Bristol, England - Our Year In Review

An update from Nathan Smith, Senior Pastor of Grace Church, Bristol, UK…

2019. How would I describe it for us at Grace Church Bristol?

In some ways it felt like we just plodded along -- experiencing the usual ups and downs of church life -- doing the things we've done every year for the last 17 years of our church's existence. Nothing really remarkable, nothing particularly innovative; just seeking to be faithful -- fix our eyes on Jesus, preach the word, pray the word, sing the word, counsel the word, fellowship together as we encourage one another with the word, and look for ways to proclaim the word to those in our community who don't yet know Christ.

Yet in all the seemingly ordinariness of our life together as a local church, we've seen the extraordinary work of our God in countless ways! His fingerprints have been all over our church in 2019!

We've seen disciples made and baptised; disciples growing in love for Christ and likeness to Christ; new members added; prayers answered; partnership with like-minded churches across the city strengthened; relationships among our church family deepened; gospel opportunties seized; people giving themselves to serving one another more, and serving the community.

From the youngest to the oldest -- whether in Grace Kids (our Sunday children's ministry), G2 (our teens group); Life (students & singles group), small groups, mens and womens groups, at youth camp, in our outreach events (like Kids Club or Christmas), or on Sunday mornings -- we've experienced and enjoyed the richness of the grace, goodness and faithfulness of our extraordinary God. For which we give him loud praise!

Our hope for 2020? More of the same! God doing his extraordinary work through our small, ordinary church -- for his great glory.