“We are not separated by colour; we are joined by the Lord.” Spring’s Ignite is here.

Spring’s Ignite is here and jam-packed with stories we hope will challenge and inspire you.

Our front-page story looks at how a Counties trainee evangelist is using her experiences of ethnicity to help show us we are all the body of Christ.

Cheryl Magowan is mixed raced but neither of her parents spoke about racial identity as she grew up.

Cheryl, however: “wanted to know who I was” after experiencing many bouts of racism from a tender age. She tells Ignite about coming to faith and the experiences she and her mum, Ivy, witnessed in predominately white churches.

Cheryl is now using her experiences on Counties’ Evangelist Training Programme. She is now writing an easy-to-follow booklet to help churches address issues of ethnicity, with one accord.

She says: “I hope it may well help us all to keep Jesus’ commandment, to simply, ‘love one another’.”

Jonathan and Heather Brain, who are celebrating 25 years as Counties Evangelists, live near Chippenham in Wiltshire. They’re setting up Maranatha House Church and attending the M4 Church Programme. Ignite interviews Jonathan about why they’ve decided to set up their own church and join the programme. Jonathan says:

“There has been a lot of groundwork and conversations. A lot of people know about it. It might be a slow build-up – I am not asking for 50 people - maybe just five or ten. For me, it’s not about numbers, it’s about where the Lord takes us. Ivor Cooper said to me when I went into ministry: “KISS – keep it simple stupid,” and he was right. I have taken my eye off the ball a few times but that’s what we are going to do now with God’s grace.”

Ignite will be following the progress of Maranatha House Church over the coming year.