Continue // One Church Podcast, 22nd December 2025

We are one church. We love God, love people, love

His mission, and love His church.

Welcome to the One Church Podcast 2025.

Look what the Lord has done. I'd like to thank the Father for

his constant goodness to us as a house.

I'd like to thank the trustees here on the screen right now

who've governed with integrity and excellence this house.

I'd like to thank our elders who've spiritually watched over

1 church. I'd like to thank our site

pastors who've LED our five sites with passion and anointing

over this year. I'd like to thank our amazing

staff at One Church and Open Hands who've given their all for

Jesus in the way they've served this year.

I'd like to thank the 200 people or so who serve in a leadership

capacity at One Church for going the extra mile.

And I'd like to thank you for being part of the family.

If you're visiting today, you're so welcome.

And what a year. 51 Sundays run and blessed.

All the incredible ministries of the House.

Blessed and the church continues to grow and thrive.

We saw 76 nationalities at our Nation's day just a few weeks

ago. Personally, for Susan and I,

this has been a wonderful year and we're so grateful for our

family, our two sons and daughters in law, our three

grandchildren. Annabelle, our eldest

granddaughter, was a teenager, recently became a teenager and

we're so proud of her, but also the sheer joy of what we get to

do and see here at one church, the fulfilment of his promise of

all the people, all the provision and all the places

we've needed. Thank you, Lord.

What about three people moments? Of course, this year some people

have moved away from one church to other parts of the world and

other parts of the country. But to see 420 new people added

to our family, wow. There have been around 70

different preachers at one church across our sites in 2025.

Wow. And there have been more

baptisms this year than any other year in our history.

And we want to say thank you to the Lord.

What about 3 Jesus moments? Well, in my life I think they

there were so many. But let me pick three out in our

trip to India earlier in the year, Susan and I in a prayer

meeting when we watched a demonised man who was thriving

on the floor and bound up. And then to be privileged to

pray with him, with others and see him miraculously set free,

full of joy, his countenance changed.

A miracle from the Lord. A Jesus moment would be when

James and Claire and Susan and I met Darren in an Airbnb in

Harrogate, managing the house we were all going to stay in, but

hungry and looking for faith. And what a privilege to be able

to meet with him the next day and lead him to Jesus.

And a Jesus moment for Susan and I this year would be standing at

the graveside as Marge Niblock's coffin was sown in the ground.

And to be able to celebrate this amazing lady and her legacy with

her family and also to remember in that moment that we all end

up in a box. So we need to make the most of

the life we have. Three new ministry moments would

be the Go Day. Hundreds of people serving in so

many projects, blessing others. And if you have your diary, put

this date in right now, Saturday the 6th of June 2026.

We want everybody to be involved next year.

I think I've loved the prayer tent that we developed on New

Year's Eve last year, a place to connect with his presence, and

it'll be coming back down after our Christmas services.

I think foundation's a new course that we pioneered to help

people new in faith become strong in faith, and I'll talk a

little bit more about that in a moment.

What about 3 provision moments for us as a house?

The resources to bring the rant down and the resources to put

the banners up. The generosity poured out to our

work in the Makuru slum, Kenya that enabled so many changes to

happen. And the truly incredible vision

offering that we received in November.

And already just over 50% of that has been received, meaning

we have all the resources we need to bring the building down

next door. What about 3 wider moments?

I think the release of Peter and Barbie Reynolds from their

captivity in Afghanistan was a moment to celebrate.

I think the amazing provision and this, I have to say, this

has blessed me hugely. The provision of a new home for

the Leicester Deaf Centre in the old Trinity Life Church building

which is now owned by the Redeem Worship Centre.

And they've moved in and ready to go.

And that's just the Lord's provision.

And I think also wider moments, the ongoing blessing of Open

Hands, which is our very heart as a church.

This week Beth, who manages Open Hands, wrote this.

We're pleased to let you all know that thanks to generous

donations from the One Church, Christmas Giving, Samworth

Brothers and the Axis Foundation, we now have all the

funds we need to buy a new second hand furniture van for

Open Hands. Let's celebrate.

We'll be buying the van in January.

And she continues this reflecting on the year.

We've also seen the fruit of new and strengthened partnerships

and I'm grateful to God's provision across the year in

open hands. Last week we celebrated

Christmas with our English students who heard about the

gift of Jesus. And this week, alongside 200

Christmas hampers making their way out into the community, we

had the privilege this week of furnishing 4 homes, providing

clothing to 45 households, supplying a week's worth of food

to 216 people, including 98 children, and serving a

Christmas dinner to 84 guests at π night.

