Partners: Tom Scrivens, Hope Church Ipswich
Partners
Redeemer Church Plant has 2 amazing families that were part of Hope Church Ipswich before they joined us. After moving to Colchester from Kent the Pearce family attended Hope Church for a season (Hope Church are part of Relational Mission and Newfrontiers), along with a small core that formed the church plant. We were blessed and strengthened by our time there - they are a great church! Check out their website at http://hopechurchipswich.net/ and visit them if you live in the area. Hope are also key partners of Redeemer and we look forward to much future work with them for the advance of the gospel in Essex, Suffolk and beyond. I'd love you to meet Tom, so I asked him to do a short blog about him, Hope and Redeemer! Tom Also helps to head up SENT - an 18-30s conference.
Meet Tom Scrivens!
My name’s Tom and I’m one of the Pastors at Hope Church Ipswich. My wife Sarah and I moved to Ipswich about 2 years ago, I joined the staff at Hope Church Ipswich and in a short space of time we have fallen in love with this church and this town! Ipswich is a similar sized town to Colchester, it has beautiful parks, a lovely marina, a bustling centre and lots of history. Hope Church has been in Ipswich under various names for over 20 years and is situated in the town’s waterfront area, a short walk from the university.
We have been amazed at what God has done here in Ipswich in a short space of time. By God's grace Hope Church has grown wonderfully over the last 18 months, we have just finished a fantastic Alpha course, with several people responding to Jesus and getting baptised, we've multiplied many of our small groups and last week we multiplied our Sunday gathering - we’re now gathering at 09:00 and 11:00 each Sunday and are anticipating that God will gather many more people into our church as we make more room at the table. It really is an exciting place to be and we are believing that God will do incredible things in our day here in Ipswich and beyond.
Amongst all the exciting stuff going on in Ipswich we are thrilled to have been able to help in the process of planting Redeemer Church Colchester. Hugh and Claire moved over to Colchester early in 2015 and joined us for our Sunday gatherings from then onwards. It was amazing to see a growing team of missionaries gathering to them as people moved from all over the country in preparation for launching the church plant in Colchester. Before long a couple of couples who were members at Hope Church committed to joining the plant and we were able to pray for them all in January this year as they officially launched their own Sunday gatherings.
We are very excited to see what God will do in Colchester in the coming years, Hugh and Claire are a truly excellent couple and we are in no doubt that this church will grow and have a great impact for Jesus in our neighbouring town. Whilst not knowing what it will practically look like we are anticipating that in the decades to come God will have work for Hope Church and Redeemer Church Colchester to carry out together, this is something we believe God has spoken to us about and so we look forward to seeing this unfold.
If you love Colchester, if you live in Colchester or if you might one day live in Colchester, can I encourage you to CHECK THESE GUYS OUT, they are fantastic friends of our church and embarking upon a great adventure.