2025: Conference Review & Photos
A sizable crowd of people from churches across the North West of England (and some for even further afield) gathered in Warrington for the God’s Glory Our Joy conference in October.
This year’s conference examined the topic of ‘The Spirit in the Church’, and Stephen Rees (Stockport) got us underway with a biblical tour de force of the work of the Spirit in both the Old and New Testaments.
Yes, the Spirit was active in Old Testament times, working in the lives of faithful followers of the Lord. Everything that God does involves the Spirit, because the work of the Trinity cannot be divided.
But in the New Testament, the Spirit is poured out in a more powerful way, poured out on the whole community of believers, the true spiritual Israel, the church.
After Stephen Rees’ opening talk, Gerard Hemmings (Twickenham) gave two captivating talks. Both looking at Spiritual renewal in the local church. In his first talk, he took us to Ezekiel 47, and the vision of the ever-deepening river flowing from the temple.
In his second talk, he reminded us that spiritual renewal in the local church must mean a broken and contrite heart. There can be no place for puffed up pride in a truly spirit-saturated church.
The one-day conference included encouraging reports from local churches, and the day was brought to a close by a heart-warming sermon on 2 Corinthians 13:14, preached by Nathan Clark (Ashbourne).
