A church that is more than a building

Most of us don’t give a second thought to “the church”,  at the very most it’s an beautiful looking building somewhere in the neighbourhood represented by people who seem friendly, but believe something ‘out of date’.

Jesus, speaking to his disciples, said that he would build “my church” and that nothing would get in the way or stop him.   That means as far as Jesus is concerned “church” is more than an ancient building or even a small group of people living in the past, Jesus says that ‘church’ is something he’s creating for himself – and it will include people, from all over the world. People like you?

If Jesus is right then church will be filled with people who want to follow him, and listen to him in his word the Bible. People come to meet together as a church, not so much because they like each other’s company, but because Jesus calls them to be part of what he’s doing, together.

That’s exactly what Aigburth Community Church is: a small window into something much bigger. Church is a project that Jesus has been working on throughout history and all over the world.

Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever you believe, we’d love to invite you to take a look and see who this Jesus is and how beautiful his church building mission looks.

Before our service, at 10:00am, families meet to spend some time on the floor looking at our Bible passage for the morning. Life with little ones can be chaos, so we want to help equip families with tools for reading the Bible at home, understanding who God is, and praying together.

Our service begins at 11:00am and you will be greeted at the door by a friendly face who will hand you an Order of Service for the meeting with details of what we’ll be singing, reading and listening to from the Bible.

The service is led by one of our church members who will remind us that we gather to worship not because we’re good people who are ‘doing their bit for God’, but because God, in his kindness, calls broken, messed up people like us to gather in his presence, hear from his word and sing his praises for how kind he has been to us.

The songs we sing are accompanied by a band and we will sing a variety of new and older songs which give us the opportunity to reflect on and delight in the great truths of the what Jesus has done; the Christian gospel.

At about 11:20am there’s a short break in the middle of the service to allow infant age children, and younger, to go to their different groups while the rest of us say a quick hello, and hear the Bible reading for the morning.

The sermon will be from the same passage of the Bible which has been read out. If you don’t have a Bible, there are some available for you, or the verses will be on the powerpoint. Normally the sermon is about 25 minutes, helping us to understand what God’s word says, and why it should shape the way we live.

Every other week we share the Lord’s Supper together immediately following the sermon.  The Lord’s Supper is an important part of our church life. We believe that the Lord Jesus died in our place, and invites us to eat with him in a celebratory meal (of a bit of bread and juice), delighting in his cross, and remembering together that it’s only his work which we trust in.