Romans 1:1-7

When Paul here proclaims Jesus Christ to be our Lord he is proclaiming the risen Lord Jesus. This is at the heart of God's Gospel verse 1. It is only through him that Paul is able to proclaim that he received grace and his apostleship. And it is only through him that all the nations can be caught in faith. The book of Romans is all about Jesus and the difference the risen Lord Jesus makes to the Christian.

I think sometimes we get so caught up in words such as the gospel that we forget that the gospel is about a living risen person that was sent by God after being declared the son of David and the son of God he is declared as our Lord.

Faith in this person is much more than simply turning up to church on Sundays or trying to lead a good moral life. It's about being in a living and active relationship with the Lord Jesus in which he speaks to you and you speak to him. This is surely amazing!

I pray that I would come to understand more deeply what it means for you to be the risen Lord Jesus Christ. For now it means that you are looking after me that all my worries and anxieties and fears pale into insignificance as I see you for who you really are our Lord. This is not some sort of far of distant Lordship it is this HEAR and now imminent Lordship. Lord help me to desire what you desire. Give me the strength to follow after you LORD.

they received power to be Jesus as witnesses to the ends of the earth

Acts chapter 1 verse 1 to 11 the power of God comes upon them.

 I've just been reflecting on the section of acts again and it strikes me as I attempt to live a life of faith that my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely vindicated. The Apostles in verse 7 receive the holy spirit God himself comes upon them.

This power is given to them not so that they can have a comfortable salary at the end of the month. Nor is it for their own personal growth or self actualising.  is is so that they may be witnesses both locally, provincially, nationally and internationally. They are not told come to Jesus and you will have an easy life. Than I told I'm giving you this power for you to use personally for your own benefit. No in this giving of power Jesus is constituting his earthly witness to himself. Jesus is saying you will be my witnesses because I have placed the power of God in you to witness to the world. It's not about where you witness but how you witness. The problem for us in our churches is that our lifestyles do not reflect the Gospel imperative that is to go and bear witness to the world.

My prayer is not to be God provide the money for my family however helpful that could be instead it should be make me a good witness for you Jesus locally. I think sometimes we limit ourselves to say that gospel churches must always be small. Sometimes saying this is to deny the power of the Lord Jesus Christ that he has come upon us and is empowering us to reach the world. Let's stop complaining or patting ourselves on the back for being a small gospel centred church instead let's go out there and witness for Jesus.

The scary world of Faith

There will always be challenges when you decide to live by faith. We the thought we had the funding for next year all sorted. However as living by faith teaches you can only rely on one person for the funds. God provides the funds for his workers. Lord if we are to work for you at Trinity you know all our needs please provide for them. Lord also help me not to be as stressed as I now am I don't want to be anxious. But honestly I am. God please help me to know you are God. Because at the moment I want to solve this problem my self. You know that if I was to work here in Capetown I need a network which I don't have. Most of all comfort me with the thought that you know!

why trinity church

Trinity

The Kimble's move to Trinity Church Mitchells plain.

Intro

We really are pleased to announce that once we have finished George Whitfield college we will be moving on to full-time ministry at Trinity church Mitchells plain.

The elders at the church have offered us a two-year contract. Now you may be asking where is Mitchell's plain. Mitchells plain is in Cape Town. It is part of an area when the majority of Capetonians live. Our church is situated in a beacon Valley on Mitchell's plain. It is a traditionally coloured township.

Why

Why are the Kimble's choosing to minister in Mitchell's plain on the Cape Flats? 1st of all we believe as we have been taught by the apostles that the gospel is for all people and therefore in order to fulfil the great commission we need to be concerned with areas where the majority of Southern Africa's population lives. Many people have been commending us and saying how gifted we are for cross-cultural ministry. We believe that it is not our gifting that compels us to minister cross culturally but the Gospel itself. It's hard to imagine receiving the quality of training we have received and simply administering to people who are the same as us culturally.

The work that God is doing among the people in this church has amazed us. We have seen God completely alter people's lives turning them from drugs and gangsterism to being followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is moving in a very special way and Trinity Church Mitchell's plain. As we have taught the Bible in various situations we have seen God's word powerfully challenge people.

Young children have given their lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ and whole families have come to know him. The church has grown both in depth and in numbers over the past 2 1/2 years that we have been involved. This is why we would love to continue our involvement just to see what God will do in the next few years!

A drive around the neighbourhood would give the false impression that the majority of people in this community are Christians. There is a church on every street corner. However the fast majority of churches in Mitchell's plain subscribe to the prosperity gospel. This is a damaging false teaching that is leading thousands in these neighbourhoods to a false sense of security. We believe that the only weapon we have in this spiritual battle is the true and living Gospel that was once for all delivered to the saints. In our future work we plan to expand the ministries of the church so that the maximum amount of people can hear the good news.

What

Our ministry over the next 2 years will involve firstly strengthening the midweek Bible studies so that we can disciple those who have been converted. This will increase the depth of knowledge of what the Lord Jesus has done. We hope on Wednesday nights to have people come and enjoy a meal with us at the church and after that divide into smaller groups and engage with Holy Scripture.

The Sunday morning services will hopefully benefit from the 3 years that I have spent at George Whitfield college sharpening my Bible handling skills. I hope to do most of the preaching next year. We are also very excited to possibly plants and evening service because many of the people that would like to come to our church are unable to because of work commitments. This we believe will also attract a different demographic of people.

The pastoral care for the existing church members and their extended families will be my responsibility in 2014. This ministry will also need to grow with the involvement of the Elders in providing vital pastoral care. The elders and I are discussing dividing up the congregation into smaller groups and each older will take responsibility for one of those smaller groups this will involve contacting them either by SMS, email or telephone so that we can demonstrate our love for one another.

Trinity Church also is in the process of building a primary school. This will be one of the areas of our responsibility and we will ensure that the children at the school's year the true gospel. The school at the moment has 40 children fully sponsored attending a school readiness program. From next year the 1st grade of primary school will be offered by this school. We are very excited to be a part of the development of the school because it allows the children exposure to the gospel and a very young age and therefore can impact the community in measurably in the future.

We are also looking to expand the apprenticeship training programme that exists at Trinity Church. We believe that it is critical that local leaders are raised up to lead the church in the future. Already we have a number of individuals who are clearly gifted for church leadership into the future and we plan to nurture and grow them to the point where we will send them for theological training at George Whitfield college.

There is also the beginnings of a church planting network where Trinity together with a number of other churches is looking to plant churches on Mitchell's plain and beyond using the model of ministry developed at Trinity. Already we have planted a church in Springbok a small rural town up the West Coast of South Africa. We as a family hope to plant a number of churches in the very near future. We long to see a gospel preaching Bible believing church on every corner in our neighbourhood. We believe in dreaming big because we serve a big God. Is

When

While we as a family have been involved in this church for 2 1/2 years now we are looking forward to completing our studies this year and focusing in 2014 on Trinity Church.

Dreams.

One of our biggest dreams is that we want to have no job. What we mean by this is that through our partnership with Trinity we will identify and encourage local leadership where ever possible. This we wish to do to the point where we are no longer required at the church and we can move on to a potential church plant.

As we have already described above we want to be part of a church planting network and plant as many gospel preaching Bible believing churches as God will allow us to. This is from the conviction that only through the transformation that the Gospel can bring will people be lifted out of the cycle of family violence, drug addiction and gangsterism.

Needs

·      Prayer: please pray that God would do amazing things in Mitchell's plain.

·      Money: please consider supporting us.

Contact us

clintkimble@gmail.com