You know a Sunday meeting is going to go well when it starts like this.
A 24 year old woman walked up to me and gave me an envelope.
Inside was her membership application.
This was someone who our cell group had been praying for over couple of years.
Someone who had done to Alpha Course and found Christ.
Someone who had found the Freedom in Christ course a helpful start.
Someone who has joined a midweek group and made many friends within the Church.
And someone who we baptised in January this year.
Who wants to become a member.
Now that is how I would like to start every week!
Showing posts with label Alpha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alpha. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Baptism Services
"I want to be baptised because I believe Jesus Christ is my saviour, and I want to live for him"
"...after many hours studying the bible, and plenty of soul searching, I gave myself to Christ... the cynicism and doubt has now completely gone and I am proud to call myself a Christian"
Two different people. Two different stories (and two others baptised too). What a day!
Hear the full testimony of Jodie here and Adrian here.
"...after many hours studying the bible, and plenty of soul searching, I gave myself to Christ... the cynicism and doubt has now completely gone and I am proud to call myself a Christian"
Two different people. Two different stories (and two others baptised too). What a day!
Hear the full testimony of Jodie here and Adrian here.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
and so Alpha starts...
Here we are.
After months of preparation. Lots of prayer. Large scale publicity and a lot of faith, The Alpha Course starts tonight.
There are now over 30 guests signed up.
These include:
After months of preparation. Lots of prayer. Large scale publicity and a lot of faith, The Alpha Course starts tonight.
There are now over 30 guests signed up.
These include:
- several neighbours / friends / relatives who Church members have plucked up the courage to invite
- Guests from our recent Harvest Service and Baptism Service who were invited when they came on a Sunday
- several students from South East Asia and Africa
- someone who responded to a card being put through their letter box
- At least 3 people who have had absolutely no contact with our Church in Shrewsbury whatsoever in the past except through our website.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Holiday
Just been away for a week to a little cottage in Worcestershire where we have been before. It was good for the soul, as the last few weeks have been really, really busy.
This summer we have had our main hall redeveloped to prepare ourselves for the move to Two Sunday meetings in November. This has meant all sorts of practicalities, decoration and building work being carried out.
Our new Church Manager starts a week on Monday. That has meant putting everything in place for their arrival, including me moving offices this week has needed to be sorted.
With other elders on holiday over August, as well as administrative staff, it really has been a case of "chief cook and bottle washer" alongside a couple of other staff to get through the summer.
Add in changes to the leadership in two cell groups that I have been heavily involved in and I was running out of steam a bit. Last Sunday was our Harvest Service in the morning, which was an excellent guest service, followed by a members meeting in the evening.
A week away has been a great opportunity to rest, recharge, and maybe even refocus.
We came back early from our holiday because Esther's little younger sister Naomi was being baptised. As I walked in I saw the LCD TV in the foyer with a welcome message had been installed. I walked past the new welcome banner and into the main hall. The new carpet looks great, as does the new decoration, as does the new stage, and the new lighting, new banner at the front, new projector, and especially for the baptisms the new remote control camera that allows the pictures to go up on the big screen. It does not look too flash, but it is a real notch up on what we had before, and it all takes so much less time to set up and use, so much less hassle for those who faithfully serve. The Lord stopped creating, saw that it was good, and rested. I felt the same way this week!
None of this stuff matters. It is, in many ways worthless chaff that will pass away. But it is also part of resourcing a growth in our Sunday congregation. That is why I was really excited today. Four candidates were baptised and publicly confirmed their faith, including three teenagers and one adult lady who is a former alcoholic who has had her life transformed by the saving power of Jesus. There must have been around 300 people there this morning, it felt really full, really energetic, really on the front foot. And then as I left I scanned the Alpha Course sign up sheet and found 21 guests and 5 students from a local international school.
4 baptisms and 26 coming to Alpha, wonderful. This is what we are living for. Forget the kit and the bells and whistles. We want to reach 21st century society with a 21st century expression of Church, and to see the gospel reach more and more people so that they can come to know the power of Jesus in their lives.
This summer we have had our main hall redeveloped to prepare ourselves for the move to Two Sunday meetings in November. This has meant all sorts of practicalities, decoration and building work being carried out.
Our new Church Manager starts a week on Monday. That has meant putting everything in place for their arrival, including me moving offices this week has needed to be sorted.
With other elders on holiday over August, as well as administrative staff, it really has been a case of "chief cook and bottle washer" alongside a couple of other staff to get through the summer.
Add in changes to the leadership in two cell groups that I have been heavily involved in and I was running out of steam a bit. Last Sunday was our Harvest Service in the morning, which was an excellent guest service, followed by a members meeting in the evening.
A week away has been a great opportunity to rest, recharge, and maybe even refocus.
We came back early from our holiday because Esther's little younger sister Naomi was being baptised. As I walked in I saw the LCD TV in the foyer with a welcome message had been installed. I walked past the new welcome banner and into the main hall. The new carpet looks great, as does the new decoration, as does the new stage, and the new lighting, new banner at the front, new projector, and especially for the baptisms the new remote control camera that allows the pictures to go up on the big screen. It does not look too flash, but it is a real notch up on what we had before, and it all takes so much less time to set up and use, so much less hassle for those who faithfully serve. The Lord stopped creating, saw that it was good, and rested. I felt the same way this week!
None of this stuff matters. It is, in many ways worthless chaff that will pass away. But it is also part of resourcing a growth in our Sunday congregation. That is why I was really excited today. Four candidates were baptised and publicly confirmed their faith, including three teenagers and one adult lady who is a former alcoholic who has had her life transformed by the saving power of Jesus. There must have been around 300 people there this morning, it felt really full, really energetic, really on the front foot. And then as I left I scanned the Alpha Course sign up sheet and found 21 guests and 5 students from a local international school.
4 baptisms and 26 coming to Alpha, wonderful. This is what we are living for. Forget the kit and the bells and whistles. We want to reach 21st century society with a 21st century expression of Church, and to see the gospel reach more and more people so that they can come to know the power of Jesus in their lives.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
How to resist evil
That is the title of my talk tonight on The Alpha Course
I like the way the Alpha materials give airtime to the dangers of evil but give priority to Jesus, if that makes sense. Some books / websites certainly do not get that balance right.
This is a bit off the cuff, (and some of it even a bit tongue in cheek) but here would be five places to start for a Christian guy in the UK, to resist temptation, and thereby resist evil:
What would your five be?
I like the way the Alpha materials give airtime to the dangers of evil but give priority to Jesus, if that makes sense. Some books / websites certainly do not get that balance right.
This is a bit off the cuff, (and some of it even a bit tongue in cheek) but here would be five places to start for a Christian guy in the UK, to resist temptation, and thereby resist evil:
- Get some PC monitoring software: take a knife to the temptation
- Don't sit channel surfing the TV on your own in the evening
- Buy a broadsheet not a tabloid and don't read the adverts in any magazine aimed at men
- Don't read the argos catalogue or watch car programmes
- Avoid Stella Artois
What would your five be?
Friday, 13 March 2009
I love The Alpha Course
At our Alpha away day on Saturday 4 people made first time decisions to follow Jesus, and two made recommitments having been away from an active faith.
On Wednesday night a further two people made first time decisions to follow Jesus.
What an absolute priviledge to see God work like that!
Now the rubber hits to road for ongoing discipleship, finding a cell group and integration into the Church. We don't want one time emotional responses, we want disciples of Christ.
On a personal level one young woman has been coming to our cell group and has been bringing a friend to Alpha too. We have been praying for them in our group. Both went forward on Saturday and made steps of faith.
What a precious thing the gospel is? What a precious time that moment is, when someone first believes.
It sort of reminds me of a song: "How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed"
One guy came to Alpha on the Saturday and made a decision to follow Jesus. He came to Church the next day on the Sunday. He came to our "Introducing Barnabas" event on the Sunday evening which we run three times a year for new people. At the end he said "I want to come to the next baptism service to see how it works, then I want to be baptised at the next one"
That is quite some 48 hours.
On Wednesday night a further two people made first time decisions to follow Jesus.
What an absolute priviledge to see God work like that!
Now the rubber hits to road for ongoing discipleship, finding a cell group and integration into the Church. We don't want one time emotional responses, we want disciples of Christ.
On a personal level one young woman has been coming to our cell group and has been bringing a friend to Alpha too. We have been praying for them in our group. Both went forward on Saturday and made steps of faith.
