Quiet January

Dear Church Family

I hope you are all well and enjoying this advent season as we wait in expectation for the coming of Christ; not for his first coming in humility as a helpless baby but his second coming in the fullness of his glory and power! I wanted to take this opportunity to communicate something that the Lord has put on my heart for St Peter’s. 

I believe the Lord wants us to begin 2026 with a time of rest and a focus on prayer and seeking after God with great intentionality. We are a vibrant, growing, busy church and I am aware there is always a danger that we will become so busy doing things for God that we fail to ensure we are properly attending to our own inner lives and our relationship with Jesus. Remember Jesus is the one who tells us that we must abide in him if we are to bear fruit for the sake of the Kingdom. Our staff team and volunteer teams are amazing and consistently go above and beyond the call of duty in their service to the church (thank you for all you do for St Peter’s!). 

To help us start next year with a focus on growing in intimacy with the Lord and trusting Him to continue to lead the church into growth, I am calling the church to enjoy a quieter January (one could describe it as a sabbatical month). This means that almost all groups and activities across the life of St Peter’s will not restart until the beginning of February. Instead of groups/activities taking place as normal, there will be opportunities for us to meet at the times groups would normally take place to pray for God’s blessing and favour on those ministry areas. I am full of confidence that if we spend 1 month of the year dedicated to praying for ourselves and the life of the church, we will see much more fruit from 11 months of ministry than we otherwise would do from 12! 

To be clear, our Sunday/midweek services will not be impacted by this - the one thing we definitely won’t stop is meeting to worship God! If anything, I hope we can all make it even more of a priority to be present in church on Sundays during this time. Likewise, I would encourage Life Groups to continue to meet if they choose to.

In the coming weeks, we will share more details about what January will look like in practice. We will provide resources to help us pray through the month of January. Do make sure you are back in church on January 4th for a special service that will help us start the new year off with God in the best possible way!

Blessings

Danny

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