On the evening of Pentecost Sunday, the doors of St Paul's & St Barnabas opened wide and the building filled with the sound of melody flutes, hymns, testimony, and prayer. We were privileged to host The Church Flute Band, an outreach ministry of The Gathering Belfast, who travelled across the city from the Newtownards Road to share an evening with us in the heart of North Belfast.
It was a night that felt bigger than the four walls of the church. We were thankful for every face in the room. Thankful for friends and neighbours who came along for the first time. Thankful for what God is doing in the east of our city. And thankful for the gift of being able to gather, openly and warmly, to lift the name of Jesus together.
How the evening unfolded.
The Order of the Evening
| Welcome | Rev Andrew Irwin |
| Reading | Nehemiah 1:1–11 (NIV) |
| The Church Flute Band | Three pieces |
| Testimony | Pip |
| The Church Flute Band | Three pieces |
| Q&A | Pip with band members |
| Talk | Rev Ross Munro · Nehemiah 1 |
| The Church Flute Band | Three pieces |
| Benediction & Thanks | Rev Andrew Irwin |
Welcome and a word from Nehemiah.
The evening opened with a warm welcome and an invitation to settle in. Then the Bible was opened at Nehemiah chapter one, the words of a man hundreds of miles from home, who heard that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and its gates burned with fire. A man who sat down and wept, then mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
It is a passage that should sit a little uncomfortably in any one of us. A people God had redeemed, back in the land he had promised them, and yet in great trouble and shame. And it became the lens for everything else that followed across the night.
The band plays.
There is something stirring about the sound of a flute band in worship. Familiar tunes carried in a tradition that runs deep in our city, but now turned to the praise of God. Hymns we have sung for generations, set free in a new register, reaching listeners who might never have crossed the threshold of a Sunday morning service.
Where once there was suspicion, there is now conversation. Where there were divides, there are now shared songs.
Rev Ross Munro
Pip's testimony.
Then Pip stood and spoke. Personal, honest, and centred on what Jesus has done. There is no substitute for a man or woman simply telling the story of how the Lord has met them and changed them. The room listened.
A second set of pieces from the band followed. Then a Q&A with members of the band, who shared a little of how each of them came to be holding a flute on a Tuesday or Thursday night in Saint Martin's on the Newtownards Road, and what God has been teaching them through it.
A word from Rev Ross Munro.
Ross is the minister of The Gathering Belfast in East Belfast, and the man the Lord used to plant the seed of The Church Flute Band. He stood up with his Bible, and gave us a short, sharp word from Nehemiah 1.
His point was simple. It does not take much to look at the world today and conclude that something has gone drastically wrong. Refugees on the Channel. Political arguments on the news. Divided streets in our own city. Yesterday's assurances becoming today's unpredictabilities. It is not just that the world is broken. It is sad.
"Our churches are little more than candlestick holders
with the gas
supply switched off."
Ross took us to Belfast. To skyscrapers and church spires pointing in the direction of heaven, an earthly statement of where our help comes from. Beacons of light, where the glory of God should be shining into the shadows. And yet so many of our churches stand quiet.
He told the story of a passer-by he had asked to help him lift a donated chair into the church on the Newtownards Road. The man worked for the Housing Executive and was in and out of homes all over Belfast. He said there was one thing that those houses all had in common. They had lost hope.
A holy dissatisfaction.
Ross then walked us through Nehemiah's response. A cupbearer in Susa, seven hundred and sixty-five miles from home, hears that the walls of his ancestral city lie in ruins. And the first thing God does in him is a work of holy dissatisfaction. His heart breaks for the city. His response is not a strategy. It is prayer. He recognises who God is. He confesses. He remembers the covenant. He waits on the Lord.
Ross asked us, in our own city, on our own streets, with our own neighbours, whether our hearts break for the people God has placed before us.
What God is doing on the Newtownards Road.
Ross then told us, almost in disbelief, what the Lord has been doing in just twelve months at The Gathering. From six men turning up to a first meeting with no name and no plan, to a community of around forty men and women, rehearsing two nights a week in Saint Martin's. Bandsmen coming to faith in Christ. Wives and families and extended families gravitating to the church because of it.
Hymns and Irish airs now drift up the Newtownards Road on a Tuesday and Thursday night. People hear the band practising from half a mile away. Where once there was suspicion, there is now conversation. Where there were divides, there are now shared songs.
The heart of the message
"The Lord wants us to be more than just heard. He wants us to be noticed."
Build the wall where you are resident.
Ross closed by drawing us into Nehemiah chapter three. A roll call of names. Ordinary people each rebuilding the section of the wall closest to their own home. None of them was asked to rebuild Jerusalem on their own. Each of them was asked to rebuild where they lived.
The Gathering is rebuilding the wall on the Newtownards Road. The Church Flute Band is helping. And St Paul's & St Barnabas, Ross told us, has a wall to rebuild here in North Belfast, on York Street, in the streets that we walk every day.
Watch the evening
The full service.
Music, testimony, talk, and the gathered worship of the evening, recorded live at SPB.
175 years on York Street.
St Paul's & St Barnabas is one of Belfast's older parishes. The foundation stone of the original church on this site was laid in 1850, and we are now into the 175th year of gathering for worship and witness in this part of the city. Generations of believers have walked through these doors, prayed in these pews, taught their children the Scriptures here, and been carried out under this roof to be buried in the Lord.
The streets around us have changed. York Street has worn many faces. War, decline, and renewal have all passed over our city, and we are still here, with the gospel of Jesus Christ to share. In 2022 our parish hall was renovated and refurbished, a sign of our commitment to keep on serving this community, not because we want to preserve a building, but because we want to keep on making Christ known.
Our prayer
That every man, woman and child in our streets might come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, and that this building might keep on being a place where the gospel of grace is heard, and where the lost are made welcome.
One hundred and seventy-five years into the building, the question Ross put to us is still the question we are asking. What does the next chapter look like? What wall is the Lord asking us to rebuild?
Come and join us
You are warmly welcome at SPB.
Whether you have known the Lord all your life or you have never set foot in a church before, there is a place for you here. Come along, bring a friend, and find a warm welcome.
St Paul's & St Barnabas, 210 York Street, Belfast
spbbelfast.church
A heartfelt thank you.
A warm thank you to Rev Ross Munro for his preaching, to Pip for his testimony, and to every member of The Church Flute Band for travelling across the city to spend the evening with us. Thank you also to those who came along, both regulars and visitors, and to the team at SPB who set up the chairs, brewed the tea, and held the night in prayer.
We are grateful to God for opportunities like this. Opportunities to open the doors of our building, to share what the Lord has been doing, to hear his Word preached, and to send people back out into the city with fresh courage and fresh vision. May the Lord use this evening for his glory, in our city, and in many cities to come.
Listen again
Ross Munro on Nehemiah 1.
The audio of the talk is available on our podcast feed. Tap play below, or follow us on Spotify for future sermons and reflections from SPB.
For Christ, and His City.
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