MARCH 2015 ISSUE 14

2014 was a year where many things were launched in the Network.

The music ministry was launched publicly with the release of the worship album, Proclamations; the small group ministry was relaunched with the creation and growth of Connect groups; the finances were put on a much steadier basis with the development and (from 1st January) launch of the new financial model; the launch of the Social Enterprise centre in town - 7000 square feet of building, including a shop, the Cavern youth cafe, a creative workshop for arts and crafts, a conference room that seats 100 + people and office space...all owned by the social enterprise, right in the centre of the city. The relaunch of Little Fishes at Kingsway in the new community centre, and now, the relaunch of Kingfisher Kingsway itself in that same community centre.

And now, in 2015, what was launched last year is gathering pace. Kingfisher Kingsway has been meeting for two months now in its new building and plans are already in progress for how we can serve the community more effectively. The media coverage surrounding the opening of the Cavern youth cafe has been incredible, with a piece on BBC Points West, interviews on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, multiple stories being run in the Citizen, and weekly around 80 teenagers coming along each Friday evening. There are now plans to open the Cavern throughout the week.

There are groups happening most days of the week already in our Westgate Street building, ranging from art and craft groups to parenting courses, to addiction support groups and many more. Work on renovating the Function

Room is well under way, and within the next few months the intention is to be using that room for meetings, for art groups for those who cannot make it upstairs and for much more. The vision for this city-centre facility is launched and is growing fast!

So, with 2014 being such a launchpad and 2015 already looking like being a year of exciting developments in the light of that, there is a growing sense that God is taking us to places we have never been before, stretching our faith and challenging us to trust in him at a greater level than ever before. To help us to do this, we have launched My Confession Weekly, a once-a-week look at what God says about us in the Bible, with the challenge to make that our confession, to come into agreement with God's view of us and speak that out. Each week we look at a particular confession, what it meant then and what it means now, with the encouragement to let that confession sink into our souls so that it becomes our response during challenging times. At St Paul challenged the church at Philippi:

"Fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8, NLT)

At the time of writing that, Paul was in prison facing a very uncertain future. He had every excuse to wallow in self pity, accusing God of having let him down and getting more and more bitter. But he understood the power of the positive confession and that we confess with our mouths what is dominating our minds. Hence,

"Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life." (Proverbs 4:23 GNB)

We are headed into exciting new territory in 2015 - territory that requires us to step out of our comfort zones and step up to a new level of discipleship. To help in that challenge, we are launching this month our all-new Shaped For Significance course. Published by Kingfisher Resources, this DVD-based course is intended for use within Connect groups, but can be done on an individual basis. The DVD, together with a comprehensive work book , gives insight into Setting the Captives Free; Understand your Inner Life; and Understanding Transformation. This course helps us not only to understand freedom and transformation, but shows us how to apply those insights in practical, straightforward ways and is an invaluable resource to equip us to move into the new things God has in store for us.

2015 - the year momentum grows!

Building on the launchpad

THE NETWORK

We are headed into exciting new territory in 2015 - territory that requires us to

step out of our comfort zones

and step up to a new level of discipleship.

News from Kingfisher Kingsway

We had a great Christmas Party in December to finish off a fantastic year! With a ‘Frozen’ bouncy castle, party games, yummy food, Christmas raffle and party bags all the children had a great time!

Little Fishes Christmas Party Little Fishes

FundraisingThroughout the year Little Fishes raise money to go towards paying for our summer trip. This year we are going to Cattle County on Friday 17th July and would love to be able to pay for all of our Little Fishes children to go.

Our fundraising efforts got off to a great start in January with a cake sale - we made £53.85! We have other fundraising activities planned for the next few months, including Kirsty Dalley running the Worcester Marathon in April in aid of our Little Fishes appeal! If you would like to sponsor Kirsty, and help Little Fishes reach their fundraising goal, a form will be available every Sunday until the race at the information area of both churches.

