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Adam Bradley 750CF

“Making much of Jesus” in Great Yarmouth

2018: Adam Bradley and his family have been at Kingsgate Community Church in Great Yarmouth for well over a year, and he has been telling Network Norfolk about their first year, and the direction he sees the church travelling in. Tony Rothe reports.

 
Adam, Lorna, and their girls Charis, Sophia and Zoe arrived in Great Yarmouth from Peterborough in June 2017, and since then Adam has headed up the leadership team of Kingsgate, or “building the family” as he put it. “My first year here has been a genuine joy” he said.
 
“The church has been through a lot of changes during the last eight years, including a move from a much smaller site in Gorleston” Adam explained. “Since I came, we have been putting down foundations, building for the next twenty years”.
 
Church membership has tripled in size during the last year, and there are now up to nine teenagers regularly attending the youth work, along with thriving children’s work and creche. The church took the youth to the Newday camp at the Norfolk Showground during the summer.
 
“We have been exploring what it means to be the family of God, based on the description of the early church in Acts 2. We read that the disciples devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer, and helping all those who were in need. We have taken that model as our challenge” he said.
 
Last Spring the church devoted themselves to forty days of prayer during Lent. “I wanted to encourage the church family to hear from God – prayer is not just a part of church life but underpins it” Adam explains.
 
Kingsgate is also taking an active role in community action, and hosted the recent Celebrate event which shared how the churches of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston were working together to reach out into the community, and to help the poor. Read more about this event here.
 
Adam and Lorna Bradley 600CFThe church is also taking part in the Living Room project to provide homeless people in the area with a roof over their heads during the winter. Read more about this here. Adam explained that the Kings Centre, where the church is based, has recently received a grant to provide washing facilities for the homeless guests who sleep over in the centre. “It’s about finding Pathways out of Poverty” he said. “We want Kingsgate to be a place of Hope and Help”.
 
The church is certainly active in that direction, with a thriving Teeny Tot parent and toddler group, complete with Tots’ Treasures, a ‘pop-up’ affordable pre-loved clothes shop, which works with ‘Baby Basics’ to support local new mums in need.
 
The Coffee Shop offers a friendly and welcoming space to meet and enjoy affordable snacks, drinks and meals every weekday, and provides the venue for a number of community activities including ‘The Table’ an affordable freshly cooked two-course community meal every Thursday lunchtime. They are also looking at providing low cost family lunches and helping to relieve holiday hunger for primary school children during school holidays.
 
“This is really all summed up by our mission” explained Adam, "which has two parts– In everything we do we want to make much of Jesus, AND You are very welcome here – this is a place to belong
 
Visit : https://www.wearekingsgate.org/
 
Kingsgate Community Church is part of Relational Mission, in partnership with NewFrontiers. The church is a member of the Evangelical Alliance.



TonyRothe150Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in East Norfolk?  

If so, e-mail tony.rothe@networknorwich.co.uk with details and, if possible a suitable picture. 


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