Changes to our students & 20s work

Some exciting news regarding our students and 20s provision!

Jonny Higgins

Students and 20s are an important part of our congregation, and we’re excited to announce that from September, Jonny Higgins, who was previously a student with us and last year undertook an internship with us, will be taking on an employed role with the church, working with students and 20s.

Bekah Oliver

Jonny will be working alongside Bekah Oliver, who will continue in her current role with students and 20s.

While they will be working closely together across our student and 20s ministry, Bekah will also be looking to further develop our specific work aimed at 20s while Jonny will be doing the same with students.

John Oliver

Bekah will remain as the Deacon for the students and 20s age group and Jonny will serve as a
Pastoral Assistant to the students and 20s age group.

John Oliver, who has led the students and 20s work for five years, initially in a solo capacity and then for three years with Bekah, will be stepping down from this role on the 31st October.

Over the years John has expertly led the students and 20s work, where we estimate that some 130 students and 20s have been supported through this area of the church. He has led the Sunday evening HUB meetings; five 'God Loves' mission weeks; six weekends away, which have been times of great encounter with the Holy Spirit and a time of deepening relationship with God; two mission trips to South Africa and Lesotho; and co-produced the incredible community musical 'Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat'.

During the first morning meeting on Sunday 13th September we will pray for John as he steps down from his role and during the second morning meeting that day, we will pray Jonny into his new role.

For more information on our students and 20s work, click here.

Six baptised: lives changed by Jesus

We were overjoyed to baptise six people during our service on Sunday 1st March. Each baptism is a declaration of a life lived for Jesus, and a public declaration of faith in Him. We got some great photos and videos, both of these friends being baptised and telling their stories. Enjoy!

Jonny is baptised in to Jesus, at Emmanuel Church on Sunday 1st March, 2020.

Baptism stories

Prayer, connections, training and more: Jonny's intern update

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Jonny with his goddaughter

We have 3 fantastic FP interns serving us in the church this year: Rachel, Becki and Jonny.

Here’s Jonny’s latest report on what he’s been doing, including his prayer life, connecting with other churches in our Regions Beyond family and FP training sessions. Enjoy!

Hey fam (slang for family - you’ll get used to it).

Firstly, whoever’s reading this - I’d love to get to know you. If you read any of this and at all think “this guy seems okay/fun/interesting”, please come chat to me at any time.

Not going to lie, being a church FP intern is literally amazing. I kinda thought it would be good and challenging but honestly it’s been 3 incredible months. It’s been tough and stretching at times but really I think that’s what I need (that doesn’t mean I’ll say yes to every job you throw at me!). The biggest thing I’ve learnt this year is that God loves me too much to leave me as I am. He is absolutely set on moulding me to be more like Jesus. And that can be and has been painful over the last year but let’s be honest would we have it any other way than His way?

I’m now going to go through a few areas in FP that have been particularly wonderful.

Praying

I read in a book recently that to pray is to change. Prayer is God’s central avenue to change our hearts and mould us to be more like Christ.

I’ve been more devoted to prayer in these 3 months than any other time period in my life and it’s really been a journey. I’m very okay with sitting down and saying a prayer for a couple minutes and then getting on with my day but I feel if I am to make prayer a life thing rather than a momentary thing then I think I should put some time into it.

So I’ve been spending some good time just sitting with God and mostly just listening (I think at its very core prayer is mostly just listening). It felt quite slow at first but recently I’ve just felt a deeper sense of God’s presence and a real hunger inside me for ore. I’ll keep pursuing this and get back to you on how it’s going in a subsequent report...

Regions Beyond Hub

This was great. It was interesting being in a large group of people where I felt everyone knew everyone and I didn’t know anyone but I got into a lot of good conversations with leaders about their lives and how their leadership call came into fruition. It was also good to share some of my heart and my calling with leaders who don’t know me and allow them to speak into my life.

Bedford Training

Bedford has been a blessing. It’s great in general as a week retreat from the weekly life of an FPer but the teaching and friendships there are just really edifying and build me up so much. I feel there I have found an amazing group of friends that I could see staying in contact with and supporting each other in our lives even after this year.

It’s also been really fun to learn some theology which I’d never heard of before (I’m not going to tell you about it as an incentive for you to come talk to me hehehe).

Something I genuinely didn’t expect this year was the amount of love from you guys as my church family. It’s been wonderful to make new and deeper friendships with people in the church and to receive a lot of love and support. Thanks!