An Audacious Faith
George Bingham-Davis
With the official opening of Sheffield’s !Audacious church taking place in February 2022, we spoke with Pastor Josh Cocker about sowing seeds in Sheffield.
Now, sharp-minded readers might remember a short article in our last edition sharing news of a new church sprouting up in Sheffield by the name of !Audacious Church, a plant from the same series of churches based in Manchester. For some, it’s a whole new experience. For others, as Josh tells us, it has been a long time coming.
“As a church, we have a heart for the UK and Europe,” he informs us. “Our church founders - Pastors Glyn and Sophia Barrett - are incredible apostolic leaders, and planted !Audacious church in Manchester in 2007, knowing we would go on to plant in many other locations. So it was always a matter of when, not if.”
Glyn and Sophia’s vision for their church certainly seems to be coming true. With three locations in Manchester alone, a campus in Chester, and new campuses in Sheffield, Cardiff and Geneva, it’s safe to say that answering the call of God has already begun to bear fruit for this church family.
Why was Sheffield chosen as the latest !Audacious location? The answer is simple: the seeds for a new home here had been planted long ago, when Glyn and Sophia started their pastoral journey here in our steel city.
“They were pastors here for over a decade, before they moved to launch !Audacious church in Manchester, so the seeds were planted a long time ago. The city has always been close to their hearts and so as a church it feels more like we’re coming home than coming to somewhere new.”
For Josh, while living in Sheffield might be a new experience, moving cities is not. Josh has been relocating across the country throughout his life.
“I was born in Nottingham, living there for about 10 years, then moved with my parents to Stratford-upon-Avon. I always wanted to be a musician as a teenager, I’d played drums in the worship team, which helped keep me in church through my high school years. After I finished studying music at college, I heard about the possibility of !Audacious church planting in Manchester, and I just felt this calling to be a part of it.”
Josh has found these changes more energizing than challenging. “As people we can be good at finding a place to settle, working our lives to be comfortable and convenient. But every so often God loves to come and dislodge us, shaking us to grow greater levels of trust and reminding us there's so much more to this adventure of faith. Deuteronomy 1:6-7 says, “You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on.” This was a great encouragement to us during our move and a challenge that faith follows, it doesn’t settle.
It was a big leap of faith for Josh and his wife to move - with their two young boys - to Sheffield, especially after living in Manchester for the last fifteen years. But that’s just a part of Josh’s journey with God. “Faith isn’t just about talk or far-flung dreams,” Josh tells us. “It's about action. It’s about taking a step, doing what we can do, believing God will come and do what only He can do.”
!Audacious meets each Sunday evening at 5pm, at the Best Western Quays Hotel. Find out more about !Audacious church at www.audaciouschurch.com/sheffield or through social media @audaciouschurchsheffield