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!
Alister King was not expecting his first year as a husband, pastor, and father, and final year completing a degree in Theological Studies, to involve a global pandemic! Alister and his wife Abi also have ongoing struggles with different health issues - quite apart from the developing health crisis around them! - but have known God’s help in life and ministry over the past year as they have served Edlesborough Baptist Church. A growing sense of their own weakness and inadequacy has taken them deeper into the knowledge and experience of the truth that God is able.
Pastoral ministry is not put on hold just because much of the nation is. Though Alister confesses to limited technical experience, the church made it through the first lockdown with services recorded mostly in Alister and Abi’s spare room, blessing and helping those who tuned in each week. They were also able to provide weekly hymn recordings to aid the church in its dispersed worship - though these were not professional, other churches also found them useful. Nonetheless, while technology was helpful in mitigating the difficulties of the season, recorded services and songs fall far short of “the real deal” and the church was ready to regather as soon as possible. More typical pastoral responsibilities and challenges continued, some particularly thorny and painful, and one necessary intervention resulted in two members leaving the already small church. These things, like everything else, made them rely on the Lord. As Alister reports:
“With the COVID-19 pandemic came a greater realisation for our congregation of our physical weakness as a church, and our need to move forward in the Lord’s strength. We recognise that the Lord’s adding his blessing to the work often means that people, outreaches, and other efforts are subtracted. We have seen people come and go, and a previously ‘thriving’ toddler group run for the community have to be curtailed, amongst other challenges. Anxiety can easily grip our hearts concerning the future.”
But though weak, Christ is strong. When several pastors across the region were worried about regathering as a church too soon after COVID-19 lockdown, they were pointed to the very much smaller, more vulnerable Edlesborough Baptist Church as a positive example of boldness in gospel ministry. When Alister heard of this, the words of a song that had very much become his theme in 2020 came to mind: ‘ Yet not I, but through Christ in me.’”
Pray that God would grant Edlesborough Baptist Church boldness in continuing to preach Christ, taking gospel risks, and serving one another and their community.
Pray that the church would move boldly into the future, knowing that the Lord is with them, leading them and using them for his glory.
Pray that God would build the church and provide additional leaders and members with a love for Christ and a real desire to see the village effectively reached with the gospel.
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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