There are some significant and exciting leadership changes taking place.  Both Matt and Pete will have been with the church for 3 years.  As we enter into a new season, Matt is stepping up to take responsibility as our senior church leader, Pete & Gordon will become associate pastors. Pete’s time commitment to the church will be unchanged, continuing his excellent preaching/teaching ministry and giving wider support to Matt & the church leadership team. We will continue to be blessed by Gordon’s preaching from time to time as well as his gracious pastoral care which has become so much appreciated by us all.

Please pray for God’s guidance & power through this further transition, especially for Matt as he ‘steps up’ & for Pete as he ‘steps back’. Pete, Matt & Gordon have brought us a long way forward over the past almost three years – we love & greatly appreciate them, their wives & their families.

On Sunday the 19^th April we formally released Matt into his new role and responsibility.  It was a significant day and great to share it with our church family as well as wider church friends in Worcester and many of Matt and Jo’s family. Rich Johnson, Vicar of All Saints Worcester shared a significant message with the church. Gordon Neale, who is Elim’s regional Leader for the Midlands and North East joined with us to commission Matt into the role.

Following on from our Autumn 2012 ‘Dreaming Together’ and subsequent partners’ meetings for progressing our church’s vision and values.  We’re now entering into a new season of ‘Walking Together’ in which our focus will be to talk and pray about where we feel God is leading us as a church community. We’re asking all church partners to attend these sessions, but they will also be open to all who feel they have a growing desire for commitment to/involvement in our church’s future.

We have four areas of church life we want to focus our vision and have produced some helpful cards to help us articulate our thoughts. These can be found on the table in the refreshment space and will be a great way for you to engage in the developing vision process.

Our next ‘Walking Together’ will be on Sunday 17^th May following the morning gathering and after we’ve had lunch together. Towards the end of this session we will move into our annual partners’ meeting (for partners only).

Those at our most recent ‘Walking Together’ session now have more details of our thoughts for redeveloping our building in order to substantially extend seating capacity of the main worship hall, renovate ancillary spaces, & upgrade/update our facilities. Elim’s in-house architect Peter Webley has done much work on our pre-planning application to Worcester City Council which has been submitted. On receipt of that application we now have a series of meetings before applying for listed building consent.

So please continue to pray God’s wisdom & strength into the project, especially while we await project costing’s from the quantity surveyor! Being a listed building within a conservation area, we can expect the planning process to be demanding so please also pray that it will be smooth & for good decisions to be made.

With some disappointment the outcome of our bid to central government for a grant towards essential roof repairs, was this time unsuccessful. However there will soon be another round whereby we can resubmit our application to the same fund which was doubled after the last parliamentary budget. So, continued prayer for a successful outcome will also be greatly valued.