Establishing a base in Greenwich

Stuart Gibbs and his family recently moved to Greenwich to start a church. Here he talks a bit about how God spoke to him, and the vision behind the move.

‘I love the bit in the gospels where Jesus says to the Pharisees 'Go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy not sacrifice."'  I feel that over the last six months Jesus has been saying to me 'Come and learn what this means: "I will build my church!"'  From day one of this church planting adventure Jesus has been in charge, and I think He wants to keep it that way.
 
It started for me when He spoke to me out of the blue about Greenwich when I was washing up one day.  I had been in Bristol for nearly ten years with no plans to move on, but He had plans that none of us knew about.  It started for my wife when I came back from a leadership meeting at which God spoke again unmistakably to the Elders and leaders in the church.  I hadn't told her about the previous washing up incident (whoops!) so this was big news that would change everything for our family.
 
The journey began for some friends and fellow leaders in Bristol when God had spoken to them about church planting through a series of prophetic words that told them everything they needed to know except where to go!  Now, it seemed, Jesus was sending us together to start a new church with him.  It started for some other friends living in London when the wife had a dream about testing the soil in Woolwich and Greenwich.  That was two years ago, and they have been sowing the seed and preparing the ground ever since.
 
I could go on but I trust the point is clear: this was Jesus' initiative and we are just trying to keep up with him and follow him wherever he leads u
 
We don't yet know where we are going to meet on Sundays, though we are planning to start in September.  We don't know how many others Jesus will send here, but there are about 30 so far and we are praying for 50 by September so that we can start with a bang.  We don't know exactly who we will reach, but we are praying and believing that Jesus will display his manifold wisdom in the gospel by building a church that unites all the diverse people you find living in London.
 

We do know that the need is great with hundreds of thousands of people living around us who have never heard the authentic gospel message.  We do know that London needs thousands of churches that are full of the Spirit and that proclaim the gospel with power. And, perhaps most importantly, we do know that Jesus is building this church and that He is not going to rest until He accomplishes His purposes.

Stuart will be updating us on his church planting experiences via the Newday website.