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King's Church Uckfield is People!

It is something at the very heart of us as a church:  we're people!  Not a building. Not even an organisation.  We're people - young and old, single and married – whose lives have been changed by meeting Jesus Christ. It's Jesus who has given us freedom from past hangups, new life right now and hope for the future.

Why not watch the short video below, or read a couple of stories from members of King's Church Uckfield to see what we mean?

Sue

I was the eldest of four children in a strict but loving family. I was a sensitive and naïve child and bullying at school made my life very difficult.  I was teased at primary school, but the crunch came with a move to Hampshire, when I was 11. My “posh” Surrey accent made me an instant target. The bullying continued throughout secondary school. 

By the time I went to college, my self confidence had taken quite a beating. I always felt as if I was on the outside of the group, tolerated but essentially an extra. I knew I was quite clever, but that didn’t make people like me.

I knew that God didn’t exist, but questions were beginning to bother me. “What’s the point in life if all we do is live, have children and die? Then our children do the same and so it goes on.”

Death! Now that bothered me a lot. I was terrified of the “nothing”. I used to imagine what it would be like never to see or hear anything again. I knew that it would happen to me one day…. and I was terrified.

At college, two Christian friends talked to me about Jesus. They were clearly crazy, but I enjoyed talking and arguing with them. As time went on, I understood that you didn’t have to disconnect your brain to believe in a Creator God and that the Big Bang “evidence” wasn’t quite as cut and dried as I had been led to believe.

My friends talked about Jesus as a historical figure, explaining the evidence for his life, death and resurrection. I had assumed he was a fairy story.

They said that God wanted a relationship with me, and wanted it so badly that he sent his own son, Jesus, to die for me.  They said that when Jesus died and rose again, he took my sin and gave me a new life in exchange. But it wasn’t being forced on me. I had to accept it by believing and by turning my life over to God.

That was the hard bit. By now, I really did want to know whether God was real, but I also didn’t want anyone but me to control my life! So I did the only sensible thing– I ran away!

Well, I went to stay with a friend, but really I was trying to escape. I figured God couldn’t bother me in Birmingham, but I was wrong! Two Christians had decided to knock on people’s doors and talk to them about Jesus. When I opened my friend’s door, there they were. God really was on my case!

When I got back to college, I prayed a simple prayer and told God that I believed in him and that he could have my life. What a day. What a wonderful day! I have never regretted that decision.

Being a Christian is about knowing that I am designed and created by a God who cares about me. God gives me the freedom to be myself and leads me into new adventures.  

Life is not easy for anyone. I feel very blessed to have a lovely husband, and three wonderful children, but I have had my share of troubles too. God has been faithful to me through it all.

Christians believe that God sends his Holy Spirit to live inside them and guide them. The Holy Spirit has given me wisdom many times when I have really needed it and he inspires me in my painting, which is one of the new adventures that God has led me into in recent years.

Alan

I was just an ordinary man, with normal hopes and ambition. Perhaps I was a bit laid back; happy with life as long as I had a roof over my head, clothes on my back and good food on the table. All these I had, but I was not happy.

Something was missing. Life in general seemed empty; void of any real meaning.

“What do you think about God?” One day, on the streets of Hastings, a French girl asked me that question. I found myself drawn by what she was saying, but it was false trail. I became involved with one of the most controversial cults of the ’80s. However, they did cause me to think about conventional church.

One day, at a church in Bexhill-on-Sea, I watched five people being baptised. How weird is that? But as I became friendly with some of the five I discovered that they had something that was missing from all the religions and cults I had seen. God was actually with them.

This was what I needed. I learned that I was not right with God. All of my unbelief offended him, yet he was gracious and merciful; ready to forgive.

In Jesus upon the cross, I saw that God, in his mercy, came and suffered in my place — he took the punishment due to me for my disrespect of him. I came to understand that I was forgiven, and not by any act or effort on my part. I have been given a second chance.

I am still an ordinary man, but now I know that I have been forgiven — I am changed inside. Now I hope with eager expectation, and I have a friend in Jesus. The Creator God knows me. My name is recorded in heaven, and a place is reserved for me with God when I am finished here.