For Such A Time As This...

March 2020.

Covid-19 sends the UK into LOCKDOWN.

Churches close their doors and pray how to reach their people.

Paul, myself and our amazing children worked hard - really hard - to get our church up and running online and on March 22nd we put our first online service out on YouTube - and we continued to do so for almost 2 years - through two Easters, two summers and two Christmases!

We held home-groups and children's meetings on Zoom - praise God for modern technology - and had a lively church-family WhatsApp group where we shared news and prayer requests with each other.

We shared a collaborative online Virtual Holiday Club with the children, and delivered craft materials so they could all join in.

We took Christmas cards and small gifts to encourage our people.

In March 2021 we re-opened our Toddler Group - one of the first groups in the area to do so.

In August 2021, as restrictions began to ease more, and we were able to begin meeting in our building again, we also started live-streaming our services, so people who were still unable to join us back in church could remain connected and included in our gathering.

But, despite some new people joining us, our church attendance continued to decline both online and in person and, by Christmas 2021, it became clear to us that we were not going to be able to sustain KEC long-term.

Our family were exhausted and no longer felt able to carry the church by ourselves - and church finances were also struggling.

We had been talking and praying with the leaders of City Church Liverpool for more than a year about whether merging our churches might be the direction that God was leading us in, but we hadn't been sure until now...

So, in January 2022 we joined City Church Liverpool for our first joint service and we are still in the 'taste and see' phase of exploring how this looks for our two churches to become one.

Two months in and we are still in the 'taste and see' phase of exploring how this looks for our two churches to become one, but from a leadership perspective, we would say that it feels so good and so right:

• Our remaining church family have joined us at City Church and we believe they are beginning to feel at home there.

• We, as a family, have found friends, made connections and begun to find our roles in the City-Church family.

• We are working well together as a joint leadership team.

• We are more able to serve from a place of nourishment.

• We are loving being able to bless City Church with our gifts, and they are likewise blessing us with connection and friendship.

It's early days and no final decision is made yet. There is a long, winding road ahead if we believe it's definitely God's will for us to travel this way, but it seems to us like we might be called here...

For such a time as this...