Bethesda Christian Fellowship in Helensburgh invited me to speak at their morning service recently, to speak about Solas’s work and to preach from John 19. We have a few friends and suppoerters at Bethesda, some of whom we met when we led a Confident Christianity conference in the town’s Baptist Church last year.
It’s great to visit a church which is so outward looking and connected to the community arround it. They have built a lovely coffee shop in the front of their premises which is a welcoming space all week, and then as I chatted to people around the congregation I was encouraged to meet not just long-standing Christians, but several people who introduced themselves to me as new Christians; and some were there to find out what it’s all about, having had very little exposure to the church, the Bible, the gospel or to Jesus. Bethesda has made a welcoming place for them all to come and to open the Bible and encounter the love of Christ.
I was very grateful for the opportunity to speak about Solas’s ministry; and was really delighted that so many of the folks there signed up to pray for us and our work too. We have two main ways of connecting prayer suppoerters with the work; one is our monthly email called “Insight” and the other is our WhatsApp prayer channel. Click on the links if you’d like to join in with either of those.
Preaching on John 19:1-16 was a challenge too. It concerns Jesus trial before Pilate, the fickle crowds, the cowardice of Pilate, and the treachery of the religious leaders. However – it also gave me the opportunity to talk about the grace of God, as Christ went to the cross to redeem people like these. Amazingly one person admitted at the end, “I’m just like Pilate”.
The church is busy hosting Christianity Explored at the moment, and are most of the way through the course with a good group of people from the town who are keen to find out everything they can about Jesus. I went to Helensburgh with the intention of encouraging the church. What happened was they encouraged me!
