Weekend Away 2015 | Christ Church

Geoff Lanham introduces speaker John McGinley

Over 120 members and friends of Christ Church spent a weekend at an activity centre enjoying the surroundings and a wide range of activities and growing in our relationships with God and with each other.

Getting out of the boat

Speaker John McGinley introducing the topic

We welcomed John McGinley, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Leicester as our speaker.

John based his theme on the story in Matthew 14.22-33. Jesus’ disciples were in a boat in a storm when they saw him walking across the water towards them. “If it’s you,” Peter said, “tell me to come to you on the water.” And so Peter left behind the relative safety of the boat and set out on his adventure of faith.

Our boat, said John, is what we might call our comfort zone. There are many reasons why we might want to stay there but to be a true follower of Jesus means taking risks and attempting things we could never do without God working in us.

What does a call from God look like in practice? How should we respond when things start going wrong (as they did for Peter)?

On the high ropes: the “leap of faith” was a metaphor for the whole weekend

There are many people in Christ Church who have recently taken steps of faith of this kind, and in addition to listening to what John said we had much to talk about and learn from each other.

John’s talks were recorded and will be published on our sermon download page in the coming days.

“Thank you to John for sharing with us about the transforming power of God’s love. I want to grasp that much much more”

John brought a team from his home church to lead children’s and youth activities

Our Weekend Away 2015 was held in the beautiful surroundings of Whitemoor Lakes in Staffordshire. We came with a wide range of recent experiences and emotions: a family who had suffered a very recent bereavement (a loss felt by us all), two children celebrating birthdays, an asylum seeker newly arrived in the UK, people who had gone through other recent changes of direction, and all of us subject to the joys and difficulties that we encounter in our everyday lives.

Worship at the Weekend Away

“I felt lost before coming here and didn’t know how I would cope. Thank you for all your support and love”

There were many opportunities for prayer over the weekend, and it was clear that God was at work healing both physical and emotional pain and encouraging us to respond to him in faith.