God is on the move in Durham!
What began last term as a baby church, newly planted, is now growing up. Each week sees over eighty young people turning up and around half of these students from the university.
Alongside steady growth on a Sunday evening, a cell group which involve many of the students takes place on a Thursday evening at one of the student homes. The room has of late become so crowded that plans for other cells to open in the very near future are being put into action.
The Durham congregation, planted in October by the fireschool with help from others in the church, was always intended to be more than just another church in the city but rather a spark that would ignite a campus revival and a student revolution. The student bar is the current unorthodox location but this too has become so crowded that new locations are being considered. Initial plans met some logistical problems but we are praying and believing God that the near future will see us in a place with room to expand further and, perhaps just as importantly, enough space to jump around! Regardless of where we are meeting we can sense that God is doing awesome thing which are beyond what we had originally expected and our prayer now is ‘God build your church and do it your way’.
God is bringing in many people with a passion for Jesus and a hunger for a move of God and there are many stories of how God set people up and supernaturally led them to find the church. “Being at Metro [church] has been the hugest blessing to me,” says Philly, one of the students from the university, “Its such an encouragement to be part of a family of visionaries who are inspriring me to chase after God. I’m now believing in a fresh way that anything is possible with God in Durham. I just can’t wait to see what God is gonna do next!”
Perhaps the most exciting thing we can see God doing is building family in the church. From a very diverse group God is making a family where walls are being pulled down and unity and friendships are being built. Not only this but rather than just a small group fueling the church, both fireschool and university students are taking ownership of what is God is doing and running with it. They are catching the dream God has for the city, daring to believe it and standing shoulder to shoulder for revival and student revolution in the university campuses so watch this space!