Monday 9th December

We’d love people to be praying for a couple of AMiE churches each day as they seek to share the good news of Jesus in the run up to Christmas. A number of churches feature this week and there will be more next week.

Anchor Church Lymington and Pennington

• For our extra services where we especially hope to see guests: a Carol Service on 15th December, and a Nativity Trail service on Christmas Eve.
• For the extra things we’re doing through December: church members doing neighbourhood carol singing; Christmas hampers (including Christian leaflets and books) being put together and distributed by the school to families who will most benefit; school assemblies, including a 10-minute talk at the local secondary school.
• We are praying towards running the 321 course in January, so we’re praying for people to sign up for that from our Christmas events.

Trinity Church Scarborough

• For our church family as they engage with a range of Advent devotionals. May the Lord stir our hearts with fresh love for our Saviour.
• Give thanks for our Christmas Fun Day held on 1st December. Pray families will return to church in the weeks to come.
• For our two carol services on 15th December. The first service has a dog friendly area. Pray that many dog walkers will respond to invitations.

Becontree Church

• For two primary schools and classes we’ll have contact with in December through an advent assembly (2nd) and the Bethlehem Experience (17th). Pray for good relationships with the schools, and for the children to be engaged as they hear about the coming of Jesus, and why he came.
• For our Sunday guest services, with teaching from Luke’s Gospel on ‘Fully God, Fully Man’. They are a mixture of styles – contemporary and traditional carol. We had a guest preacher at the first one on the 8th December and will have a crazy family nativity service on the 22nd! Pray for boldness to invite, and people to be available.
• For the new families God has brought to us recently, that this month they would get stuck in relationally and with the gospel. We have a women’s wreath social, and a church Christmas lunch, both aimed at fellowship amongst believers

Trinity Church Lancaster

• Give thanks to the number of new contacts made at our Christmas wreath making event – about 50% of those who attended have had no previous contact with us. Pray for lasting fruit from relationships made and the gospel message given, and that folk will respond to the invitation to join us again for one of our Christmas services.
• Give thanks for the opportunity to speak to several people recently as we visited local homes ‘door to door’. Pray that they would respond well to the follow up card and book, and to the invitation to join us one Sunday soon.
• For those speaking at our two Christmas services, that we shall have many guests and that the reality, significance and implications of the incarnation will be clear to all.

Christ Church Balham

• For our Pub Carols on 15th December – for bold invitations and follow up of individuals. It’s a massive event which is well loved by the locals, but pray for the Spirit to be powerfully at work.
• Over Christmas our venue is always an issue as we don’t have access to the school we normally meet in, so pray people find us in the other locations, and the gospel would not be hindered by this.
• For Jonny Burgess, our Assistant Minister, as he gathers together a team to plant in Hackbridge. Pray for those at both CCB and elsewhere as they weigh the cost and make decisions to move. Please pray as we look to appoint a new Assistant Minister.

Trinity Church Bristol

• For gospel fruit from our Carols by Candlelight service on 8th December and many guests to come the following two Sundays afterwards. We have circulated many invites around Bristol. Please pray the gospel goes out and is faithfully proclaimed.
• For us as we try to launch a Christianity Explored course in January 2025.
• Please give thanks for some active evangelists in the congregation.

Christ Church Central (Sheffield)

• For our Carols by Candlelight and our Carols Round the Crib services on 15th and 22nd December. Pray for many to hear the wonderful Christmas good news: Our King has come!
• For our All Nations Christmas party on 16th December. Pray for many refugees and asylum seekers to come, and for the talk on the real meaning of Christmas to touch many hearts.
• For those amongst us who are not able to return home for Christmas and face spending Christmas alone. Pray that we would be a church family that is quick to open our homes and lives and welcome them in.

St Joseph’s Benwell

• Thank God for our schools’ event guiding children through the Christmas story, with three local schools coming in over four days. Pray that many children and their families will come to our Christmas services as a result.
• For our programme of visiting in the local area to advertise Christmas events and services.
• For our Carols by Candlelight services on 15th December and Family Carols on 22nd and 24th December – as well as the Hope Explored Courses we are offering as follow-ups in the New Year.

Christ Church Greenbank

• This Saturday, we’re hosting a theatre company doing a Pantivity (and cross between a Panto and the Nativity!). We’ve done it for the last few years and they’ve been great events with lots of guests. Please pray that many would come and would want to come back to find out more.
• On 15th December we’ve got both family and traditional carol services. Please pray that we would be bold and courageous to invite our friends and that I (Minister Dimitri Alldridge) would preach the gospel faithfully, clearly and winsomely.
• Finally, please pray that all our Christmas events would lead to gospel conversations and people wanting to find out more about Jesus.

St James’s Ryde

• That the whole congregation would be inviting friends, work colleagues, and family to the different events that we have laid on.
• For our outreach events (Seniors Christmas meal, Community Carol Service, Nativity Service, Carol Singing in the streets, Gingerbread house evenings), that Christ will be lifted high and faithfully proclaimed.
• That all the church family would grow in awe that God would send his Son into the world for each one of us.

Christ Church Hessle

• For gospel fruit from our ‘Carols Unplugged’ event on 10th December at Hessle Ex-Servicemen’s Club. It was an evening of enjoying traditional and contemporary Christmas carols with a short gospel talk. Please give thanks for the hard work of the congregation in inviting their friends and neighbours and pray that many will have heard of the Lord Jesus and turn to him.
• For our Nativity Service on 22nd December. Pray that families who have been invited would come along and everyone from the youngest to the oldest would be struck by the true message of Christmas.
• For our witness in the community so that more and more people would know there is a new church in their area, and even better would come to know the One we are proclaiming.

Redeemer Church Thanet

• For our carol service on December 22nd. Pray for good numbers like last year, a clear gospel message and eyes to be opened.
• For the leaflets that will go out advertising our carol service. Especially as we reach new parts of the area, pray that these will reach the right houses. And that personal invites would be boldly made also.
• For the new people that have been coming to really settle in and make a solid commitment. That their commitment would have a profound effect on their neighbours and friends too.

Christ Church Huntington

• For our carol singing in an old folks home (15th December) and for fruit from our women and girls’ craft event (14th December). Both are new Christmas initiatives this year.
• For our regular carol services – Candlelit Carols (15th December), and Family Carols (22nd December).
• That in 2025 we will look to the Lord and not our own strength for his work in our lives and our community and please pray for revival in Huntingdon.

Hope City Church Wolverhampton

• For our Christmas services: our Family Christingle service (today) on and our Christmas Carol service on December 22nd. We’d love to see lots of guests from the wider community in attendance. So pray for us as we invite friends and family to come along.
• For our outreach team as they head into town each Thursday in the run up to Christmas handing out gospel tracts and Christmas service invites. Pray that the Lord might reach people in our city through that ministry.
• For our children’s and youth ministry. We’re thankful to God that we have seen a number of new young families coming to HCC this year. Pray for wisdom as we seek to help our children and young people grow in their faith.