Category: Heart of the Community

New Buy a Brick appeal launched

Posted on by Laura Thomas

St Michael’s Church is inviting everyone to play a part in the Heart of the Community project with our new Buy a Brick appeal.

The idea is that church members encourage everyone to buy a brick or two for the new church and community centre. Each brick represents a £10 gift, with a small certificate presented to everyone who donates.

Our target is to raise £50,000 for the project – which means selling 5,000 bricks.

We are currently recruiting volunteers to take a turn helping to run one of our three Buy a Brick display stands at local events and meeting places over the next few weeks. You could sell bricks at your own Christmas event too. Please contact Sue Woodhead if you’d like to help. (Hard hats will be provided.)

All the details, and a link to the Buy a Brick online giving page, can be found on the new Buy a Brick section of this website.

Remember – this project isn’t about a community building, it’s about building a community.

Thank you!

Posted on by Laura Thomas

£150,000 to make a difference

Thank you to everyone who gave and pledged so generously for our Heart of the Community gift day for church members last week. Our total for the day was over £150,000 with some more still to come in. 

We will be in touch very soon with the Heart of the Community charity banking details – enabling us to turn our pledges into commitments. For those who need to write a cheque please make it payable to St Michael’s Church Centre Ltd. – HOTC. 

If you missed the gift day, it’s not too late to pledge to the project. Please pick up a form at the back on church or contact Sue for further details.
Thank you!

Another £20,000 trust donation

Posted on by Laura Thomas

As well as seeing such generosity at our Heart of the Community gift day this week, we also received news of a donation of £20,000 from the Beatrice Laing Trust.

The Laing Trusts are named after Sir John Laing, a devout Christian who was instrumental in creating the global Laing Construction Group. He set up his first charitable trust in 1922, and the Beatrice Laing Trust, named after his wife, followed in 1952. Its focus is on the relief of poverty and the advancement of the Christian faith, both at home and abroad.

After visiting the site they chose to donate £20,000 towards the cost building our new church and community centre next door to the Old School Rooms in Stoke Gifford.

Trust director, Elizabeth Harley, said “I hope this will be of some encouragement to you and the church membership as a whole as the building work and your fundraising efforts continue”.

We are extremely grateful for their support of our vision to make a difference in this community and beyond. 

Church gift day for the Heart of the Community

Posted on by Laura Thomas

Sunday 20 October is our 2013 church gift day for the Heart of the Community project.

Every family in church will receive an updated Making a Difference brochure explaining the vision we believe God has given us. Please read your copy or pass it on to someone else who might be inspired to play their part as well? 

We have already raised £2.2m and work has started on the church and community centre. Our aim is to raise a further £800,000 by June 2014. That will enable us to complete the shell of the new centre and provide the first useable meeting rooms and community spaces. We will hear more about this over the next couple of weeks. 

Many people have been giving sacrificially since May 2012. Thank you. Others of us may now be in a position to give to the project for the first time or to increase our level of giving. Please pray, asking God to guide you as you decide how much you should give. Pledge forms for the gift day are currently available at the back of church. Any questions please ask one of the Heart of the Community team or a member of the church leadership team.

Bring and share

Everyone is invited to make their pledges on Sunday 20 October. We will also be gathering for a bring and share lunch together in the Old School Rooms after the 10.30am service. Please sign up on the sheets in the church and the Old School Rooms – choose a food to bring and a job to help with – and we’ll celebrate God’s generosity together. (Don’t forget to bring something to drink as well.)