They devoted themselves
"All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer." Acts 2:42
Devoted (Greek ~ proskartereó)
Greek meaning: To be faithful, to be ready, steadfastly attentive to English meaning: Strong love or loyalty for something/ someone
These four ideas, being devoted to the Apostles teaching, fellowship, sharing meals and prayer, became building blocks for the early church, and all were equally important. Our vision for 2023 is develop a community here at Hope Church Lytham that is devoted to these for areas. In practical terms that looks like this:
Apostles Teaching
Biblical teaching on a Sunday We will provide weekly, Bible based teaching, to build up and encourage the church. And we believe, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the messages spoken on a Sunday will transform the lives of those who hear it more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
Life Groups We believe in the power of life groups as a space to not only go deeper into God's word, but also to develop community and strengthen relationships. We currently run three life groups and would like to see this number grow by at least one throughout this year. If you'd like to join one of our life groups please click here.
Marriage Course We will be running a marriage course in May. This is a resource created by the guys who developed Alpha aimed at strengthening the relationships of married couples. If you are interested and would like to be kept informed about this, please get in touch.
Alpha We will be running Alpha again this year In September. If you are interested and would like to be kept informed about this, please get in touch.
Conferences Both the men and the women will have the opportunity to attend a conference this year. The ladies will be heading to Luminous Conference at Audacious! Manchester, whilst the men will be going to Xcel at Life Church, Bradford. For more information, check out our pages for men or women.
Fellowship and sharing meals
Hope Cafe Our Monday morning cafe is open to all, with free drinks and most likely some tasty snacks too, it's a great place to hang out, make new friends, and have a great time. This year we're launching Hope Cafe Evenings! These gatherings will take place the first Friday of every money and will be a similar vibe to Monday's cafe, but with a free cooked meal thrown in. We hope to see you there!
1st Sunday’s around the table We firmly believe in the power of community and relationship within the local church, and so this year we're encouraging you all to grab hold of this, to put yourself out there, to maybe get out of your comfort zone, and invite someone round for lunch on the 1st Sunday of the month (or any other time!). Whether you go all in with a 3 course meal, or you throw some pizza in the oven, the point is connection, community and relationship. So what are you waiting for ... invite someone today!
Passover We'll be hosting a Passover meal on Thursday 6 April. It’s another opportunity to share a meal together AND we can literally break bread together the way that Jesus and His disciples did the night before He went to the cross. Click here for more information.
Parties We love to party, so we'll be hosting a Summer Teams Party, this one is invite only - if you'd like to be involved, why not join one of our teams! If you'd like to serve in anyway, we'd love to talk to you more and hear where your passions lie.
We'll also be hosting our annual Christmas party - more info on that nearer the time!
Prayer
21 days of prayer and fasting At the beginning of each year we devote ourselves to God with 21 days prayer and fasting. It's a way to commit the year ahead to God.
Days of prayer We’ll be running a couple of days of prayer this year where the church will open between 7am - 7pm. We’ll have some worship music on and prayer stations around the room creating space for you to prayer for our church, our community, our nation and our world.
Encounter nights These are always great times of coming together, worshipping, praying and seeking God. We run these throughout the year, so keep an eye out for upcoming dates.
Prayer ministry It's our heart and our privilege to pray for you and with you. If at any point you would like prayer, please complete one of our prayer request cards at church or speak to one of the leaders. Alternatively you can send prayer requests through our website here.
We hope and pray that you as individuals will devote yourselves to God, that you’ll spend time in His word, that you’ll connect with each other on a deeper level this year, that we’ll gather round tables in each others homes and share life with each other, and that our prayer lives will become stronger than ever before. And we believe that out of that will flow an atmosphere where people will be attracted to Jesus, seeing their lives transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." Acts 2:46-47
You can listen to Pastor John's preaching on Vision 2023 below:
