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.