The Evans Family
Pete Evans
Pete evans IS THE HEAD PASTOR FOR Trinity Church Manchester in the UK. WE ARE HONORED TO PARTNER WITH HIM AND his CHURCH COMMUNITY starting January 2020.
How have you seen God working in your life?
Like most people, I grew up wanting to be someone and make a name for myself. I loved people’s approval, was crushed by rejection, and was filled with fear that eventually I’d be outed as a fraud. This drove me, shaping the way I approached my relationships, my achievements, and my ministry.
What God taught me is that my efforts to achieve a lasting glory are as futile as they are corrupt. I was made for His glory, not my own and I could never attain that by my own efforts. But mercifully I discovered in the gospel that Jesus invites me, and all of us, to share His glory. Through faith in Him, everything He achieves also belongs to me. I have God’s approval because His death removed my sin. I won’t be rejected because I’m adopted forever as a son of the King. The shame of my failures is swallowed by the glory I share with Christ.
I still have a way to go but experiencing these truths daily has changed me. I’m less afraid of personal failure. I’m care less about what people think. I am freed from the burden of making my own name and can serve God and others. My life belongs to and is defined by Jesus Christ, which changes everything. John the Baptist once said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). Though contrary to everything we think we need, I have discovered that this is where true life is found.
How have you seen God working in your family?
Planting a church is a fun and an amazing privilege, but it also has its challenges! My wife and I not only face the pressure of planting and leading a fledgling church in one of the most secular, liberal, post-Christian cities in the UK, but raising our kids here too. We’ve left behind the comfort of a larger church family and feel the lack of older mentors to invest in us as a couple. We moved from the USA back home to the UK, saying goodbye to many Christian friends who had kids the same age as ours. My eldest has just started school and is, as far as we are aware, the only kid from a Christian family.
I’d be lying if I said we didn’t worry about the impact planting will have on our children and our marriage. However, we’re continuing to discover the truth of Paul’s words in 2 Cor. 1:9 – God takes us to places of hardship and discomfort for our benefit as much as anyone else’s. Planting has given us an opportunity to rely on the One who raises the dead in a special way. In the past we have experienced so much of His blessing in our marriage because of our ministry. Our hope and expectation is that we’ll see His grace at work in our kids’ lives too as He proves that He is more than able to keep them and draw them to Himself.
How have you seen God working in your church?
City Church was planted in 2015 with 27 adults in the heart of Manchester, UK. In the past 5 years we have seen tremendous growth, many baptisms, and countless stories of lives transformed by the power of God. About 300 people now meet each week, gathered from highly diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, sharing the gospel with one of the most secular cities in the UK. We’ve had some great highs and some big lows. Through it all, God has sustained us and blessed us.
We know that only God could have done this. People ask us all the time how it happened, and we don’t really have a good answer. We’ve tried our best to faithfully communicate the gospel in a culturally relevant way. We’ve committed to training and equipping the next generation. We’ve tried to use our resources wisely and structure our ministries well. We’ve taken risks, putting our faith in God’s goodness. But we’ve also made big mistakes along the way and yet God has blessed us anyway. As we gear up to plant Trinity Church into the north of the Manchester this summer (2020) we go with the same ministry philosophy and faith in God who can still do amazing things today as He has in the past.
Church Mission & Vision
We want to be a gospel community for North Manchester that gives, grows and partners for God’s glory.
By the end of our first year (summer 2021) we want to achieve the following:
GIVE
• Give 50 people the opportunity to hear about Jesus at a Trinity Church event
• Develop an ongoing impact in 50 people’s lives with local mercy ministry outreach
• Every member of Trinity Church sacrificially giving their time, talent and treasure to our church
GROW
• Grow to an average weekly Sunday attendance of 100 adults
• 50% of adults belonging to a small group
• 25% of adults in a 1-1 discipling relationship
PARTNER
• Launch 2 new church to church partnerships
• Join the FIEC, the Northern Gospel Powerhouse and the North West Partnership
• 5% of our annual budget allocated to mission partners
Our hope is that as we establish this new church in the north of Manchester we would see many come to trust in Christ through our church and the churches that we plant together with City Church and our other partners around the UK and beyond.
If you would like to know more about Pete and Trinity Church Manchester contact Pete at pete@citychurchmanchest.org.