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What is Church Really?

Before we we pick up with the story from my previous post , let's pause and take a look at the church. What is it really? It's easy to say that you are hurt by the church but what is the church? How can "it" hurt us?  the dictionary defines church as 'a building used for public Christian worship'. If we speak of church in this context then we cannot be hurt by it - after all a building simply cannot hurt you! This must mean that this is not what we are talking about when we speak of church. The dictionary also describes church as  'the hierarchy of clergy within a particular Christian Church'. Hierarchy is a system which once again cannot hurt you. These explanations of church are partly true in that the church does meet in a building and does have a hierarchy but it does not describe The Church that Jesus died for. Jesus didn't die for bricks and mortar or for a particular system or hierarchy. Jesus died for people! Yes he clearly says in the Bibl

... continuing the journey

Picking up from my recent post , let's get back to my church story.  Oh and before we go there, what do you think of the new King's Daughters lilac logo? We are trying to keep the 'K' across all three areas just have a slightly different feel. Ok, let's go back to the church I was first saved at, The King's Lighthouse in Brits South Africa. It was a wonderful season where I was totally loved up by  my church family despite all my 'stuff'. I loved being saved and forgiven, I felt clean despite the many things I still had to work out with God.  I was baptised, filled with the Holy Spirit and passionately on fire for Jesus. I only listened to Christian music, burned anything that was even slightly unchristian (seriously!) and even wore Jesus t-shirts to make sure it was clear I was a Jesus girl!  About a year or so later we had to move towns for my then husband's job and so we were transplanted into a church recommended by our pastors. It was amazing t

GUEST POST: Battles, Whispers and Hidden Messages: Discovering Song Secrets I Never Knew I Knew

We are thrilled to share April Shipton's latest post with you. It's a must read! She says, "As a 24-year-old worship leader and Christian songwriter, my passion for real, godly music and lyrics is a pretty massive part of my life. So when my very purpose for song-writing was thrown into question recently, I found myself struggling to defend lyrics I once fervently believed. As I prayed and opened the Bible to try and reignite the vision I had been driven to express in music three years ago, what I discovered absolutely stunned me."   Read more on April's blog at  www.aprilshipton.co.uk  and see her song below.    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqYmrnU7xt8]   April Shipton has been singing and writing Christian music for over 6 years. She lives in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire with her husband, an engineer. She is currently working on producing her first EP with Christian producer FFG Audio, scheduled to be completed later this year. 

Girl's Nights and The Wilderness

I will continue with my early church journey in my next post but I need to interject with this letter to all the lovely ladies who are a part of our Girl's Nights over at King's Coffee House in Cheltenham. To all you wonderful women who have been on the Girl's Night journey with me for the past years. I write to you with a heavy heart but also with much love in my heart for you. We have grown to know each other and love each other and this new season in my life takes me away from you, which is not easy at all. I would like to say that it's all positive and that you should be happy for me but it's not such a simple story. For various reasons our family have left our church that we have called home for the past 18 months. Eric has accepted a job at another church and felt that he needed to do this to provide for his family, as being a full time student this past year has made life rather difficult. He had to leave his studies and cannot finish his degree to take this

In the beginning...

It seems God is doing a deep work in me during this season and as with many deep works, He takes us back to childhood. So I find myself reflecting and going back to my earliest memories of church. I have always loved church. I don't recall my first visit but I imagine I was very young. My mother attended church from time to time when I was little and my father was an atheist. If it weren't for my mother I would not have the wonderful memories I have to treasure now. I recall how much I loved Sunday school, learning about the Bible stories, colouring in the pictures, felt board stories and just the way church made me feel. Church was always good and I don't recall ever being dragged to along, I was keen and willing. As I grew older I took myself to church when my mom didn't go, even though it was far away, as I really did love it! My earliest memory of loving Jesus was when I was school age and the wonderful Christian teachers at school did a brilliant job of encouraging

Stuck going in the wrong direction

I remember one particular trip back from London to Cheltenham. It had been a long day of hard work, conducting interviews for our Women's Business Magazine , driving from one side of London to the other and back again. Lorah and I were travelling back late at night and were desperate to get home. My back hurt so much from sitting in the car for so long that I had to lean forward over the steering wheel in a funny position to relieve the pain. I was exhausted and the drive home felt like an eternity.  THEN IT HAPPENED! I accidentally  took a wrong turn on the motorway. I can't tell you how my heart sank! The worst part was that it was a long drive to the nearest roundabout to get back in the right direction. There was a metal barrier between the two sections of the motorway and no way to turn around and get back on track. I was stuck going in the wrong direction and there was nothing I could do about it except keep going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!  I can't tell you how horrible

The Truth

I don't know if what I am going to be writing about in the near future is going to make any sense at all. I don't even know if I should be publicly processing all this. You may have noticed that the tone of my previous post wasn't in proportion to the announcement. I realised after posting it that I was trying to say something without saying it, which of course didn't work at all. So I am going to attempt, over a series of posts, to share my journey with you - live from the heart, as it happens. This is not something that I have been through, come out of, got the t-shirt and can help others through. This is what I am going through and trying to figure out. You can expect it to be raw and real so please don't judge me. I have judged too many others in my situation in past years only to find out what it really feels like to be this side of the judgement. When church hurts You may recall a similar story that we posted in 2010 - When Church Hurts .  Now I will attempt