That's your compassion charity. What about 3 new moments coming

to us in 2026? Well, we're going to bring down

#12 the building there starting probably the second week of

February if we can, and taking up maybe up to three months,

creating initially a lot of new parking spaces, but also

creating space for miracles as we look to rebuild.

It's the next step. It's the next step.

We're also in 2026 going to release what's going to be known

as a Next Steps course, which will help everyone who joins one

church to better integrate quicker and be released to be

who God wants them to be. I'm excited about that.

And we're going to start a gap year for students again, leaving

sixth form and university. And there'll be a number of

spaces people apply and be interviewed, and we're going to

need some of you to help us. We're going to need a few host

families who are willing to take somebody on into their house for

a few months. Can you help us?

And ideally, we'd love a miracle of somebody maybe in the room

who has a house and you'd be willing to let us use it to

house these amazing gap year students.

And if you can help us, please come and talk to me at any time.

I am available 24/7 for that. And a fourth thing, I think if

I'm going to say next year, as we think of what the Lord's

going to do, we're going to be chatting about beginning a new

6th One church site towards the end of the year.

And I'm excited about that and it's going to be a blessing.

What a year. So just before the start of this

year, if you were here in this room, you might remember and

that we heard some prophetic words from some of the one

church elders. And one of those was from Pastor

James. And it was very simple that we

were to continue. And he said we are people of

continuance. And the gist was keep going

because the Lord is going to bless you and you'll see what

you long for. And there are many ways that

we've continued as a church over this year, over 2025, and many

that we won't even mention today.

But if we only look at the various Bible teaching series

that we've covered over the year, we'll get a glimpse of how

we've continued and how we can continue to continue over this

next year. So we started and ended the year

with love. January had us grappling with

One Corinthians 13. What love is a practical

outworking. That love is patient, kind.

We grew in patience, kindness, humility, and so on.

So let's continue to love. Then we went to Exodus and face

to face with God LED us to the story of Moses and his

encounters with the Lord. Let's continue as a church to

seek his face. We're a Church of the altar.

We're not a Church of the stage. For quite a period after Easter,

we opened up the letter to the Colossians and we focused on

Christ over everything. So let's continue to keep the

main thing, the main thing, Jesus and the simple gospel

above everything. And over the summer, Find Your

Voice gave voice to many new preachers in the life of one

church. And we gained some powerful

revelation. So let's continue to release

many servants to build the Kingdom of God.

In September, we looked again at the power of the power of giving

miracles, family, prayer, vision.

Let's continue to be united as a church in our core mission and

our beliefs together. And then we thought about battle

for your mind, and we gained greater victory.

Let's continue to know our weapons, to think Christ's

thoughts and to have a mind that is life and peace.

And we ended the year, and you should remember this one, with

what Jesus said is the greatest commandment.

So we ended with love like we started with love.

That is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your

soul, your mind and your strength, and to love our

neighbours as ourselves. So let's continue because this

is US1 Church is all about loving God and loving people,

and this is what we're all about.

And then just as a thread throughout all this and across

the year, there's a word that's been pulsing through the prayers

of those who pray over the life of one church, which is the idea

of preparing the way Isaiah prophesized this in chapter 40.

Listen, it's the voice of someone shouting.

Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord.

Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God, fill

in the valleys, level the mountains and hills, straighten

the curves and smooth out the rough places.

And then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all the

people will see it together. The Lord has spoken.

We will continue to prepare the way to see Him bring down

barriers of opposition, the barriers that are in our way,

whether it's in the church or outside of the church.

To see Him raise up the lowly, to see the path for Him made

smooth, for him to arrive. Why?

Because this is his heart so that the glory of the Lord may

be revealed. And as we enter 2026, let's

continue as he has LED us over this past year.

And let's expect the suddenly of God, an increase, an

acceleration. It's already happening.

But let's continue as we've seen.

So we believe for more. If we look, think that through

the year again, more love, more encounter, more simplicity, more

Jesus, more releasing people, more victory, more love for him

and for others and more of him and his glory.

So one church, let's continue to continue because we are a people

of continuance. I really feel this morning it's,

it's so important to remind us occasionally you get moments

from God where there's a, a demonstration, a miracle moment,

but largely the workings of God, in my experience, they happen

over a period of time in a life. And you can miss the moments.

