David Skull (aka Skully) has been serving Grace Church Guildford for the past 13 years. In July he will be moving with his wife Naomi and their four children to lead Grace Plant Brighton. He explains how this happened.
Back in 2012, Montpelier Place Baptist Church sadly closed. It represented a community of Christians who had been gathering in Brighton since 1834. The building was demolished in 2017, but we don’t believe this is the end of the story. Grace Plant Brighton is sowing the seeds of a new church in central Brighton in 2021.
My involvement began at the Evangelical Ministry Assembly in June 2018. It was a strange day! Firstly, I eavesdropped on a couple of brothers talking about Acts 13. Here, the Holy Spirit asked the Antioch church to do the opposite of our usual practice in churches today. He wanted the more experienced teachers (Saul and Barnabas) to go on mission, not the younger trainees. I agreed. I had recently preached the same to our church. Secondly, while I was mulling this over, I met with Jim Sayers (now church planting in Didcot) who shared about the closure of Montpelier Place and the need for a new work to begin. Did I know of anyone with Baptist convictions willing to do it? Well, by the end of the day (and there is more to tell) the Holy Spirit was powerfully putting two and two together in my mind and heart. How could I preach Acts 13 to my church and not be willing to do it myself, should the Holy Spirit ask?
