Southgate Church is your local church. We are based in the Community Centre near the parade of shops, pub and school, and are pleased to be available to the whole of our community which numbers about 4500 people. Come and talk about those special occasions, like a wedding, marking an anniversary or a birth in the family.
We were founded by local Christians 40 years ago and are now formally supported by the Church of England, Baptist and United Reformed churches. Over the past few months for our community we have held The Big Birthday Party, and run our ever popular Southgate’s Got Christmas. Thank you to so many people for coming.
As part of the Southgate Community Partnership, the Church wants the best for our area, so we are vitally involved in the ownership and management of the building, and all that goes on there. This includes a variety of clubs and activities that the church itself provides for people of all ages. Recently we have launched Sunday Club for young people from 5 upwards between 1030 am to 1145 am each week, except the first Sunday of the month when we all meet together.
Southgate Church is made up of a huge variety of people with different gifts and skills, backgrounds and experiences of life. Everyone is valued, welcomed and is encouraged to become a part of what we hope is a loving family.
We really hope that you will want to know more about Jesus who inspires us and to discover for yourselves that he is real, relevant and true to life in the 21st Century. The Christmas card we put through your door this Christmastime said: “Light and life to all he brings”. Jesus talks about the fact that he wasn’t born to rub shoulders with the rich and famous or those who have got it all together with perfect lives. He came to help ordinary people, who get it wrong and sometimes feel ashamed of it. You see Light and Life is what he offers each one of us, including you.
If you want to know more, without any commitment, then please contact our Minister, Rev Peter Gibson,(725577) our Family and Community worker, Alison Burgess, (07940 247038) or our Administrator, Jackie Tooley (703705). Each one would be pleased to tell you about the various events which go on for all age groups during the week. We look forward to hearing from you and meeting you.
Our Minister writes:
Looking at another New Year, I’m sure we will all agree that there’s something quite special about new things, or being the first.
There’s the new first baby in the family; the new first job. It’s a sense of freshness – the hope of something different and maybe better than in the past. Expectations, excitement and anticipations can almost be tangible at these times.
I wonder how many of us will have made New Year resolutions which last more than a week, or maybe even a month ?
There’s a sense of newness in the pages of the Bible. God says ‘I am making everything new.’ The fact is there is a promise that the old things can be dealt with, once and for all, and the possibilities of new things are endless and are an encouragement to many. Over the years lots of people have found truth in these words. At Southgate Church we have just celebrated our 40th birthday. In one sense we’re not new, but there’s a new start for us in year 41: new people to meet, new things to achieve, new goals and ambitions, new possibilities.
In our community what do you think needs to be made new? Are there possibilities of new relationships, new friendships or even those broken relationships being mended. Are there fresh ways of relating and trusting each other, or a fresh expression of justice and mercy for everyone? Jesus taught a new way of loving and forgiving. As you have been forgiven, so forgive he said and also the truth that as you have been loved, then love!
Positive forgiveness and love are so essential to our society. We are told that all of us need to be loved and also to belong; Jesus offers both to us within the family of the church, His special family. If we take time to try and practice these qualities of unconditional love and forgiveness, you never know it might catch on! We might find that other people forgive and accept us and each other in the same way, in love. We could set a new trend for the whole of the town by living life in a new way. It all starts with belonging. Is this something you have been wanting? Come along and explore – you’re more than welcome.
Rev Peter Gibson
Regular Activities at Southgate Church
SUNDAYS
9.45am Prayer Meeting
10.30am Worship Service and Sunday Club
6.30pm Evening Service (1st Sunday)
MONDAYS
10.00am CoffeeStop – come along for a chat
7.00pm Liquid (13-16s)
WEDNESDAYS
9.00am SPOTS (Parents and Toddlers)
3.15pm Wednesday Gang (Primary School children)
7.30pm Prayer House
THURSDAYS
9.15am Holy Communion Service
2.30pm Friendship Club (over 55s – 1st & 3rd Thursdays)
7.00pm Youth Club (Middle School children)
7.45pm Thursday Club (Ladies Group – 2nd Thursday)
