Prayer for my church

The Lord has graciously been blessing my little church in South West England over the past 18 months. Our congregation has doubled in size over that time, and although most of the new arrivals have been from other churches, several have been unchurched seekers, some of whom have been coming to faith.
We are pretty full every Lord's day now and have been considering what to do about it. Suddenly the possibility has arisen of taking over a church building in the next town, five miles away, where the congregation has shrunk to single figures. The trustees will let us have use of the building at no charge if we keep things going.
It sounds like a no-brainer, but some of our people are anxious about sending people away to the other church and possible strain on the preachers. We have a church meeting about the matter on Nov 18th.Please pray that we can lead the congregation forward to seize this opportunity because if we don't take the building on it will be sold and may end up as a night club or a mosque.

Also, we are hearing of some other churches in the area experiencing unusual growth. It is far too early to speak of revival, but please pray that God would continue to bless the Bible-believing churches over here, and maybe do something above and beyond!

Martin, any update?

Thanks for your interest.
At the meeting on Thursday, it was agreed that we should take over the church building as from January 1st. We now have four or five ex-attenders from that church (i.e. most of the congregation!) coming to us, which is adding to our over-crowding.

Also, we are still seeing new people coming to the church, including three who have recently come from South Africa because of increasing violence and lawlessness there.

So please pray for genuine conversions among the seekers; three seem to be 'on the cusp' of coming to faith. Also for wisdom to discern who is and who isn't a genuine Christian among those who are coming from other churches, and for manpower to run Christianity Explored, Baptism and Membership courses and discipleship classes.

I don't think this is revival yet; if it were, we would be seeing more conviction and more conversions more quickly than we are; but, God willing, it might be the start of something bigger.

Also, before anyone gets carried away, please bear in mind how tiny my church was. Before the Pandemic we had an average of about 22 attenders. We are now getting over 50, and if everyone on the books turned up together, we would have around 65. So the increase is major for us, but is not really making much of a dent in a town of around 35,000. However, "The longest journey begins with the first step."

Good to hear!

Could you remind us again where your church is located? Southwest England takes in a large swath of territory? Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, or Somerset?

Squire Robertsson said:

Could you remind us again where your church is located? Southwest England takes in a large swath of territory? Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, or Somerset?

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If you have your Google Earth at the ready, my church is in beautiful Devon (the only county that rhymes with heaven) in the seaside town of Exmouth. The church which we shall be taking over and re-planting (D.V.) is in Budleigh Salterton.

East Devon is also the retirement capital of Britain. They say that people come here to die, but when they get here, the air is so pure that they find they can't do it! Lots of old people in Budleigh! So it's all the more urgent to reach them with the Gospel.

Ahh, yes, Devon. The border county that protects the Land of the Cousin Jacks aka Cornwall from the barbarians to the North.

Fascinating!

I rejoice that the hand of our Lord continues to work and trust no quenching will snuff out the light!

Squire Robertsson said:

Ahh, yes, Devon. The border county that protects the Land of the Cousin Jacks aka Cornwall from the barbarians to the North.

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Ah! You know about the Cousin Jacks - I'm impressed!
For those who don't know, they were the Cornish tin miners who went all over the world seeking jobs in mining when the tin dried up. They may be coming back now because Lithium has been found in Cornwall!
Have a listen to this (although the band actually comes from Devon):

In the West, Cornishmen were hired for their hard rock mining experience in the gold and silver mines. It's said that if you hired one before you knew it he's coming up to you saying, "Here's my Cousin Jack, You need to hire him. What he doesn't know about mining isn't worth knowing."

Clearly, the true etymology has been obscured here. Jack was not a common Cornish name, but rather a typical English appellation related to John. The term Jack originally applied not to the cousin but to the one addressed. Thus, the correct initial formulation would be, "Here's my cousin, Jack. You need to hire him…." Of course, those approached could not imagine they were being so rudely addressed and thus wrongly assumed the Cornish miners had lots of cousins named Jack, as did the English. Go figure.

Next, we will address the formulation "Other Cousin Jack," now almost entirely lost but which further influenced the assumptions of those doing the hiring. (BTW, what could TIC mean?)

RighteousnessTemperance& said:

Clearly, the true etymology has been obscured here. Jack was not a common Cornish name, but rather a typical English appellation related to John. The term Jack originally applied not to the cousin but the one addressed. Thus, the correct initial formulation would be, "Here's my cousin, Jack. You need to hire him…." Of course, those approached could not imagine they were being so rudely addressed and thus wrongly assumed the Cornish miners had lots of cousins named Jack, as did the English. Go figure.

Next, we will address the formulation "Other Cousin Jack," now almost entirely lost but which further influenced the assumptions of those doing the hiring. (BTW, what could TIC mean?)

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RT, I was mis-remembering Louis L'Amour.

Squire Robertsson said:

RT, I was mis-remembering Louis L'Amour.

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OK, whatever that means. And who knows what mine was about? (no pun intended)

But while we're at it, here's a detailed rundown of references and possible origins.

Caitlin Green: Why 'Cousin Jack'? The origins of the nickname of the Cornish overseas

RighteousnessTemperance& said:

OK, whatever that means.

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It means I read the line in a western by Louis L'Amour.

Squire Robertsson said:

It means I read the line in a western by Louis L'Amour.

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Does that explain the "mis-remembering" part of the comment?

RighteousnessTemperance& said:

Does that explain the "misremembering" part of the comment?

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It means I'm remembering Mr. L'Amour's gist but not directly quoting him. I can't even remember which book I read it in and I've read almost all of them.

Squire Robertsson said:

It means I'm remembering Mr. L'Amour's gist but not directly quoting him. I can't even remember which book I read it in and I've read almost all of them.

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what happened to your photographic memory???

Salty said:

what happened to your photographic memory???

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Maybe it's overdeveloped.

Salty said:

what happened to your photographic memory???

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Mine merely faded with time. Some were left collecting dust, and more became lost in time.

May I give an update on the OP? Please read that first.
We have taken over the church in the next town, and have been holding informal meetings for a few months now.
This Lord's day is our first proper church service. Please pray for the Gospel to be preached faithfully and winsomely by my fellow-elder and that we shall see a goodly number of people there to hear it.