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James leads our all-age service for October. God loves us. He loves his church, and he loves everyone in it. We all know this! But he also loves everyone outside of the church too and gives us the task of showing that love to everyone we meet. How do we do that with our friends, colleagues and the other people we meet every day?
Mike leads us in our sung worship this week.
This week we celebrate Harvest with a visit from one of the missions we support as a church: the Doxa Project. Ray Balmer gives us an overview of the organisation from it’s beginnings right through to the present day and speaks on the work that they support in Kenya.
Ant leads the rest of the service (he’s been to Kenya, don’t you know!) thinking about how we can be thankful to God for all of His provision.
In the final part of our first look at Acts (don’t worry, we won’t be pausing for long!) Chris ends with the second half of Acts 8 where Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch. Starting with the passage from Isaiah that the eunuch “happened” to be reading Philip explains the whole of the good news about Jesus and, having heard this, the eunuch is so filled with the Holy Spirit that he asks to be baptised there and then. As Philip was led to the eunuch that day, how is God guiding us in our journeys today?
Chris also leads us through a guided prayer to help us in our understanding of the scripture, whilst Mike and Lynne lead our sung worship.
The story of Acts continues this week with the recounting of Stephen’s vision of Jesus being welcomed into heaven and his subsequent execution by the Sanhedrin for blasphemy. These events trigger a great persecution of the early church and scattering of the believers from Jerusalem. However as Chris explains, this is not a defeat! It is stage 1 of God’s great plan to start spreading the message of the Gospel beyond Judea. Philip, Peter and John travel to Samaria where the Holy Spirit breaks out in a powerful way. How are we to reflect the power of the Spirit in our lives? And how did all of these events affect a young Pharisee named Saul?
Andy leads the rest of the service, speaking about his experience of God in recent travels whilst Mike leads our sung worship.
We left the story of Acts last time with Stephen, one of the most Spirit-filled disciples encountered so far, arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin to stand trial. This week Chris looks at what he says in his defence, his sermon before the ruling officials. Stephen takes the accusations levelled at him and systematically demolishes every single one, showing that God’s Spirit was behind everything in the Law that the Sanhedrin profess to follow and also that the Spirit cannot be contained behind legalism and restraint. God’s power is active everywhere! What does that mean for us today?
Susan leads the rest of the service with prayers for the developing situation in Morocco, whilst Pete and Nick lead our sung worship.
Stephanie spoke on Isaiah 61, highlighting God’s ‘big plan’ to bring healing and restoration to mankind through Jesus Christ. Using personal testimony, Stephanie reflected on God’s offer of ‘beauty for ashes’ (v3), and shared how God used that promise to bring His healing into the deep seated heartache and loss she had experienced against her family.
In the parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids, Jesus tells us that we need to be ready for His return. Chris leads this all-age service where we consider what it means to be ready.
The story of Acts continues this week, Chris speaks on the events of Acts 6. With the church growing and gaining momentum there was concern that the Apostles were becoming overwhealmed with the workload and certain ministries may be missing out because of this. The early church then institutes the prototypical structure of what we now call church leadership, the Apostles continued in spiritual leadership but delegated other tasks to seven others chosen from amongst the disciples in the church. It was such an enduring and powerful model of leadership that around the world thousands of churches (including us!) still use a derivation of it today. Amongst those chosen was Steven (more on him at a later date), who proved that although he and his fellow deacons were not the primary spiritual leaders, God’s spirit can still use them to advance the church. And that means us too!
Karen leads the rest of the service with a focus on prayer for the many situations around the world that get ignored by the mainstream news, whilst Mike leads our sung worship.
We continue our ongoing series looking at the book of Acts with Chris speaking on the events Luke recalls in chapter 5: the deaths of Ananais and Sapphira, continued healings of the sick and the arrest, imprisonment, miraculous escape and re-arrest of the apostles. We begin to see three interconnected groups arising: the apostles, the people and the Sanhedrin (and other Jewish leaders). Which group do we fall into?
James leads the rest of the service, thinking about the vastness of God’s creation and Lynne and Dave lead our sung worship.
We resume our series looking at the book of Acts with Chris this week speaking on chapter 4. The miracle at the temple (see last time!) did not go unnoticed and Peter and John find themselves brought before the Sanhedrin to explain what happened. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter does not hold back and the Pharisees and Sadducees don’t quite know how to react. If the Holy Spirit can turn Peter from someone who denied Christ into someone who gives one of the most eloquent defences of him, how much more can it help us in our situations?
Ant leads the rest of the service whilst Pete leads our sung worship.