And when we think of all those teaching series that have gone

on, all those moments, all those people in the baptism tongue,

all those people arriving, becoming part of God's heart,

the hundreds of people who found Jesus in the church this year.

Let's not miss one moment to say I will give you all the honour

and all the praise. And here we are in Colossians 2

and I'd like to just now just preach for a few minutes.

Now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must

continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into

Him. Let your lives be built on Him.

Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and

you will overflow with thankfulness.

He is with us and we are called to continue to continue.

Firstly, to continue to accept Jesus as Lord and now just as

you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord.

The sheer joy of being saved. I love being a Jesus follower

and the Holy Spirit is calling all of us towards Lordship in

every area as we go into a new year.

Lordship is more than Sundays. It's more than part time faith.

It's more than a temporary prayer.

Lordship is Lordship over me, Jesus first, a life yielded,

available and open to all that He has to offer.

It's Lordship over our relationships.

This means that in our friendships we build with love

and kindness and never selfishness and exclusivity and

gossip. If we're dating, lordship means

that our boundaries are in place, that we walk in purity

and we save sexual intimacy for marriage.

And in marriage, Lordship between a husband and wife is

maintaining honour of one another and purity between us at

all times. It's lordship over our Diaries

which means prioritising time as we go into this year with Jesus.

Time in church life, time with Christian friends, time building

bridges with people not yet Jesus followers.

If you don't sometimes plan it, it won't happen, our neighbour

said to us yesterday. And it blessed me so much

talking to me about how they had been so moved by the Christmas

production. Last week they brought their 10

year old nephew. It hasn't always been easy for

them, this young man. And he sat on the 5th row here

in the 12:00 performance, and for much of it he laughed and

laughed and laughed and laughed. He did him so much good.

And to hear them say how much they'd loved being here for

that. These things take time.

Building bridges. It's lordship over our finances.

This is what it means. Meaning that we're serious to

give back to God first and we give therefore biblically and

generously and regularly releasing resources to the local

house to enable it to outwork its mission.

Lordship is freedom and blessing and how you were created to

live. I wonder if you'd decide again

today to continue to accept Jesus as Lord, to continue to

follow him? Paul writes.

You must continue, continue to follow him.

I read about Simeon this week thinking of the Christmas story

and that those times reading about Simeon who dedicated Jesus

I think 40 days after he was born.

And this was a man who waited with a promise to see the

Messiah, and yet he continued in his faith.

He continued to follow. And we read in Luke, it says

there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous

and devout. He was waiting.

I love that. Are you waiting?

He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the

Holy Spirit was on him. And it would been revealed to

him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he'd seen

the Lord's Messiah. How was he continuing?

He was righteous and devout. That's Lordship.

He was waiting with expectation. That's Lordship and the Holy

Spirit was on him. That's Lordship.

He was continuing to follow God. If you found Jesus this year, I

want to say to you, there's more, there's more for you.

If you've not been baptised in water, do that in the first two

months of the year. Be filled with the Spirit, a

day-to-day minute relationship with Jesus when you're filled

with him. Everyone of us in this room can

speak in tongues. It's not an exclusive thing for

a few Christians. And if you haven't, you know in

the history of what we we are as a a denomination, Assemblies of

God. We used to have what would be

called tarrying meetings where people would wait until they

were filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues.

I want to tell you, wait until you've been filled and you speak

in tongues. It gives you it gives you an

anointing, a strength to pray. But if you found Jesus, continue

to follow him because every area of your life is better with him.

We've never preached the gospel here that says you've now found

Jesus. So everything will be sorted.

There'll be no tension, no difficulty, Everybody will love

you. It's not true, but you can

continue with Him because He walks with you in every season.

And what about all of us? Are we willing to continue to

follow Him? Because the Father is closer to

us than anyone else? And Jesus, who is coming soon,

He is worth following. I wonder today if you're going

to make a decision in a few moments like I made this morning

again in my devotions. As for me and my household,

we're going to serve the Lord every second of 2026.

I'm going to continue to follow Him.

Paul goes on. Continue to let your roots go

down. Roots go down into him, into

him. There's a tree near us.

We live on the back of a golf course and through our back gate

onto near the 18th T, there's a tree not far from there that

fell down a few months ago and it had roots, but it developed a

problem and in time it fell over because it needed stronger

roots. This is a year ahead for all of

us to let our roots grow down into Him.

We experience great freedom in our country to meet and to

worship and I expect that to continue.

But there are restrictions that from time to time are placed,

and we will face challenges as we go forward that the gospel

will be contested against as well as welcomed.

