News from the Networks

North Downs Network

The King's Church, Addlestone

Addlestone Building The King’s Church, Addlestone has had a tumultuous year of goodbyes, joys and looking to God for our future. Through it all we have seen God at work, growing and strengthening our fellowship.

In April we said goodbye to our Pastor of 20+ years, and his family, sending them with joyful heartache, onto the next part of their journey. Since then, the Elders and Trustees have faithfully continued to lead the church, and we are experiencing growth and forward momentum in our fellowship. In this time, there have also been great opportunities for others in the fellowship to step out and grow into their giftings.

We have been blessed to celebrate 3 baptisms and seen new friends added into membership, as well as others come to join the church and settle with us. We continue to pray for more workers for the harvest including, of course, a new pastor to take us on in the direction the Lord is leading. Please pray for our Search Team as they continue the process, guiding the church as we send out our Church Profile and wait to see who God is calling to us.

We have continued to enjoy serving our community, especially through our fEAsT Community Meal. This is a great way to develop friendships with people on the fringes of our church family, many of whom we’ve supported through other outreaches such as CAP and Foodbank. We long to see these people come to faith for themselves and join our church family.

Our Christians Against Poverty debt centre continues to reach people struggling in our community, supported by other local churches. Our Debt Centre Manager has also taken on a new role with Head Office training Debt Managers. We trust the Lord that the work will continue to grow, including praying for a new Debt Coach to share the local workload. We long to see more of our clients being added into church families locally, please join us in praying for them to come to know what it is to live fully in freedom in Christ, not solely freedom from debt. It was also a total joy to be asked by one CAP couple to marry them, as the connection with our fellowship went back to Sunday School days for the groom and his siblings. We supported them with marriage preparation classes, and it was our privilege to marry them in October, the first wedding in our church for 15 years.

We experienced all the highs and lows of life as a fellowship this year, with the dedication of one of our little ones in January and the celebration of life of one of our longest standing members and former church Elder, in December. We pray that we will welcome people at every stage of life and in every situation, as we see God continue to add to our number. In faith we are re-establishing our children’s ministry and would value prayers for this and for God to add more families to our church.

Gatwick Network

South Street Baptist Church

Our 2026 Church Motto:
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1

South Street Baptist Church has been without a minister since 2017 but we have a brilliant team of preachers, including some ministers in training. Our very small church fellowship lead services and help us to run the two weekly children’s activities during term time.

Song Time meets every Monday morning for families with babies and children under five. There are 4 leaders and usually about 12 families come each week with about 14 children. Last term, there was a total of 23 carers and 27 children who attended at least once. Song Time has been running for over 25 years and is very well known in Meopham and the surrounding villages.

The 1st South Street Boys Brigade and Girls Association Company was formed in 2017 and currently has 2 leaders and 11 boys and girls, ranging in age from 4 to 17. Several children from Song Time have joined BBGA over the years and there have been over 30 boys and girls attending meetings since 2017. In January there was an Anchors Open Evening for boys and girls aged 5-8 years.

All the Song Time and BBGA children and young people were given a Real Advent Calendar in December, which contained a Nativity Story book and invitations to the Family Christmas Film Night and Carols by Candlelight Service. 70 people came to the Film Night, including some new families who had not previously been inside the church before. The film was an animated version of the Nativity Story and everyone was invited to the Carols by Candlelight Service, when nearly 60 people joined us. All of the BBGA boys and girls took part and some of the older ones also did Bible readings.

On Saturday 24th January, there was a Family New Years Party and children’s disco.

SOUTH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH would really appreciate prayer support for:

The church members who lead services and look after the church building and administration.
The visiting preachers who bring God’s Word to us each Sunday.
The leaders working with children, young people and their families at Song Time and BBGA.
The leadership team who would like to find new ways to grow the fellowship and organise more outreach activities in order to “SHARE GOD’S LOVE IN THE COMMUNITY”.

Trafalgar Road Baptist Church

Through the Lord’s leading, we had a wonderful time of outreach during Advent. We started with a week of prayer before doing street ministry, assemblies, door knocking, carolling & preaching at care homes and putting on Gospel-sharing services.
But I have to say, the highlight for me was preaching in a pub for the first time. I have been encouraged by others to share about this opportunity in the hope that it might give others boldness to step out in faith. Let me explain how it happened.

In September, the Lord laid it on my heart to contact our local pub and asked to meet with the managers to discuss the possibility of carolling at the pub at Christmastime. They agreed and we met in the pub to talk about it. During the conversation I asked if it would be alright to give a short Christmas message too. The response was an unconcerned yes.

When the night came on Monday 15th December 2025, after doing a funeral all day, I went with eight of us from church (including my 8 year old daughter) to the Dog and Bacon. We arrived around 6:50pm and our guitarist said something like ‘this is rather different.’ We had come with carol sheets, chocolates and tracts. And it was FULL - around 50 people.

I addressed the whole pub inviting them to join in. We sang five carols, some people joined in, all was good. And then came the chance to share the Gospel with these people. I shared an illustration and a parable. The message of the parable was ‘Jesus came to pay your tab.’ It was just a few minutes and then we moved onto our final carol.

The pub manager came up to me, thrust £50 cash into my hands and said ‘a gift for the church’ – this really took me by surprise! We then went round giving out chocolates and Gospel tracts round all the tables and at the bar before chatting with people over a mince pie and mulled wine.

As I was walking home with my young daughter, I reflected on what just happened:

In a full pub, we sang about Jesus, we talked about Jesus.
No-one walked out, no-one heckled.
People turned, listened to the message, joined in the singing.
And, we were paid to do it!

I thought of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world who could only dream of this kind of opportunity to proclaim the Gospel. How wonderful to sow seeds in this way! I thought about all the worst case scenarios that went through my head, and how this surpassed all my expectations. Finally, I thought back to our week of prayer. How important it is to pray into the things that God lays on our hearts.