A new resource. Completely re-written in a way that is accessible to all, Shaped For Significance is a DVD-and-workbook resource for the whole church. Ideal for use in small groups or on your own, this course looks at the dynamics of how change really occurs and how we can truly grow as disciples of Christ. Taking the three broad themes of:

• Setting the Captives Free

• Understanding your Inner Life

• Understanding Transformation

this course unpacks the Biblical insights we need to pursue God’s plans and purposes for out lives in a healed and wholehearted way.

To mark the publication of this important new resources, for a limited period the DVD and workbooks are being made available to Connect groups free of charge! Don’t miss out - make sure your Connect group leader gets hold of this resource asap!

Announcing...

News from Kingfisher Tredworth

Pre-School Christmas PartiesA week of parties started with our Twins party on December 6th starring characters from Disney’s Frozen. A great time was had by all with a mammoth present giving session by Father Christmas himself!

Toddler group and Little Fishes parties followed on the Monday and Thursday with a fantastic turn out at both. There was a final fun session for Twins on the Wednesday morning with a giant inflatable assault course being the main attraction.

The week ended with our Dad’s Only group party on Saturday 13th December (mum’s were invited). For this we had a superhero bouncy castle (kindly paid for by one of our Dad’s Group families), party games, food and a special appearance from Father Christmas. It was a good end to a great year!

2014 was such a game-changing year for Kingfisher with the expansion of the social enterprise, the purchase of the new building in Westgate Street and changes in Pastoral leadership for James and Ollie. What better way to end the year than by gathering the church together, to share a meal and to thank God for His faithfulness, His protection and His ongoing plans for our church Network.

The evening was punctuated by video clips of all the many events that have happened in 2014, courtesy of Bill Cooper and Rowan Bennett – from coffee mornings to the holiday club, from Treasure Seekers shows to the Christmas concert. We ended the evening by welcoming in the New Year Malawi time! Thanks to Steve and Bill for hosting – can’t wait to see what we’ll be celebrating at the end of 2015!

New Year’s Eve Thanksgiving Supper

News from Treasure Seekers Social Enterprise

It’s amazing to think that we have only had this building a year, and the basement was in such a state! But thanks to a team of very hardworking volunteers, Steve working solidly and Jan’s creativity, we have seen that basement transformed, and now God is using it in so many ways!

The Friday night youth events are reaching lots of young people. What was really inspiring was that we had a small group of young people who had come to hear the band last week, and were planning on going to a gig after, but then decided to stay and jam with Mike and Dave! It was such a great atmosphere and as we get to know them more please pray for the conversations had!

We are just starting to look at advertising youth listening services in the backroom. Mike is also launching a guitar workshop for young people which is exciting!!

As some of you may be aware, the Cavern is opening during the day starting this month. So, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays we will be open all day, as a proper coffee shop. This is very exciting, as, like the shop, it

provides all sorts of opportunities from work placements for people, to being a window into all things Kingfisher Church and Treasure Seekers. We are also launching a games night on Monday night. All of this is made possible by Dave and Anna who have committed their time to launching this new project.

The building is nearly there in terms of its renovation. Steve is working hard in the function room now, and Jan already has many ideas on how to make that floor look great! We have seen the launch of our Art club and Threads group seeing around 20 people in total come along. We have also seen great success with the parenting courses and other courses which Gill is heading up.

We have seen the introduction of the slushy machine at our discos, performing arts and coffee mornings go down really well! They are very popular. The discos continue to grow from strength to strength with a total of 40 people helping at the discos. We have our Performing Arts show at the end of this term, with both dates at the police headquarters - do come along if you can.

Keep fit continues to be going really well. We have around 6-8 come on a weekly basis, and they all seem to enjoy it and come back for more! This group is open to all, any age and ability, so come along if your interested or ask Sarah Baker for more details.

Our Treasure Seekers Outreach group have been working really hard at visiting lots of different homes recently. Bringing in not just entertainment but also craft activities too. It seems to be really bringing the team together and giving them a real sense of purpose.

Treasure Seekers continues to grow, and with that we always need more volunteers. Get in touch if you are interested in any of our groups or maybe want to do something new!

