the ultimate summer evening hangout!!

Expect snacks, crazy games and music as we kick off the holidays in style!

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!