Rachel Bass - Grace Church Manchester, The Plant Church in Withington

Rachel Bass

About Myself

Name: Rachel Bass

I like: People, marzipan, Russia, Starbucks (it's all about the tea!), crunchy leaves, Jesus - is that too many things to like? It's hard to choose - there's a lot of good stuff out there...

I dislike: The impostor that is commonly referred to as 'squash', the misuse of the cyrillic alphabet for stylistic purposes. Beans are not very nice either.

 

What I Do

I love Russia! …and have done for quite a long time now,  but it’s a massive country populated by many, many people who do not know the goodness and mercy of God, or the hope that comes  through knowing Christ – I have spoken to so many Russians who have no hope, but they need it just as much as we do.   I long to see and hear of more Gospel work going on there – and probably the main way that is going to happen is through the local church. Therefore and, God willing, my long term plan is to return to Russia (or another Russian speaking country) to serve and partner with the local church there in whatever way I can – I’d love to be involved in a church plant. Having been in full time paid Christian ministry for 10 years, now seems a good time to seek formal theological training that I might be better equipped for that task.

I am studying part time at The North West Theological Centre in Liverpool. The centre operates as a filial of Oak Hill College in London, offers the same course content and reproduces the classroom environment – which basically means that it won’t be me sitting on my own in front of a screen with a pile of books, instead I get to have real teachers and classmates to discuss things with and bounce ideas off - it’s fab!  I’ll be doing the Foundation Degree of Arts in Pastoral and Theological Studies which is a 4 year course.

I am a part time as a ministry apprentice with The Plant Network, of which my local church family is a part.  I am very grateful that God seems to have provided a way for me to get both academic and practical training, and to be able to serve the church family and city I have grown to love here in the UK. I am part of our church staff team at an exciting time – we are working towards planting a couple of new churches in the next few years. We’re also facing significant challenges as we seek to hold out the good news of Jesus Christ to a diverse and needy (in different ways) urban population.

 

How You Can Help

For me, the heart of any church has to be for God's glory as this is our ultimate purpose. At Grace Church Manchester I see this desire more and more in our family, both in Sunday services and community groups. I also see it in the individuals seeking to be men and women living for Christ, as they are consistently challenged through the church to do this as a family. This to me is what I love about my church family.

Duncan