And we need to have strong roots, to stand strong against

every challenge, to strengthen, to go deeper, to come closer, to

let our roots go down, to come near to the Creator, to

strengthen the foundation of our lives so that we can withstand

any storm that comes, any difficulty.

I know some of you who've experienced sadness this year,

difficulty this year, questions this year.

Let your roots go down deeper. Let your response be to test

things to get stronger. For some of us, the foundations

course that we begins again on the 5th of January will help us

to get stronger. It will take us back to some

basics. It will help us to look at the

Bible. It will put strength in US and

energy with us. And I urge you, if you're new to

faith, to be part of that from the 5th of January for all of

us, the next steps part that we're going to do is going to

help us as we take the whole church through these steps in

April. And then every person joining

who is willing through these steps to help us to understand

not only the history of the house, but some of the strength

that comes in God and some of the freedom that he offers.

And then finding our place in the body.

Perhaps you need to press in for more discipleship.

You can ask somebody, will you spend some time with me?

Will you help me grow? Just ask.

They may say I'll find somebody for you if they can't, but

there's always that option. And be regular in this new year,

part of a small group. I want to urge every adult in

this room to be in a small group, to help your roots go

down, to do life openness prayer for you.

In a small group there'll be programmes to help you get

stronger, to help your roots go down.

Susan's excited about a ladies conference here on February the

7th. Ladies, put it in your diary.

Put it in your diary. And she writes this.

All of us have areas in our lives where we know we need to

break out of restriction. We may be held by fear or guilt

or shame or negative thoughts or habit patterns.

Breakout is an opportunity for the women of one church to spend

time together in friendship and in the presence of our Heavenly

Father who gives us the keys to free them with a visiting

speaker. Julie Keir from Audacious Church

Manchester is a pastor and also a psychotherapist who will be

speaking plus input, interviews, interaction, worship.

It's going to be a morning not to be missed.

I want to urge you ladies, we'll be, you'll be able to book into

that from January. Continue to accept Jesus as

well. You know, we've also got Mark

Ritchie coming. I think he's a little picture of

him. I'm excited about him coming

the, the second Sunday of February.

He's going to be with us in a together in the morning and in

the evening he's doing his new comedy show that he's just done

in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and he's going to bring it here.

And that's a night to bring hundreds of guests again who are

going to be impacted by the gospel.

Continue to accept Jesus as Lord, continue to follow him, to

continue to let your roots go down, to continue to build your

lives on him. Let your lives be built on him,

Paul says. I was so moved recently by his

testimony. He wrote this as he was baptised

and he declared it in our OB site.

Just recently he said this. I've been coming to church ever

since I was born. My mum actually worked at church

for a time and she had to go to lots of meetings because of

this. Now the younger me I couldn't be

left at home alone so I had to come along as well and these

meetings went on past my bedtime so I was put to sleep in lots of

different rooms around the church, the prayer room, the

cupboard and once the disabled toilet.

As a young child when I went to church it didn't really matter,

I would just play with my toys. Whilst worse it was happening

around me, it didn't really mean anything to me.

Playing with my toys was more fun.

But what helped me get more engaged was going to reach the

midweek one church kids group because it woke my eyes up to

the reality that Christianity can be fun.

So when I was seven years old, I decided to give my life to Jesus

and and after this, through the years, God has helped me grow in

confidence and has given me a voice we will never despise in

this house. The response of a child.

If a child puts their hand up for something, we're going to

respond. We're never going to think it

does less. If you can get someone saved

when they're a child, It's actually it's it's almost more

because it saves them from so many things.

He writes this as I got older into youth, I've been on all the

one church youth weekends away and they really spoke to me.

I needed to put Jesus at the centre more.

Instead of making room for Jesus I needed to be putting him first

and fitting my life around him. So I started reading my Bible

more, praying more and before this I didn't used to like

talking about my faith but after this I now happily do.

So after this I started thinking about baptism and so I'm getting

baptised today because I am greatly loved by God.

I'm saved by God's grace. I'm the Spirit of God and me is

greater than the enemy in the world.

Some of you listen, listen, some of you, you're still running

after your kids when you come to church.

It's all right. We love you and we've been

there. We go back to moments in in the

Albert Hall in Nottingham where our young, our eldest son, would

lie on the floor because he couldn't cope with the noise.

And if I changed anything in the service, Susan would carry him

out screaming because I'd changed the structure for him in

in some of the challenges he was carrying.

