This last week I was away at Cherish with some of our girls; I had a great time with awesome worship, and fantastic preachers! And to finish our girlie week, on Sunday we had Valley Women at Starbucks in Preston City Centre.

We had lots of fun! We were sung to by our very own star James Baker and tested on our knowledge on those summer love songs courtesy of Jo & beautifully vocalised by the lovely Hannah (modelling a new and very colourful hair style!).

We also said a thank you and goodbye to Keith who has been an invaluable team member, heading up the creative side… we know God has great things in store for him and in store for us as we move on to another level. Jo is going to be taking on this role and I am excited about what God has for us in the days ahead.

I also want to say a massive thank you to all of you who made it work!!! You know who you are. Guys – it wouldn’t be the same without you, we love and appreciate you so much.

It’s always great being together as girls, each time we have met God, He has been at work and this time was no exception. Liz shared her testimony about how God has set her free and her journey… out of a wheelchair!! (This is not normal—ask any doctor—but when God is involved things are far from normal!!)

We had a great message from Rachel Hickson, who ended with the question “What are you going to do from the privileged position you are in as a princess of God, and all that this position brings?” Great women have changed the world…

In the words of Natalie Grant “You only have one life… to make a difference”.

One of my ancestors was a suffragette with Emily Pankhurst, she stood in the face of great adversity and didn’t give up… let’s decide today, tomorrow and the day after not to stand by and be silent, let’s make our stand and do all that God has put inside of us to do and be incredible women who make that difference!

Michele & The Valley Women Team

Well, it’s not Monday… but here’s part three in the summary of Ps Ed’s sermon series based on the three biblical offices of Prophet, Priest and King. Today we recap on Jesus as Priest, you can hear the message by going to our messages page.

A priest is someone who stands in the gap between man and God. He serves God and man. He is a mediator, and in the beginning there was no need for a mediator. Adam and Eve had a perfect, face-to-face relationship with God. Then, when sin entered the world, that perfection was broken and Man has ever since needed a mediator between him and God, we need a priest.

The priest is trying to restore the God-man relationship.

Israel were intended to be the nation of priests pointing the world to God and God is still looking for people to fulfil that role.

So then Jesus comes along!

He is the ultimate High Priest and makes all of us who call Him Lord priests in this world. We are the ones entrusted with the responsibility of pointing people to our great High Priest, Jesus who in turn reconciles the world to God the Father.

Practically what does that mean for us?

1) We should pray with people and offer to do it far more.

2) Be careful what you say and how you say it. Weigh up each word.

3) Tell lots of stories. Testimony is powerful!

4) We need to be ready to help others.

5) Open your homes up to people.

6) Stop worrying! Focus on people.

7) We are part of a ministering church family.

8 ) Bless people lots. Give stuff away.

9) Always have in your mind – Point people to Jesus.

These very practical points are really just natural outcomes when we see ourselves as priests pointing the way to God.

The final part will be up on Friday!

In the mean time, be sure to remind yourselves of the messages from Six Hot Weekends, Ps Stuart Keir and Ps Glyn Barrett rocked the place on Sunday with their amazing messages!

In this message, Pastor Ed reminded us that when Jesus becomes our King, God becomes our Father and we become co-heirs with Christ.

The significance here is understanding sonship. The idea that in the ancient near-eastern Hebrew tradition, the eldest son would receive the double portion of the estate. The sons were the ones with power, authority, position and inheritance. Now, we ALL (including women) have the ability to become sons of God. It’s not that the women change gender, it’s just that in the rule and reign of God, there is neither male nor female anymore and that all the rights of inheritance of the first born son are made available to everyone who makes Jesus their King. This is HUGE! Christianity is a massively liberating message for women.

When we understand Jesus as King and God as Father, we will understand the following -

• It is important that we, both individually and as a church don’t make decisions as if we lack anything.
• We need Jesus as King for freedom and for sonship.
• We need Jesus as King in our church because we are an army needing direction and leadership.
• The world needs Jesus as King to rule over it and make it right.

Keep an eye out for Part 3 on Monday!

Pastor Ed has just finished preaching a series on the topic of “The World Needs Jesus”. Coming up to Six Hot Weekends, this is a timely and powerful reminder of the importance of introducing people to Jesus. In the Old Testament, there were three main ‘offices’ that people were called to in leading the people of God – the Prophet, the Priest and the King. In these messages, Pastor Ed talked about the importance of these roles, what they mean for us, and most of all, how Jesus is the perfect Prophet, Priest and King for us today.

Over the next couple of weeks, the Monday and Wednesday blog posts will recap those messages as we lead in to Six Hot Weekends.

So here’s Part 1.

In the first message of the series, Pastor Ed spent the whole time explaining the importance of understanding the simple truth that the world really does need Jesus.

No matter what you do in this life, ultimately, without Jesus, life is eventually meaningless. The individual and the world has no hope or greater purpose outside of living for Jesus. So those of us who call ourselves Christians need to remind ourselves of this great need and should work to share the gospel with those in our world.

If Jesus loved us enough to come to earth as a man, we ought to be prepared to go to the mission field across the street, in our workplace or school etc. to share the gospel with people.

Ultimately, the truth is that the Church has already won the battle. The outcome is decided. But, unfortunately, the other side is that the Devil has succeeded in many ways by making so many of us ineffective for the gospel. Here’s how he does it and here’s what we need to be aware of:

1. Our own humanity, especially our selfishness, our need for safety and comfort, and the ‘one day when…’ attitude that says I’ll do it one day, or I need training first. The truth is, for each of us, now is the time.
2. Our damaged relationship with God. Sin, guilt, worry among other things all contribute to a contaminated relationship with God. His side of things is perfect, but oftentimes we bring these things into our side of the relationship and struggle to understand that we now have free access to the Father.
3. Our damaged relationships with each other. This includes distrust, envy, comparison, especially when it comes to following the leaders and authority God has placed in our lives.