The Cavern is open for business!

News from Treasure Seekers Social Enterprise

Threads launched on the 19th January 2015. So what is Threads? Threads is an all inclusive hand sewing group that meets every Monday morning during school term times in the Creative Room at Kingfisher Treasure Seekers building. The aim of the group is to provide a place for people who enjoy sewing in all its forms cross stitch, long stitch, felt animal making, tapestry the list could go on; to meet up, share their projects and skills or to learn new skills.

We cater for complete beginner’s right through to people who just want to share their passion for needlework. The group has just as many men as women and it has been lovely to see people encouraged and inspired by each other’s work. If you have never picked up a needle before don’t be put off there are several members of the group who were in that position and have already

started to produce great first pieces of work. As research has shown that sewing has a therapeutic effect on the body I would encourage everyone to come along and have a go. There is a small cost of £2 per session but that price includes refreshments and help for any

difficulties you may be encountering in your work. If you don’t have a project that’s not a problem as there are a variety of kits available to buy on the day.

For more details contact Lisa Seagrave www.kftseekers.org.uk or 01452 228489.

Get Creative at Kingfisher Treasure Seekers

We re-launched our Parenting Courses in January 2015 in our new home at the Kingfisher Treasure Seekers building in Westgate Street. We had a very successful Parentalk group that is based on Care for the Family’s new DVD, which is a general parenting series. You may have heard some of the group being interviewed by BBC Radio Gloucestershire which was an interesting experience for everyone. We have had very positive feedback about this course, so watch this space for the next one. We are also running Positive Parenting’s Time out for Parents of Special Needs Children, which is receiving very

positive feedback and included a visit from Deborah Livingstone who heads up the Parent Carer Forum in Gloucestershire. Following several requests, we are running Time out for Parents of Pre-teens and Teenagers starting on Tuesday 21 April 2015 at 10am and another Time out for Parents of Special Needs Children starting on Wednesday 22nd April 2015 at 7.30pm.

Parent courses are designed to support, help and encourage everyone in the hardest job you can ever do. They are fun and accessible for everyone, so if you haven’t been on one why not give it a try?

For more information or to book on a course contact Gill Parkinson or Lisa Seagrave on 01452 228489 or www.kftseekers.org.uk

Parenting courses

News from Treasure Seekers Performing Arts

What an amazing event - our first Christmas Show at the Police Headquarters in Quedgeley.  With Santa handing out sweets and loads of people dressed in their Christmas jumpers and hats the atmosphere of Christmas was definitely in the house! 

Our new percussion group did a great job to start with Little Donkey - who would of thought a little donkey would also appear in the room? With lots of Christmas songs and excellent seasonal dancing the entertainment was brilliant. 

With the dance group also performing to Abba's Dancing Queen and the belly dancers shimmying to All About The Bass there was plenty of variety. 

We even had the pleasure of the Police band who played some music during the interval and then gave us some Christmas tunes to listen to in the actual program. 

We had our very own TSPA choir give us their rendition of Born Is The King prior to their appearance in Gloucester Cathedral. Well done everyone in TSPA - you were all brilliant!

TSPA Christmas Show 4th and 5th December 2014

Come and see our next show!

Kingfisher NetworkKingfisher ChurchMoor StreetTredworthGloucesterGL1 4NJ

www.kingfisher.org.ukinfo@kingfisher.org.uk

+441452 304339

© Kingfisher Church, 2013

GET INVOLVED WITH THE NEWSLETTER!

If you would like to be notified when the next newsletter comes out, please go to www.resources.kingfisher.org.uk and enter your email address so we can keep you up to date with news.

In order for this newsletter to grow and develop, we need your help! If you go to any Kingfisher event and have taken a great photo, then please email it to: newsletter@resources.kingfisher.org.uk. The copy deadline for the next issue (due out in May) is 20th April.

Or if you would like to get involved in the production of the next newsletter then email us with your particular area of interest.

Hope you enjoy hearing all that is happening across the Kingfisher Network!