Christmas Services

I want to invite you to our Christmas Carol Service this year. The reason is simple: we have a great story to tell about Jesus Christ.

Jesus is introduced as 'Immanuel' in Matthew's Gospel, which means, 'God with us'. That's who Jesus was and is - the God who came down as the Saviour of the world.

He was named "Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Sin is a word we tend to ignore, but it is a problem that matters and goes deeper than we think. Only Jesus, the God-man is the answer.

So, please, come and pay us a visit this year. Directions are found on the front of this card. Eat some mince pies, sing some great carols, hear a great story! Find out why this message about Jesus is so important for our times, and important for you.

It would be a delight to meet you!

Yours faithfully,

Rev. Dr. Stephen Dancer

A New Deacon For SPC

Narrative of the call

On the Lord’s Day July 9th, our church ordained its second deacon! We are thankful to the Lord for His provision to us, as He continues to bless us with more men to serve our congregation with the service of Christ.

Below we give more details on the story of how Bruno became a deacon in our church.

Narrative of the call

Bruno started attending SPC, along with Thais, his wife, in April 2021 – when we were still meeting in the park – which seems a long time ago now. Before then, Bruno was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Butantã in Brazil. It was an encouragement to see them getting stuck into every aspect of church life very quickly and transferring their membership in September of that year – just as we started meeting in this school.

So, the Session has been keen for a number of years to establish a Diaconate at SPC and not long after Bruno became a member, church members were asked to prayerfully consider men that may be suitable to this office. This led to Evan being called to serve as a Deacon, last year, but a number of members indicated Bruno as a possible candidate too.

We met with Bruno and he was willing to explore this further with us, which included Bruno going through a number of training sessions with Falko, going through what it means to be a deacon around Christmas time up and the new year. We considered Bruno to be suitable and demonstrated a servant-heartedness, and we were glad to put him forward to be voted on.

At our recent AGM, members voted unanimously for Bruno to become a deacon – 26 yeses, and we’re delighted he joined Evan on the Diaconate on the morning of July 9th.

The First Deacon Of SPC

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (Ephesians 4:8)

After completing His great work of salvation by rising from the dead on the first day of the week, our Lord seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, and poured out His Spirit onto His church with manifold spiritual gifts. A prominent such gift is that of deacons, men who are called to serve the church in its material needs, assisting the elders of the church in the care of the flock.

On the Lord’s Day November 13th, our church ordained its first deacon, Evan Ritchie. We are thankful to God for this gift. Below we narrate how Evan came into contact with us, and how his calling to the diaconate was discerned by the session and the congregation.

Narrative of the call

Evan came to the UK from Texas (USA) in November 2019. He had just married Marianne, a member of our congregation, and was received into membership in January 2020.

Evan joined us in a time of great difficulty. Shortly after his arrival, the first cases of COVID-19 were spotted in Wuhan, and a lockdown was put in place in the UK in March 2020.

Evan showed great resilience during that time, being faithful in attending the means of grace in a variety of situations. He attended morning and evening services and midweek meetings, both online and in person, outdoors and indoors.

During the following 2 years. Evan has been a great example of service in God’s church in many practical ways. His knowledge of audio equipment made him the ideal candidate to take control of that, and he also took responsibility for taking care of the serving rota.

All of this showed that he had the qualities and characteristics of a deacon as given in 1 Tim 3:8-13. Since the summer of 2021, the session had considered whether Evan was called to be a deacon, and subsequently he with a few other men took a deacon training course with Falko.

Because of this, and his continued desire to serve Christ in His church, the session was unanimous in putting him forward as a deacon to the congregation.

On Sunday 9th October, the congregation, with 35 out of the possible 37 votes, voted unanimously for Evan to become a deacon.

We are truly thankful to God for this day, and we pray His blessing upon Evan, his family and our church in the days to come.

Amen.

A Visit From Sovereign Grace Presbyterian Church

This past week, our church was blessed with the visit of members from the Sovereign Grace Presbyterian Church (SGPC) in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA). Our visitors were Ben Thomas, assistant pastor at SGPC, Henry de Boer, deacon at SGPC, and Joel and Alice Parker, who are retired missionaries. They spent over a week in the UK, visiting Presbyterian churches in Oxford, Lincoln, Salford and here at Solihull. During this time, our bonds of love and fellowship were strengthened in various ways.

On Thursday, we had a wonderful fellowship dinner before our regular prayer meeting in one of our member’s home, which was followed by teaching from Henry de Boer about the diaconal mission of the church. On the following day, the men of our church joined with members from Presbyterian churches in Oxford, Salford and Cheltenham to a workshop about the diaconate, with preaching by Ben Thomas and practical exercises with Henry de Boer. We parted company after our Lord’s Day worship, on which Ben Thomas preached for us in our morning service.

We are grateful to the Lord for the support we received from these brothers and sisters across the ocean, and we look forward to seeing them again face to face.

A New Elder For SPC

Jonny Umpleby ordained to the eldership. From L to R: Rev. David Pfeiffer (Whaddon Road EPC, Cheltenham), Rev Chris Kavanagh (Naunton Lane EPC, Cheltenham), Dr Falko Drijfhout (Elder, Solihull PC), Rev Dr Stephen Dancer (Minister, Solihull PC), Paul…

Jonny Umpleby ordained to the eldership. From L to R: Rev. David Pfeiffer (Whaddon Road EPC, Cheltenham), Rev Chris Kavanagh (Naunton Lane EPC, Cheltenham), Dr Falko Drijfhout (Elder, Solihull PC), Rev Dr Stephen Dancer (Minister, Solihull PC), Paul Corney (Elder, Immanuel PC, Cardiff and EPCEW Moderator).

One of the ways that the Lord blesses and rules over the local church is in the raising up of local elders to serve as under-shepherds, caring for the flock. So it was with great delight that on Sunday the 19th September at our morning service, we were able to ordain one of our members, Jonny Umpleby, to the eldership and install him here at Solihull.

The act of ordination was carried out by a commission of presbytery (see picture caption above). David Pfeiffer preached on “Christ-like Elders” from 1 Peter 5:1-4. Stephen Dancer charged Jonny to pay attention to the needs of his own soul and of the needs of the flock (Acts 20:28). Chris Kavanagh charged the congregation to pray continually for their new elder.

It was a great day! May the Lord continue to bless this local expression of his worldwide church.

We're Moving

Thankfully, with all legal restrictions being removed in July this year, places have been opening up and we have been able to secure a regular meeting place for our services - Tudor Grange Academy in Solihull - and we begin meeting on Sunday, 5th September. We are thankful to our God for this provision.