Planning permission for The Emmanuel Centre!

We have been exploring God's will in the possibility of us buying the Microchem unit, next door to The Durham Centre, and converting it into extra church and conference venue space, to be called The Emmanuel Centre.

The Emmanuel Centre would have space for up to 500 people, and would become our Durham congregation meeting venue on Sunday mornings. This would free The Durham Centre to be used for our ever-growing children and youth groups - and allow the congregation overall to grow beyond the capacity of our current auditorium.

Well, exciting news! We've just heard from Durham County Council that we have been granted planning permission to convert the unit. 

We are thankful to God for this, but we also realise it is just the beginning of a journey of faith for us. We are still to raise the money for the project, and secure ownership of the unit.

In response to God's goodness, on Sunday 4th March, during our International Sunday, we are going to hold a special Thanksgiving Offering, to express our gratitude to God for the granting of planning permission. For more information on finance and giving to the church, see Jenny Booth, our Deacon for Finance.

- In November 2017, Adam Finn  had a prophetic dream about The Emmanuel Centre. Read about it here. 

Sending and Receiving

It's a privilege to be part of the worldwide family of God, and we are excited to be constantly sending people to and receiving people from across the world. We're also excited for new people committing to our family at Emmanuel, by becoming members of our church. 

This Sunday, we sent Caroline to India for a season, and welcomed seven new members. Here are their stories.

Students and 20's Weekend Away

Our students and 20's community recently went on their annual weekend away. Here is a brief report on what was a great weekend:

On the 26th of January, the Students and 20’s of Emmanuel Church headed down to Middlesbrough for the annual Weekend Away. We had a privilege of having Josh and Jen Davies who ministered to us from the book of Philippians. It was a fantastic time to make new friends, up our calorie intake, share our lives and be stirred by one another’s love for Christ.
The place was buzzing with excitement and anticipation to see God move in new ways.

Friday
With tired eyes, minds dreading to what Monday had in store for us, and our bodies failing to be energetic, we started with praise and worship. Suddenly singing the words out loud, dancing and calling on to God completely changed the atmosphere to eagerly see the living God this weekend. It was the perfect tone set for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday
At 7:30am (yes, yes 7:30 on a weekend…) we had a morning prayer meeting where we pressed on for God to work in our hearts. It was great seeing words brought then and echoed later on during our meeting from different people, and the worship team faithfully leading us to see a glimpse of what eternity in heaven will look like through humbly sing praises and bring honour to the only one worthy of praise.  

We had three seminar options: Abigail Sumption led ‘Creative Worship’ - she helped us understand that we all are creative in our own way and guided us to find confidence in being unique and bold in expressing it. Ashaleigh Hall led ‘Intercessory Prayer’ where she poured out truths on how Jesus intercedes for us and challenged us on how that should change the way we pray for situations. Ashley Corke took hold of the importance of serving one another and reflected on how Christ served us wonderfully and what that means for us to serve others. (it worked out well...our dishes were cleaned by those who attended his seminar!)

Throughout the main sessions we were encouraged to live our lives with the Kingdom glasses on. In our first main session, we were challenged by the word Josh and Jen helped unravel from scripture for what it means for us to partner together in the gospel. We were reminded how privileged we are to be bearers of The Good News, and provoked to think of what that means for each of us in how we live our lives.

During the second session, we heard truths God promises us for when we endure suffering. We were encouraged to confront struggles with a heart of thankfulness and our eyes to be set on that day when all of creation will be redeemed for the glory of God.

Sunday
On the last day, we had such a great opportunity to be partakers of the gospel advancing in India! [Yes, a group from the North East of England took an offering to bless two people in India to be trained in South Africa so that they can be better equipped to take ground in India]
We had Josh expounding on Philippians 3, where he spoke on what a life straining towards the one goal might look like, and how in light of knowing Christ as our Lord and Saviour, everything else the world has to offer for can be counted as rubbish.

Prayer Requests and Encouragements:
1. Super thankful for God meeting each one of us throughout the weekend. We’d love prayers for our hearts to be softened through the Spirit and Word.
2. God reminded us how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. We’d love to see God use us at our workplace and classrooms.
3. We had a blast spending time with one another, we’d love to see our community deepen relationships and more to be added!