May letter 2026

Dear Friends,

This year has been a very encouraging time for our fellowship groups. In January we did a Questionnaire, to help us make plans and see who might be interested in joining a new group. In February and March we started four new groups. In April, I called a meeting of Fellowship Group Leaders, as for the first time we had enough leaders to merit a meeting. It was a very positive time which started with lists of who was in each of our groups. Eighty One people! Our Small Group numbers have doubled in 6 months.

This is a cause for thanks to the Lord and a marker for the growth of our church. This is a season of growth and we wish to continue this momentum. In late April we started a new Christianity Explored course. There are newcomers in church who wish to consider the claims of Jesus Christ and to see what it is to join the 2 billion people worldwide who are his followers.

There seems to be another groundswell in our country. Many in the generation of young adults (twenties and teenagers) seem to be quietly seeking God’s ways, reading the Bible and trying church. Gen Z is showing interest in the old ways of solid traditional forms of Christianity. Gen Z seems to be shaking off the suspicious cynicism towards the church of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. Someone described it as a bit like teenagers rebelling against their parents, by going to church! Even in our own church at St Luke’s, in our village of Holmes Chapel (which has lower than average proportion of Gen Z), there are 15 regulars in our Tuesday evening youth group, and another 5 teenagers in our 10.30 congregation on Sundays most weeks. Pray that this move of God’s Holy Spirit may become a torrent in the coming years.

On Sundays we are following a series of Bible Teaching through the Book of Nehemiah. He was a leader in about 450BC who combined building up the people of God with rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. We too have a Building Project to consider: the St Luke’s 600+ Project, making our church fit for the 21st Century (as part of the planned celebrations of the building’s 600th anniversary).

We have some provisional plans, worked through by the Standing Committee and enthusiastically approved by the PCC (Church Council). We will present these plans at the Church Annual Meeting on Sunday morning 17th May. Come and find out.

Come to the Annual Meeting on 17th May at 10.45am.

Come and hear our Sunday preaching series from Nehemiah through May and June.

Come and join and fellowship group, as eighty people have done already.

Be part of a growing church, as we seek to love the Lord and serve our community.

Yours in Christ

Rob