In summary, we shouldn’t be fighting ourselves, each other, or our vision. We should be fighting together, side by side for the sake of the gospel.

Check out Part 2 here!

The world needs Jesus! My world needs Jesus! Your world needs Jesus!

Jesus is the only answer to the issues and problems all of us face day-by-day, week-by-week and the answer to those life issues that seem so hard to crack! As we totally trust in Him and follow His call and pattern things get solved one by one, attitudes get changed and the future turns slowly more and more hope filled.

I am so excited for the up and coming season of church life. The next few weeks bring some of the country’s best communicators and church builders, and one international hero of the faith. Each and every week will bring something that will change your life, your outlook on life and view of God. Don’t miss them and bring as many people as you can!

How do you love people? Bring them to hear about Jesus!! It’s going to be good!!!

- Ed

Wednesday night was truly a memorable one, thank you for everyone who took the time to be with us at Valley Women!

There is always at least one moment before each Valley Women when I look around and wonder how it is possible to transform the place in the time we have, and if it is even possible!!! The team of people involved, both those on team and those who help are incredible and work so hard to put together what you see when you arrive. Their hearts are to bless your socks off and give you an evening where you can enjoy being spoiled and just a little pampered. A massive thank you for all who helped!! You are awesome!

For those of you who missed out on last night here’s a little flavour of what happened…

Read more…

As wedding fever has gripped our nation, we too at Valley Women rejoice in the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and pray that they will enjoy a long and happy marriage!

I am currently sitting at my desk with my precious daughter, hours before Valley Women’s By Royal Appointment and I am reminded of the journey I have been on: relationships (good and not so good), a fantastic husband, great children… it seems I have everything, but do you have to be married to be truly happy? Can you be happy and single? How do you navigate those teenage years? What if my marriage isn’t happy?

Today I read that only 25% of marriages are happy marriages… what does that say to those who are desperately looking for love?

The Valley Women team have a real treat in store for you tonight, and we would really love to see you. Join us at 7.30pm at the Valley Offices as we explore some of these and other questions.

God believes in you, whoever you are, wherever you are in life… single or married!

Look forward to seeing you

- Michele & The Valley Women Team x

A few weeks back I was in Turkey on honeymoon. Being fairly nerdish, Mel and I decided to go check out the local history. Needless to say, we saw some pretty amazing stuff in the region known in the Bible as Asia Minor.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to any of the big name places you’ve read about like Ephesus or Pergamum, but we did see some other amazing places.

We were privileged to walk the same roads as Paul would have done on his first missionary journey in the ancient ruined town of Perge, and we saw a couple of amazing Roman theatres. Check out the video below to see what I mean… the thing would’ve seated 15,000 in its time and there are many others like it throughout Turkey. The thing that blew me away most… well, you’ll have to watch the video to find out.

You heard right! The early church took this place over and worshipped here. Isn’t that amazing? That the main entertainment venues in the land were being used by the church?! It would be like the M.E.N. arena in Manchester or the N.E.C. in Birmingham being used for church weekly. That would be a BIG church.

And here’s the thing… that’s not too big for God.

It’s amazing to be part of a church that is constantly believing for growth, every ONE matters to God, so let’s reach a LOT of one’s and be a part of something that changes the region and beyond.

Easter weekend is always a special weekend in church life and the lives of all of us individually. As we remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is a great time of reflection and celebration. We contemplate the depth of God’s love for us shown on the cross, and we witness the power of God in Jesus who was raised again.

It’s such a huge reminder to us that as Jesus rose again on Sunday, we celebrate that each and every week in our church services. Let us never lose the wonder of the death and glorious resurrection of Jesus!

This year, we went all out to make the special day extra special – we had media, some special guests and a timely, powerful message from Pastor Ed.

Here’s a quick recap on some of Ps Ed’s points -

• We were reminded that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), and that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), and that as a result of sin and of God’s righteousness, we all need saving.
• We explored the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and how when someone sinned, they needed to impute that sin onto an animal and kill the animal, ensuring that there was a punishment for the sin.
• JESUS, the perfect, sinless, spotless lamb of God came to the earth and took all the sin of those who call him Lord on His shoulders and died for us. The perfect sacrifice, once and for all.
• We learnt that Jesus didn’t die because He needed to. He died because He wanted to. He died because
  • He loves us
  • He wants friendship with us

He died not because we needed it (which we DO), but because He loves us enough to die for us. He sees you as valuable and worth dieing for!

Check out some shots of the special guests we had with us -

Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, took our sin, died in our place and rose again in glory. That’s Easter, and that’s why we’re here.

What amazing spring we have been having! As many of you know I have been involved in helping my dad lamb his sheep this year – the weather has been very kind to us and the 300+ lambs we now have. We will look after them for 16 weeks or more before we sell them on.

How different things were in the Old Testament where the farmers would keep all the lambs they could; they brought food, wealth and security to the family. Hence when God called them to sacrifice them as part of the ‘atoning’ (making right) their sin (rebellion against God’s holiness) it was a costly exercise and a reminder that it was no small thing to do wrong.

In the New Testament Jesus is called the Lamb of God – God’s perfect plan to ‘atone’ for man’s sin – proving once and for all both the costly nature of sin, and the amazing love God has for us as His creation. Celebrate and tell others these amazing things as if you had only just heard them!!

- Ed