News Archive
January 2006
Cry freedom
The baptismal service on Sunday night was so encouraging. There's
nothing quite like the honest telling of our experience of Jesus
Christ. As Ross said, although a Christian is free, it doesn't mean
they are immune from struggle. He also said that getting baptised is
like crying 'Freedom' in a way. You can download some of Ross's talk in
the form of two MP3s at the 'Our Publications' part of this site.
Record breakers
It has been our busiest week ever at Toddlers. This week we had more than 100 (104 to be precise) adults and children between the two groups. The new Monday group has been going for nine weeks now, and is growing rapidly. On Saturday January 28th we are holding FUNTASTIC as a joint Toddlers and Hiz Kidz event. There will be junior aerobics, a bouncy castle and storytime as well as a real fire engine! Please pray that the fire engine doesn't get a call-out during the time we have booked it. Thanks!
People like us
On Sunday night Anne Witton said that God uses people just like us. The
heroes of faith in the bible were not perfect, they just gave
everything to God to use. I thought that was good to know. You can
download a PDF of Anne's notes from the 'Our publications' part of this
site.
Does God still speak today?
That was one of the questions that was addressed at the annual Mainstream conference at Swanwick. It was such a blessing to take time out with the other elders and Sean to hear from God about the way He still speaks prophetically today.
The speakers and seminars were biblical, thought-provoking and practical, mixing the theological basis and everyday practice of prophecy. Seminars included Prophecy for Dummies, Living a Prophetic Lifestyle and Turning Vision into Reality. We were thrilled to hear of the fantastic things God is doing in India, challenging the church to act prophetically and help the Dalit people who saw the church as being the only ones who had an attitude of love to this marginalised group of 250 million people.
1 Corinthians 14, v1 tells us: "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy." Let's ask God to speak to us through what we see, hear and feel about what is going on in this world. Let's test this against the gold standard of the Bible and test it in the family of the church.
Emphatically God does speak today, so over the next few weeks let's be open to what he wants to say to us as a church and personally.
Sorting it out
Phil's Sunday morning sermon struck a chord when he said doubt is a healthy part of the faith maturing process. I've been reading Brian McLaren's A New Kind Of Christian (Jossey-Bass) which includes this helpful advice: sort out tradition from the real essentials of the gospel. Lately I've realised that many of the doubts I have are more about the kind of religion I've been taught than about the person and promise of Jesus. And being able to separate one from the other is a huge release.
Beyond belief
If anyone video-taped (or DVD'd!) Channel 4's The Root of All Evil on
Monday evening, David Young would like to hear from you. For one
perspective on Richard Dawkin's attack on religion, click here.