First Meeting of CCM:City Centre

There was a unanimous wise decision to avoid the caffeinated drinks, so that come 11pm we weren’t still bouncing off the walls. So fuelled up with fruit teas and chai lattes, we were acceptably hipster enough to be commencing a bible study in the middle of a coffee shop, surrounded by people frantically finishing reports on their Apple Macs.

To be honest that was the first thing to strike me about CCM: City Centre’s current home. We weren’t hidden away from normal day to day life, surrounded by the comfort blanket of other church goers. We were exposed. There was no buffer period between our prayers in the service to spread the gospel, and our interaction with the outside world. If the Holy Spirit moved dramatically within our group now, we would have nothing to hide behind.

For the first thirty seconds I was nervous that people might over hear, and potentially pick an argument. But my concerns immediately dissipated when I realised how silly it was to worry about that.

In Mark 13 it states: “10 The gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what to say. Instead speak whatever you are given at that time, for it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.”

We didn’t even face risks of arrest at the hand of discussing the gospel in public places as many do around the world. If a confrontational or even politely curious conversation opened, we could have faith that God would give us the words to say.

Having a Bible study in this setting, meant we were handing more of the control over to God. We didn’t have to coax people into our meeting point at 10 in the morning with copious amounts of cake, we were praying alongside them. We didn’t have to pray that someone would out of the blue bring up the topic of faith, but instead we were freely discussing it, allowing God the chance to open the ears of people sat nearby.

Conveniently our first bible study centred on the Gospel as it was the focus of the first chapter of the book we are studying for the following 13 weeks. The book is Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, which looks at building a healthy functioning church, with a strong community in line with the word and the spirit. The next week we’ll be looking at Community.

We continue to pray for this church plant in the city centre that God will bring the right people to it, so that a community can grow in Him together. We also pray that God will take this small beginning and develop it to meet the needs of the people He wants to support and serve around Manchester’s City Centre.

And as we meet each week in the heart of Manchester, easily visible and accessible to whoever God calls us to serve, we’re placing all control of this plant in God’s hands, for Him to mould His way.

If you’d like to find out more information about us and to stay tuned of exciting updates for the city centre over the coming months, head to the CCM:City Centre page, contact Tom, like us on Facebook or come along to Costa at 7.30pm on a Tuesday evening.

We’d love to have you.