NEW TO CHURCH?
The first thing we want to say is – Welcome!
CLC Widnes is a community of people who believe that Jesus offers salvation from everything we’ve ever done wrong, through His death and resurrection, bridging the gap between us and God. This love and relationship with God underpins and is the foundation of everything we believe and do.
We know that this raises questions – of theology, belief, faith, even questions of life and purpose itself – and this is what we are living and exploring together as a church.
By listening and talking to God & using the Bible (which we believe is God’s word to us), we navigate life with a different perspective. One that offers hope, love, faith and salvation. You are more than welcome to join us on this journey.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The Four Points is a great way to understand what Christian’s believe. You can discover this too.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Churches across the world have a tonne of different styles and approaches (known as denominations) all centred around one certain truth – that God loves us.
We’re a Pentecostal church, part of wider group of churches known as Elim. There are around 550 Elim churches across the world. Our services are lively, with extended periods of musical worship, prayer and a bible based preach. Our services are pretty free flowing, welcoming and we want to facilitate a family atmosphere.
As a Pentecostal church, we believe that God has sent his Holy Spirit to guide us and we often pray for Him to fill us and work through us.
Kids are very welcome at CLC Widnes and we are beginning to see small classes of children at our Kids Church sessions during the service.
Each week during our service, we give time over for people to give financially to the work and ministry of CLC.
There’s no pressure from us for you to give, it’s entirely up to you.
Many of our church members give as they feel led, either on a Sunday morning or through their bank. Regular giving (known as tithing) is a biblical discipline that is an act of worship and thanksgiving to God for what he has blessed us with.
We don’t have a dress code here at CLC Widnes. Wear whatever clothes you feel comfortable in.
Our service starts at 10.30am and we start with a welcome, opening prayer and some scripture that we feel God has given us to share.
We then sing together in a time known as worship, we pray together and some weeks we take communion which is a time where we reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
One of our leadership team will then bring a word (sometimes called the preach) where they will look at the Bible and what they believe God is saying to us as a church.
There’s many things to get involved with at CLC, but our first step is always to get connected on a Sunday Morning. Come and meet the church family, experience how we do church and speak to one of our team in person.
From there, if you’d like to join us, we have midweek groups, small groups, volunteering opportunities and much more to get involved with – but do make sure to come to church first!
Communion is something we find modelled by Jesus in the Bible. It’s a significant meal in Jesus’ life with his followers, and exists to remind us that God is with us as we remember that Jesus died for us.
We take communion most weeks, and the table is open to anyone who is seeking Jesus or already know Him. We have small individual cups and bread is served alongside on a plate.
USEFUL INFO
You are more than welcome to head down to church early, and we encourage you to to take the 10.25 challenge. Hebrews 10.25 teaches us “Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more,” so try arriving early and make a point of intentionally encouraging someone.
Our car park is quite small and fills quickly. We have plenty of on street parking, but do park considerately and think of our neighbours.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, church leadership took a decision to invest in what we offer online. We stream every Sunday service online and we work hard to make it an organic, engaging and interactive service as much as we can.
This serves our online community, including members in other countries, those who are unable to come to church due to health reasons and is often a great connection point for people who’ve never been before.
We are now full open again and ready to welcome people back. If you’re still apprehensive about church, you’ll still be welcome online and in smaller groups too until you are ready. Masks are optional in church, whatever you feel comfortable doing is fine by us.
We are still encouraging hand washing and the use of hand gel around the building.
If you’ve tested positive for COVID, we would advise staying home and joining online as we have a number of elderly and vulnerable congregation members.