Sundays at Godfirst

Godfirst Cheltenham gathers on Sunday mornings as those first disciples did to passionately honour the risen Jesus!

Our meetings start at 10:30am and we aim to finish between 12:15 and 12:30.

Before the meeting:

Find us

Pates Grammar School, Princess Elizabeth Way Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL51 0HG

The google map below shows the location of Sunday morning meeting.

Parking and Travel.
If you are coming by bus, Route A from the centre of town stops on Princess Elizabeth Way outside Pate's, and Route G stops on Coronation square a short walk from Pate's Grammar School. The School is entered from Oldbury Road, off the main Princess Elizabeth Way. We are currently meeting at the Performing Arts Studio at far end of the school furthest from Princess Elizabeth Way. You can park anywhere along the front of the school but we suggest that you drive as far as possible along the front of the building and park in those spaces. Our Welcome team will be on hand to guide you.

Disabled access
The Performing Arts Studio is downstairs in the building and can be reached via the main pedestrian walkway.There are disable toilets in the Performing Arts Foyer.

Children and Youth
If you have children or young people aged 1- 16 with you, our welcome team will show you where you can register your children aged 1-12 before the meeting (Young People are registered in their group). We are hoping to start a creche soon, but if you have a child who is not yet walking please keep them them with you in the main meeting.

We are all together for sung worship for 35 minutes then after the short break, our G1kids workers aim to create a safe and stimulating environment for our nursery and primary aged children. Young people from the age of 12 upwards are have their own group which meets every other week, alternate weeks they remain in the main meeting for the talk. We operate a child protection policy and all volunteers are trained and CRB checked.

Welcome
When you come to a meeting at Godfirst Cheltenham, we really want you to feel welcomed, included and at ease. Our meeting starts promptly. Please feel free to sit where you like but there will be someone to help you finding a seat if you need assistance.

In the meeting:

Sung Worship
In our meetings begin with us all together for about 35 minutes of sung worship. We use contemporary songs with occasional classic hymns (words to the songs are projected on a screen). Although we are led by a team of musicians, church members may also read out from the Bible, speak out a short prayer or say things they believe God has shown them. Please feel free to join in or just observe in whatever way makes you most comfortable. We take up an offering. Guests are not expected to give money (although you are welcome to) and no one will mind if you don’t.

News and short break
At the end of the worship we have a short time of sharing news, this is followed by a short break for Tea, coffee, and yummy cakes, at the end of this time G1kids (and youth) go to their meetings.

Bible teaching and prayer
After break there will be relevant and accessible preaching from the Bible, this last between 35 and 45 minutes. We believe this to be an important element of our community life and is one of the key reasons for us gathering together. We also regularly break bread together as God’s people. We make space at the end of each meeting for people to receive prayer for things that have been stirred by the bible teaching, for healing or to become Christians.

After the meeting:

After the meeting people tend to hang around to chat, if you are a visitor expect people to chat to you and invite you to come back to Howard and Naomi’s or to join a mission community for a main meal with other members of Godfirst. Eating together is a great way to build community together; we believe it’s not really church if we are not really friends.

Visiting a church plant

Although Godfirst is a church starting from scratch, we believe those that visit Godfirst will find much in our worship, teaching, kids work and friendships to experience and inspire. However, we also want people to understand that Godfirst is not a church meeting to attend but a Gospel community to connect and contribute too. We are not yet what we will become and so we encourage those who join us to see with the eyes of faith how they might play their part in the Godfirst community that we believe God is crafting.

We hope to see you soon.

Howard