Photo: Pastor Tim and Tiffany Buckley, Shoreham Free Church
A Partner Church Profile
By Emilie Bruell
Recently I attended a service in this light-filled wooden building whose focal point is a large plain cross on the main wall.
Pastor Tim Buckley spoke on Manna, the Word of God, the bread that Jesus declares is our life, our health, the very rock we as Christians must be grounded on and count our highest authority, Emmanuel, God with us and in us, the sword of the Spirit that must be spoken by us in resisting and defeating all the enemy’s fiery darts and in creating, calling into being the promises, blessings and abundance he gives us in his Son.
Pastor Tim admonished his congregation to obey Jesus, doing the works he did on earth and greater ones, making disciples, always aware but not daunted by the knowledge that we ourselves can do nothing, but God within us, as on earth he was in Jesus, will do all things, especially that which seems impossible, by believing and decreeing his Words, bringing the Kingdom of Heaven wherever he sends us.
After the service I spoke with Pastor Tim, his wife Tiffany and their three daughters Tabitha, Tamara, and Tallulah, aged from 13 to 18 years. I heard how they had come to minister there at one of the 23 churches in England founded by the Countess of Huntingdon in the mid 1700s in her passion to bring people to know God by giving strong biblical teaching and putting it into action while also loving and praying for the Jews.
There is a radio interview with Pastor Tim and also details of the amazing work of Lady Selina Huntingdon (1707-91) on the church’s website (www.shorehamfreechurch.co.uk) which I hope HEART readers will see. Therefore I will use this space to record what the Buckley family told me of their passions, aims and vision for where they are now.
They certainly are working to achieve what Lady Selina, ranked by many with the Wesleys and Whitfield and highly thought of by George III, desired during her life. As Tim said: “It’s encouraging the quiet ones in a place where God’s people can feel comfortable, to be who they are in every place and situation, on the street, in the workplace, school, as believers who lay hands on the sick and expect them to recover, confident that God wants good things for us and is working in our lives all the time.”
Tiffany told me, “Most of my work is outside the church”, bringing creative activities, art and music to the elderly. She feels strongly that churches need to use women with their God-given gifts failure in this is a “world issue”. She and her musical daughters may well achieve what Lady Huntingdon did not in this area.
Article uploaded: 1 December 2014