What a precious thing the gospel is? What a precious time that moment is, when someone first believes.
It sort of reminds me of a song: "How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed"
One guy came to Alpha on the Saturday and made a decision to follow Jesus. He came to Church the next day on the Sunday. He came to our "Introducing Barnabas" event on the Sunday evening which we run three times a year for new people. At the end he said "I want to come to the next baptism service to see how it works, then I want to be baptised at the next one"
That is quite some 48 hours.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Cell UK
Many Churches run all sorts of different types of small groups.
We are happy using the cell model and have been greatly blessed by the resources of Cell UK.
I was speaking to a Church leader in another town yesterday who was looking at cell groups in their church and previous issues they have had running them and I put forward the suggestion "The thing is about the cell model, is that it is a heart attitude more than anything else. You can't just copy a model and hope it is successful unless you have the vision"
It was at that point I realised just how influenced I am by the ministry of Laurence Singlehurst, as that sounds word for word like the sort of thing he would say.
But it is true though. We are not looking for an off the shelf quick fix solution to Church growth, we are looking for our hearts to be shaped to become a more missional community.
The same can be said of the Alpha Course.
Every week church offices across the land get blasted with adverts for all sorts of resources and packaged courses in evangelism, discipleship, reaching out, engaging with your community, caring for your people. You name it, you can probably buy it on an 8 DVD pack for £89 + p&p.
I am weary of the claims made on the promotional materials - the pastor from X town somewhere saying how it has changed his Church.
I do believe that some of these resources are fantastic tools to help churches, but I fear for a christian culture that relies too heavily on pre-packaged programmes. That is one reason I have a deep respect for Cell UK, because it is a conversational movement between likeminded Churches whose resources are born out of local Church experience across denominational lines. That means their training / ideas have been shaped dramatically by experiences in the UK over the last 10 years and the whole concept is now more of a conversation than a fixed package, and the results are far more useful because of it.
We are happy using the cell model and have been greatly blessed by the resources of Cell UK.
I was speaking to a Church leader in another town yesterday who was looking at cell groups in their church and previous issues they have had running them and I put forward the suggestion "The thing is about the cell model, is that it is a heart attitude more than anything else. You can't just copy a model and hope it is successful unless you have the vision"
It was at that point I realised just how influenced I am by the ministry of Laurence Singlehurst, as that sounds word for word like the sort of thing he would say.
But it is true though. We are not looking for an off the shelf quick fix solution to Church growth, we are looking for our hearts to be shaped to become a more missional community.
The same can be said of the Alpha Course.
Every week church offices across the land get blasted with adverts for all sorts of resources and packaged courses in evangelism, discipleship, reaching out, engaging with your community, caring for your people. You name it, you can probably buy it on an 8 DVD pack for £89 + p&p.
I am weary of the claims made on the promotional materials - the pastor from X town somewhere saying how it has changed his Church.
I do believe that some of these resources are fantastic tools to help churches, but I fear for a christian culture that relies too heavily on pre-packaged programmes. That is one reason I have a deep respect for Cell UK, because it is a conversational movement between likeminded Churches whose resources are born out of local Church experience across denominational lines. That means their training / ideas have been shaped dramatically by experiences in the UK over the last 10 years and the whole concept is now more of a conversation than a fixed package, and the results are far more useful because of it.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
After Alpha
I did the "What should I do with the rest of my life" talk at Alpha last night.
It seemed to go ok. It was one of those where you say more than ever intended and used your notes less than you ever imagined. Hopefully that's a result of God working.
On the way home (9pm) I was a bit tired but Esther was out with some female friends from Church so I took the chance to text a mate from the footie and meet him for a quiet drink.
The principle is simple: I never want to ask people to "bring their friends to Church" so I, and others can tell other people's friends about Jesus, unless I am out there making friends myself.
It seemed to go ok. It was one of those where you say more than ever intended and used your notes less than you ever imagined. Hopefully that's a result of God working.
On the way home (9pm) I was a bit tired but Esther was out with some female friends from Church so I took the chance to text a mate from the footie and meet him for a quiet drink.
The principle is simple: I never want to ask people to "bring their friends to Church" so I, and others can tell other people's friends about Jesus, unless I am out there making friends myself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)