We've been there. But one day, if you keep doing

the right thing, you find that the child next to you suddenly

stops and lifts their hands and it's precious and begins to

serve the Lord and says, can I go to midweek groups?

Can I be in our youth group? If they, if any child ever says

to you at any time, I want to go on a weekend away, listen, I

want to give you a word, cancel your holiday, cancel the trip

away. Cancel everything you can and

get them there. Why?

Because it's more important than anything you're doing, anything

you're doing. And listen, if you can't get

moved by that thought that that young lad came to reach on a

Tuesday night and whatever it is, you've got to take an hour's

holiday to get home later, earlier from work to get your

kid here. If you've got to book an Uber,

if you've got to carry them on your shoulders for 15 miles, get

them here on a Tuesday night and on a Friday night, listen to me.

I cannot listen. Because what happens is, is what

happens is and, and there's no condemnation here.

What happens is there's so many distractions for young people,

so many groups they can go to, so many sports things they can

do, so many other things they can learn, instruments, drama,

everything. There's nothing wrong with that.

But when they're 16, you want to see them at the front weeping

with their hands raised, saying, I love Jesus and I'm going to

base my life on him. All our groups start back at the

beginning of January. Do everything you can.

And if your children say that they don't want to go lie on the

floor for a few hours at night and cry out to God that they

would be hungry for him. Amen.

Set your heart to build every part of your life on Jesus.

The passage continues. I feel that so strongly.

I feel that so strongly. You know when I see my boys on

the screen, 35 and 34, My eldest son didn't want to go to our

youth group because he didn't fit in.

We forced him with gentleness. We broke all the rules and let

him go to the young adults group when he was 17.

I shouldn't have done it, but we did and he made friends and they

now both love him deeply. It's worth everything.

It's worth everything. Continue to build a strong

faith. Then your faith will grow strong

in the truth. Grow stronger this year.

Continue to build a strong faith.

Start the year. Get a new plan for your

devotions. Just start again.

Perhaps buy yourself a new Bible, get a little book, start

reading. Decide on the plan.

If you're not sure what to do, talk to Pastor Susan today.

She'll give you a plan in a moment of what you can try Bible

in a year, little bits, this, this, that, that.

Continue to build a strong faith, your devotions this year.

Get out of bed a bit earlier. Oh, I'm tired in the morning.

So what? Why is tiredness?

Got any? Set your alarm 15 minutes

earlier. Get downstairs.

If you have a coffee, make yourself a coffee.

Sit there and go. God, I'm here and he'll go.

I've been waiting for you. I'm so glad you've come.

Let's do a journey. And you leave and he's spoken to

you and you've got something that you carry all day.

Honestly, starting the day with Jesus is the most important

thing of your day. Learning how to read the Bible

if you get distracted by your phones, you know, we love you

version. We love the the apps, but get

yourself a Bible so that you're not distracted by anything else

and read it and say God speak to me and he will and learn to

speak in tongues. Walk up and down pray in the

language of the Spirit. Believe for the presence of God

to come on you continue to accept Jesus as Lord continue to

follow him continue to let your roots go down.

Continue to build your lives on him.

Continue to build a strong faith.

And lastly, he says, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Continue to overflow with thankfulness.

This year, set your heart to say thank you for everything,

everything, everything. Set your heart that every single

Sunday you're in church, you're going to pick up all the litter

that's under your chair to thank the people that set the room.

Set your heart. But in church life, you're going

to thank the people who serve you, who say hello, give you a

coffee and a cake. And in work, you're going to be

grateful to your boss for your job, to the bus driver, to the

person who serves you on the at the till.

You're going to stop and say thank you.

Stop and say thank you. Set your heart to complain less

and less. Stop moaning.

You never feel better after moaning.

If you've got an operation delayed, or you have to wait a

bit longer for an appointment with the doctors, or if there's

a queue or a terrible driver in front of you, or if you've got a

neighbour that's difficult. Start thanking the law for the

privilege of having a House, of having a free health service, of

even being able to get on a bus. Set your heart to complain less

and less, and your heart to be grateful more and more.

Overflow with thankfulness. The church should be the most

thankful organisation in the world.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Start it today. Tell the person next to you, I'm

really thankful I'm sitting next to you today.

Go and tell them. Stop moaning.

Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must

continue to follow Him. You must continue to follow Him.

You must continue to let your roots go down into Him, and you

must continue to let your lives be built on Him.

Then, as you do, your faith will grow strong in the truth you

were told, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine

upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards

you and give you peace.