church@four is two today

The church@four service at St. Martin in the Wood church celebrates its second birthday today.

Ben Chase is the leader of church@four. I asked him to explain the church@four service to our readers.

Who are you?

My name is Ben Chase and I lead church@four. I am married to Laura and we have William who is 3 and Chloe who is 7 weeks old at time of writing.

For the last 7 years I’ve helped start and run a number of businesses in the car industry but I have recently joined the clergy team in the parish and spend half my week studying and half my week working in the parish.

Why church@four? What makes it different?

Ben: church@four is a lively, contemporary church community, part of the Anglican Parish of Chandler’s Ford. We meet each week, 4pm at St. Martin in the Wood church. We may look a bit different from other churches you’ve been to because we have a live band that leads our singing and worship each week and we use lights, video, music and food to make church@four a fun and welcoming place to come.

Why is church@four for youngsters especially?

Ben: Our community is really for all ages (we have 9 week olds and 90 year olds!) but we do also have a large number of children, youth and young families. Each week we run interactive, fun children and youth groups during our service and many of our youngsters are involved in the music and technical parts of the service.

Why do they/we need church@four?

Ben: Our particular heart is to help those who currently don’t attend a church come to know the same Jesus who loves and changes our lives. We try and make everything we do very accessible and friendly. We’d love to have you along!

What has church@four done in the community?

Ben: Aside from our Sunday activities we run a group called Little Stars on Tuesdays for mums, dads and little ones. We run school assemblies across 4 primary schools in Chandler’s Ford and we’re also involved in loads of other activities such as street pastors, holiday clubs, parenting courses, socials, home groups, men’s and women’s groups and much more.

What does church@four mean to you?

Jesus has become a huge part of my life, helping, guiding, forgiving and looking after me on the adventure of life. He loves me and I love helping others find the same truth for themselves. I love being part of church@four and all that God is doing there.