Church Community
For up-to-date information about what's happening when, see the diary.
Sunday meetings
We meet at 10:30 am each Sunday at Gillingham Primary School. The meeting usually finishes around midday. You can get an idea of what to expect on our visitors page. The first Sunday of each month is generally orientated towards the children in the church and during the meeting on the second Sunday of the month we usually celebrate communion.
Small groups
Much of the relationship-building in the church takes place during the week at a number of small groups which meet on different days during the evening. There is also a daytime group which meets on Wednesday mornings. During the summer the usual small groups stop for a while and we run “special interest “groups on a theme or skill. If you would like to know more about small groups, please contact us.
Social Events
Part of being a family is doing things together. We sometimes go out for the day as a church or with the small groups. We often eat together, either as a whole church or in small groups. We believe that Jesus has given us a life to be lived to the full and we try to live up to that. Our biggest event so far this year was our weekend away for the entire church at Haldon Court in Exmouth in May.
Special Events
These are arranged on an ah-hoc basis. We have women’s lunches and men’s breakfasts. In 2008 we had a successful men’s weekend and a season of prayer (and fasting) for 40 days; in 2009 we has 10 days of prayer & fasting. We run Revive days when we seek the Lord, pray for healing and refreshing and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we run larger events such as weekend conferences and day seminars or courses.
Bible study
We believe that the Bible is God’s inspired word to his people. We use the Bible in our Sunday meetings and in the small groups too. Every first Sunday each month we meet for a more in-depth look at the Bible at 6.30pm in the CAP centre. The study is led by different members of the church and usually lasts about an hour and a half.
Prayer
Each week at 6.30pm on Tuesdays we meet for prayer and to hear what God is saying to us. We expand this to include prayer for missionary work that we are involved with in the UK and abroad on the third Tuesday of each month. N.B. This prayer meeting is not happening at the moment while we consider a more effective means of praying together as a congregation.
We also pray for the work of Christians against Poverty at 9:30am on the first Tuesday of each month.
All of these meetings last about an hour are take place in the church office and CAP centre.
Courses
We run a number of courses from time to time for those exploring the Christain faith, for new Christians and for onging discipleship for those who are already Christians.