Last week in our Acts series we saw the church in Jerusalem discussing whether the Gentile believers should have to conform to Jewish Law. This week Chris looks the letter they sent to Antioch in response. Alongside their response Paul, Barnabas, Silas and Judas were also sent to vouch for its authenticity. In the letter, and in the rest of the New Testament, we see that through Jesus’ fulfilment of the purpose of the Law the non-Jewish believers are not required to conform to the Laws of the Old Testament. Instead we are given the ability (through the words of the Bible and the Holy Spirit) to discern and cast off the things that, as individuals and as a community, separate us from God.
Ant leads the rest of the service, speaking a little about trusting in God whilst Pete and Nick lead our sung worship.

We return to our series in Acts, with Chris this week focussing on Paul and Barnabas’ return to Jerusalem and the discussion in the early church as to whether Gentile believers should have to conform to the Jewish Law of the Old Testament. It is clear that disagreements in church governance are nothing new! We see the Apostles listening to both sides of the argument and together the church ultimately discerning God’s way forwards, giving us a model that we still strive to follow today.

Karen leads the rest of the service as James brings an update on our mission of the month, Asia Link, and Pete and Nick lead our sung worship.

This week we return to our semi-regular series in Acts, looking at the conclusion of Paul and Barnabas’ missionary journeys through Galatia. In this passage we see them re-tracing the steps that they had taken over the previous 2 years and revisiting many of the churches they planted, before returning to Antioch and reuniting with…

In this chapter of Acts we see Paul and Barnabus move from Iconium to Lystra and Derbe in their mission to spread the good news to the Jews and Gentiles in the region of Galatia. Chris speaks on how they manage to do this in spite of stiff opposition from some Jews and significant misunderstanding from many of the other people they meet. We are reminded that in our own evangelism people may not have the same view of God that we do and are challenged to make the gospel accessible to them.

Susan leads the rest of the service as we take time to reflect on God’s word and Mike leads our sung worship.

We continue in our series in Acts this week, focussing on Paul and Barnabas’ preaching to the Jews and Gentiles in the towns of Galatia. We see how, just as in Jerusalem, many of the Jews rejected their message of salvation through Jesus and began to persecute those who believed, both Jews and Gentiles. Paul taylors his message to his audience, he doesn’t tell them the whole gospel just the bits they need to know at that time. A handy tip for when we ourselves are called to evangelise!

Andy leads the rest of the service, Trevor introduces our mission of the month for November – Mercy Ships – and Lynne and Pete lead our sung worship.

This week we carry on in our study of Acts and in chapter 13 we start to see the focus shifting away from Peter and the church in the Jewish world to Paul (formerly Saul)’s mission to evangelise to the Gentiles. Chris looks at the church’s sending of Paul on his first missionary journey to Cyprus alongside Barnabus, where they encounter spiritual opposition in the form of a false prophet. We hear how the Holy Spirit set apart those two men to bring the word of God to the world, what are we being set apart for today?

Ant leads the rest of the service, we hear about the final vision given to Loren Cunningham the founder of YWAM (our Mission of the Month) and Pete leads our sung worship.

This week we return to our ongoing study of the book of Acts. Previously we had seen the word of God begin to spread from the initial believers in Jerusalem throughout the Roman world and beyond, and we re-join the story a few years later where King Herod (the grandson of the *other* King Herod) was threatened by the increasing Chrisitan community back in Israel. He had Peter arrested and thrown in prison, but – as we find out – human chains cannot hold back God’s plans, and in this passage we see an amazing demonstration of the power of prayer. What are we praying for today?

Karen leads the rest of the service with updates from our Mission of the Month, YWAM, and the launch of the annual Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal. Lynne and Dave lead our sung worship.

This week in our Acts series we see the focus shifting from Peter to the spread of the Gospel to the north of Israel in Antioch (on the modern day Turkish/Syrian border) and Barnabas’ mission to bring encouragement and teaching to the newly-named Christian community there. During his time in Antioch Barnabas recruits Saul, who the apostles had previously sent to Tarsus, to join him. This initial spread of Christianity may have seemed random and disorganised but – as Chris encourages us – God often uses disorder to bring forward his purposes. What apparent disorder can we see today that God is working through?

Andy leads the rest of the service as we invite the Holy Spirit to take away all our inhibitions and Lynne and Dave lead our sung worship.