In August 2019, Deb and I had the privilege of visiting Edward and Fridah Buria in Kenya. As well as leading Kimbakia Christian Centre in Meru, Edward has planted many other churches in Kenya and the surrounding regions, and has apostolic oversight for churches in that area. During our visit, we saw first-hand how the local church is at the forefront of responding to the needs of their communities, with numerous projects such as food provision, employment and business initiatives, and healthcare. Everywhere we went we saw churches bringing about community transformation – the kingdom of God at work.

As a nation, Kenya has faced many crises, including widespread droughts and famine. When Covid hit last year, Edward, Fridah and their churches met the challenge with characteristic faith, compassion and commitment. For the last 18 months they have been working with some of the poorest communities and helping hundreds of families, providing essential food supplies for both adults and children as well as vital PPE equipment.

As a church, King’s is committed to supporting friends in the wider Newfrontiers family, particularly through the current Covid crisis. As well as helping those in our own local community through JRP, we have sent £5k to Kenya to go towards the work Edward and his team are doing there.

Please pray for Edward, Fridah and the churches in Kenya as they continue to do God’s work in that nation. On top of the economic challenges brought about by Covid, many parts of the country are experiencing severe drought once again, making an already difficult situation even worse.

In fact, there will be opportunity to pray tonight at our one church online prayer meeting, starting at 8pm (link available through the website just beforehand). As well as praying for our friends in Kenya and other nations, we will be worshipping and coming before God with all that lies ahead at King’s this term. It should be a great evening and I look forward to seeing many of you there.

I came home from church on Sunday buzzing with excitement. Everywhere I’d been, whether it was Catford, Downham or Lee, I had bumped into people returning for the first time since the pandemic began. I’d also chatted to a number of visitors who have been enjoying our online services and are now coming along in person. It was great to see our venues filling up again as we continue to rebuild and regather. We also had the joy of celebrating new births as thirteen families dedicated themselves to raising their children to love and follow Jesus.

This Sunday we’ll be celebrating more ‘new births’ with baptisms at each site. Seeing brand new believers take the important step of publicly declaring their faith in Jesus is always an encouraging moment.

Our next Alpha course starts in a few weeks, with an introductory evening on Thursday 30 September at 8pm. In the video below you can hear Chris’ story of how he put his faith in Jesus after starting to attend King’s and joining the Alpha course. Now is a great time to start thinking about who to invite among your friends and family – perhaps this could be the year when they too find new life in Jesus.


This feels like a season of new beginnings, and I am excited for the term ahead. Remember if you are planning to be at King’s on Sunday you no longer need to book a place in advance. For the time being we are asking you to wear a mask as you arrive and when you sing, although you are welcome to remove it when sitting down and listening to the preach. Don’t forget also that this Sunday the Lee site goes back to one morning meeting at 10.30am.

Finally, a reminder that next Wednesday, 22 September at 8pm, you can join us for an evening of worship and prayer at our one church online prayer meeting. It should be a great evening, and I look forward to seeing you there.

Friends, a new church year is upon us, and I am excited that we are now able to start regathering the church in a more intentional way. We will of course continue to keep an eye on how the pandemic progresses and adjust accordingly. (Please see my latest video update, posted last week, for more details about our next steps in opening up the church.)

As the new term starts, I would like to draw your attention to three key ‘building blocks’ happening in the coming weeks:

Firstly, on Wednesday 22nd September at 8pm, there will be a one-church online prayer meeting, to which everyone is warmly invited. This will be a great opportunity to pray for the year ahead at King’s.

Then the following Wednesday, 29th September, you are invited to an evening called ‘Time to Rebuild’. The evening is open to all, and I will be sharing more details about how we intend to rebuild and regather the church, our plans for Sundays, and key updates about staffing and finance. This will be an in-person meeting, starting at 8pm on the Catford site.

Finally, Sunday 3rd October is Vision Sunday. This is an important Sunday of the year when I will be sharing our hopes and plans for King’s in the coming year.

As we begin taking these exciting steps towards coming back together, I would encourage you to put these dates in your diary. I look forward to seeing you at all three key occasions.

Can I encourage you to have a quick look at this video update explaining the next steps we are taking towards regathering as a church?

To summarise, from this Sunday we are stopping the booking in system, so please just come along. However, we will continue to follow the guideline of having no more than 50% occupancy in our venues. We will still ask you to wear masks as you arrive and as we sing, but you are free to take them off during the sermon.

We are also delighted to confirm that from 3rd October the Beckenham site are relaunching Sunday meetings back at Harris Academy. We are extremely grateful for the flexibility the church has shown over the past months to accommodate people from other sites, especially on the Lee site. We believe we have enough capacity now to return to one meeting at Lee from 19th September. We hope to provide kids’ work at all our meetings, but this depends on the availability of volunteers and will vary from site to site.

This has undoubtedly been a challenging 18 months, unlike anything we have been through before. I want to take this opportunity once again to commend all of you at King’s for your willingness to adapt and accommodate the many changes that have taken place since March 2020. I am excited to be making these further steps towards regathering and although we will continue to provide an online option, we believe now is the right time to encourage you to attend in person if you are able to.

This Sunday will be particularly poignant as Phil Varley will be preaching his last message to us before he and Sarah move to Rotterdam to plant a church. During our services we will take the opportunity to thank and honour Phil and Sarah for their ministry amongst us. Phil is preaching live at the Catford 9.30am meeting and the Lee 11.30am meeting if you would like to come and hear him in person. I hope to see you there!