Coatbridge Elim, near Glasgow, has seen God move. Inset, pastor Peter Wright and wife Julie.,,,
At first, Peter Wright wasn’t prepared for the way God would move at Coatbridge Elim, but God has blown his mind with what has taken place over the past four years in the life of the church.
The first time Peter Wright saw someone come to faith at Coatbridge Elim the suddenness of it caught him off guard.
It was early 2019, Peter had not long taken over as pastor at the Scottish church and having prayed with a young lady, he was searching the vestry for any resources to help this new Christian.
“I felt God tell me, ‘You’re praying for people to get saved but you weren’t ready. You need to get this sorted,’” Peter says.
“I learned a big lesson that day and began putting packs together for when people gave their lives to Christ. In faith, we got a whole stack ready, then God just blew us away. We said we’d love to see 20 people saved but he went above that. We saw 28 people become Christians in our first year at Coatbridge.”
Among the first to make a commitment was a nine-year-old boy called Jude McDonald.
“We’d been going through Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Prayer and had encouraged families to read the daily verse together. At the end of their discussion Jude said, ‘I want to give my life to Jesus’,” says Peter.
Other new Christians included the family of a church member, Paul Mackie, who had died at just 40. “I went round to visit Paul’s mum Frieda and his brother Thomas. His uncle George was at the house too. I felt God impress on me, ‘dare to share your testimony and watch what I do’. I hadn’t even got to the end of my testimony when George said he wanted to give his life to Christ. The simple message of the gospel touched him and he told me he’d never heard it like that before.
“Then Thomas said the same thing. He told me, ‘I know Paul prayed for me for years, but it’s taken his death for me to come to the point of saying I want Christ in my life.’”
With so many new Christians, the church held a baptismal service, and events snowballed from there.
As 12 people were baptised, another six came to faith as the gospel message was preached, including a man visiting from Germany.
“It was like God was saying, ‘If you’re prepared and you dare to share, look what happens.’ We were so encouraged.”
When lockdown put paid to live services, God continued to move as Peter repeated this ‘dare to share’ message via a camera in his home, with his family helping to post the message online each week.
Peter asked people who they’d share the service link with, and his oldest son Benn sent it to a friend from Carlisle. Soon Benn was in conversation and shared the gospel with her. She responded, “So how do I give my life to Christ?” He prayed with her and she came to faith.
Post-lockdown, Peter says the church has moved into a season of welcoming new people who have discovered it in all manner of ways.
“One lady was watching online and saw one of our notices about a badminton club. She asked if she could join.
“After a few weeks of getting to know people she asked if she and her five-year-old daughter could come to church too. They did, and are now well settled in.”
The church has begun to expand the ministries it offers and has seen community connections grow as a result.
“In April, we asked what was missing and realised we didn’t have any babies. As a leadership, we felt it was right to start a toddler group.
“We approached a lady called Donna to do this and she agreed, saying God had given her the name ‘Little Hearts’ for the group.”
Expecting small beginnings, the church was excited to see 20 people at the first session and now has more than 50 on the register. Even better is the fact that some mums were once members of the church youth group and now, with kids of their own, are coming regularly to the group.
Through this and through watching services online, some are now coming to church.
Peter has plenty of ideas for what that could involve within the community. These include starting a cafe in the church. Most of all, he is praying for a bigger building; somewhere with an outdoor space for sporting activities, space to expand the youth work and to support people with mental health issues.
“Our vision statement is ‘transforming lives, impacting communities and reaching nations for the glory of God’. As we’ve tried to live that out we’ve definitely seen lives transformed through the gospel and been able to impact our community.”
From Direction Magazine issue 241
