Happy New Year! This week we held our vision service for 2025, a chance to look back at the events that happened in our Church family over the last year and look ahead to what God wants to do through us in the coming months. Chris also reveals our year text for 2025, taken from Hebrews 12 verse 1.
Ant leads the rest of the service as we start the year in prayer, Pete and Nick lead our sung worship this week.
We continue on the journey towards Christmas by lighting the forth candle on our advent wreath, this year representing love. Chris speaks on the word given to Joseph by the angel of the Lord in a dream leading to his decision to marry Mary. We discover the love of Joseph, Mary and most of all,…
We continue on the journey towards Christmas by lighting the third candle on our advent wreath, this year representing joy. Chris speaks on the word given to Mary by Gabriel and her subsequent visit to see Zechariah and Elizabeth. In this we see the three aspects of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all present, working as one and inviting Mary to participate in God’s great plan. He then contrasts it with the act of communion, the Lord’s Supper, where at the other end of Jesus’ earthly life we are all now invited to participate in that great plan of God.
Andy leads the rest of the service thinking about the origin of the word joy and its importance in the Bible whilst Lynne and Dave lead our sung worship.
This Sunday we celebrated the baptism of Freya Griffiths. Freya gives a powerful testimony on how God has helped her in her life and follows the example of Jesus by going through the waters of baptism to symbolise the inner change that God has made and affirm her commitment to him. Chris speaks on the place that baptism has in God’s plan for the world and gives an opportunity for those that have not yet fully accepted Jesus to take that tentative first step in trusting God.
James leads the service whilst Pete and Nick lead our sung worship.
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 we conclude our series in 2 Corinthians with Chris speaking on Paul’s closing words to the Corinthian church. In these final paragraphs he encourages the people of Corinth to continue on their path of repentance and to strive for unity and peace. Not much to be learned from that these days, is there?
Susan leads the rest of the service whilst Pete leads our sung worship.
As we begin to draw to the end of our 2 Corinthians series we see Paul get more and more passionate that God’s power works in him through (and despite) his weaknesses. What do we define as ‘weakness’ and do we need to reassess our attitudes towards them?
Karen leads the rest of the service whilst Mike and Lynne lead our sung worship.