Through your prayers and giving, you are our partners in proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that we would continue to do so with all boldness and without hindrance!
Nigel Hoad has worked with the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (South East) Home Mission for seventeen years, assisting churches with evangelism, church planting, and revitalisation and helping lead a church plant himself in Ebbsfleet, Kent. For the past nine years, he has served as Director of Home Mission, during which time he has provided external elder support to Kings Road Baptist Church in Chingford. In that capacity, over the past year, Nigel had to lead the Chingford church to consider and respond to the question, “What does a church do when they lose their pastor in a year of pandemic?”
Mercifully, the loss was not to the pandemic - Bernard Roberts moved to take up a pastorate elsewhere. But seeing Bernard and his wife Michelle move on was very difficult. Nigel praises God that the church remained united and stepped up to the responsibilities that faced them: booking and communicating with visiting preachers, setting up for church gatherings, maintenance of the building and grounds, making their spare rooms available for families during the summer and autumn relaxation to lockdown restrictions, and keeping everyone ‘in the loop’ whether media savvy or not. There was evident support and enthusiasm for meeting as and how they could to pray and study God’s word together. Before the latest lockdown, a group began engaging people in gospel conversations on the local high road. When a member of the church was hospitalised and put into a coma with COVID-19, the church committed her to prayer and stayed in touch with her family to make sure they were cared for - and of course they rejoiced at her recovery!
How will the church find and finance a new pastor? The Lord, who has sustained the church through the past year, will surely provide in the year ahead.
In a video for Grace Baptist Partnership’s I Hope in Christ YouTube series released early in the pandemic, former pastor of Kings Road Bernard Roberts talks about responding to anxiety: “Even though I can’t control everything in life, I do know the God who does control everything and he knows all of my needs before I even ask him.” Indeed, this is true not only of individuals but of churches corporately facing seasons of uncertainty and anxiety. Kings Road Baptist Church is a testimony to that.
Pray for Bernard and Michelle, that their life and ministry would thrive as they move from Chingford.
Praise God for Nigel’s years of faithful service among the churches and pray that he would enjoy a happy, blessed, and productive retirement.
Pray that the church in Chingford would grow in service and have a prayerful passion for the unsaved in Chingford, taking every possible opportunity to bring the message of hope in Christ alone to their neighbours, friends, work colleagues, and families.
Pray for the provision of a pastor, and the finance to support him.
You can make a gift to Grace Baptist Partnership and the ongoing work of leadership training, church planting and revitalisation, using this link: Donate | Grace Baptist Partnership.
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