Hey folks, we are almost halfway through the Year 2023; although we all know it, it’s sobering to be reminded that time flies by. It’s been 2 years since my family and I moved to South East London, it’s been almost a year since the Snodes moved back to the USA, and it’s been more than half a year since the Quinns moved to continue the work in Colchester. In all of it, I can’t help but be amazed at how the Lord our God has kept us going with the many ups and downs, and we trust that the Lord will continue to sustain us in the way He knows best. With that short (personal) reflection out of the way, here’s the update for the month.
Update on Evangelism
Since late February – early March, we have had to stop our Weekly Community Outreach. We used to go out for an hour on Saturday mornings to evangelise either through leafletting, door knocking, or (my personal favourite) going into Bromley Town Centre to engage people in Gospel conversations. The reason we stopped was because my wife was due to give birth (and has since given birth to our third daughter), and there was no one able to lead to outreach.
Despite having stopped the Community Outreach, we have gone through (and we are still going through) the topic of Evangelism for our Midweek Bible Studies, and we are encouraging everyone at Downham to live a lifestyle of sharing the Gospel. We are thrilled to see how the Lord is working in the lives of His saints in Downham because although we do not have a formal Outreach Ministry, more people at the church are sharing the gospel as they live from day to day, and some of the people even meet with one another when they are able for the purpose of evangelising together.
In short, we are sharing the gospel more now even though we have no programmed evangelism. Please continue to pray for us, that we would grow in evangelism, and please also pray that there would be fruit from the work of the people here in sharing the Gospel.
Update on Church Ministries
When we first moved here in 2021, Downham Baptist Church had a few ministry programmes going, and at this present time, we have very little going on through the week. What we’re hoping to do, is not to start new ministries or re-start ministries we have stopped (although there’s nothing wrong with those things), but rather to shift our focus on cultivating a Gospel Community, where we can work on building one another up, with the hope that a built up and more matured people can produce ministries themselves. So although we’ve cut back on our ministry output, we have intensified on ministering to one another. Please pray that the Lord would give us wisdom in this.
Church Work Day
Every year, we try to have at least one Church Work Day where we can spend the good part of one day where we focus on cleaning and maintenance of the Church Building. We had our Church Work Day on Saturday 20th May, and we were able to get more done than we anticipated because we had more help than in previous years (or at least the two year I’ve been here). Moreover, we had a great time of fellowship, where we were intentional in our conversations to build one another up in the truths we’ve been learning in the Scriptures, as we laboured with one another.
Preaching at Downham
Last month, we had two men in the Church share in the preaching, and this month we have the same thing going on as well. Initially, as a Pastor, I was uncomfortable with “sharing the pulpit” too frequently in these two months. However, this has given me the time to invest more in my family (in light of having a newborn in the house), as well as experience being ministered to by my brothers. Not only was I ministered to, but the whole church was edified – we were all encouraged to see more people using the gifts that God has given them for the purpose of ministering to the Body.
That’s all the update for now. May the Lord bless you all. Much love in Christ.
Ric