Dear Church family,

Paul writes in Romans 8 v38-39:

 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We live in very strange and disorientating times, and with the news this last week of a new, short-term, lockdown with implications for all of us, it can be very difficult to know what to think or feel. However, the Word of God is still true, we still have hope, nothing can separate us from God’s love. We are not exempt from the trials of this world, but we go through them knowing we are held in the loving arms of our Heavenly Father.

We also journey through these times with each other, and all the ‘one-anotherings’ that we regularly talk about are once again brought so much into the spot light. We have a great team of people involved in pastoral care and those who help us keep in touch with each other (just as I’m writing I have had a lovely chat with the person who phones me 😊). For pastoral care to work at it’s best it’s a full church task. We care for each other, but we also must let people care for us. So, if at any point you find you’re struggling – either practically, spiritually, because you are emotionally feeling low or are longing to pray with someone – please, please do get in touch so we can support each other.

One of our boys reminded me the other day as we were watching some geese flying over, that when one of them tires another takes over, and that those that are feeling weak are supported by the others. What an example of how the church can be. The Lord leads us, but we support each other, when we’re feeling stronger we help others, when we’re feeling weaker we let others support us.

Practically, in line with government instructions from Thursday our church building will be closed again (with two exceptions outlined below). Services will all move back to being solely on-line until we are informed by the government that we may open again. However, we don’t want to feel like we’re going back to where we were in March and so please keep an eye out in the weekly news for a variety of events taking place on YouTube and on Zoom which we’d love to invite you to join in with.

The two exceptions to the building being closed are:

• Foodbank drop offs – we’d love to be able to keep supporting both Warrington Foodbank and Oasis at this time so we will have the church open for drop offs on Tuesday & Wednesday mornings (10-12) and on Thursday evening (7-8.30pm).
• Private prayer – We will also keep the church open at the times above for anyone who wants space to pray. Details will follow early next week.

May we all know the love and peace of Christ in our hearts and lives as we journey through these coming weeks.

Jonathan

(on behalf of LBC leadership & Staff teams)