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it’s an old looking building somewhere in the neighbourhood represented by people who occasionally appear on TV with outdated, even objectionable views.

Surprisingly though Jesus, speaking to his disciples, said that he would build not “the church” but “my church” and that nothing would get in the way or stop him; “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.   That means as far as Jesus is concerned “church” is more than an ancient building or even a small group of people who wish it was still 1950, “church” says Jesus is something he’s creating for himself, from people, in all of the world.

If Jesus is right then we should expect local churches to be a visible expressions of his worldwide building work.  People who follow him, listen to him in his word the Bible, and come to meet together not so much because they like each other’s company, but because he calls them together to be part of what he’s doing.

That’s exactly what Aigburth Community Church is.  A small window into something much bigger, a part of a project Jesus has been doing throughout history and all over geography.  And whoever you are, and 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 his church building mission is getting on.

During the COVID pandemic our Sunday gatherings have had to be quite different.  Social distancing along with regulations on singing and mingling have had a big impact.  We also have to book places for our gatherings to ensure that we can safely seat everyone who comes along.

Under normal circumstances our gatherings are not so restricted! We meet at 10:30am 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.

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 giving something to God that he’s asked for, but that God in his kindness calls broken, messed up people like us to gather in his presence, hear from his word and sing his praises.

The songs we sing are accompanied by a small band who try to keep us in tune and on-time and we sing a variety of contemporary and older songs that give us opportunity to reflect on and delight in the great truths of the Christian gospel.

There’s a short break in the middle of the meeting to allow younger children to go to their groups while the rest of us grab a drink, and greet one another before returning to our seats for the sermon.

The sermon will be from a passage of the Bible that will be read aloud and Bibles will be available for you to follow along. Normally the sermon is about 30minutes and is often followed by a time of Q&A.

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, as through his death in our place the Lord Jesus invites us to eat with him, delighting in his cross, and remembering together that it’s only his work on our behalf which we trust in, in life and death.