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Reflection;
Two Sundays ago Chris showed us what Jesus said about humility. You may recall that we learnt that the word “child” in the aramaic language is the same as the word for “servant”. Jesus instructed that we need to be humble servants in order to enter the Kingdom of God.
Last Sunday, Brian showed us some of what the Old Testament can teach us about humility. Jethro, the father in law of Moses, had a customary right to tell Moses what to do and how to do it, however Jethro listened to Moses in order to understand. Moses was already “the great leader of the nation Israel. But he too listened to Jethro.
One of the founding principles of the Baptist Church is that we are all equal before God. Age or experience is not a barrier to being used by God to speak His truth to His people.
It was a delight and privilege to listen to 2 of our young people coming to us as a church and asking for our help in the same service as we heard this message of humility from Jethro and Moses.
The advice that Jethro gave to Moses is one of the foundational principles of our church leadership model. Nobody is more important than anyone else. The leadership team is in place to hear the grumbling of the people in the church…. and we really do hear the grumbles! It is also the responsibility of the leadership to teach the statutes of God.. or to ensure they are presented. As with Jethro and Moses, we all need to practice humility in listening to each other if we are to hear God.
On Sunday 26th March we will come together to listen, to hear what God is saying to us in and through the scripture and each other. (please see the note below about the details) At the same time we will celebrate hearing the christian journeys of another group of people who have asked for membership of our church… and there are so many of them all at once that we will need to set aside extra time to hear their stories and welcome them into the fellowship.
We are celebrating God’s goodness to us as a Church. We are both delighted and challenged by the voices of our young people asking us to help teach them. We are overwhelmed by the number of people who want to share their experiences and commitment to following Jesus as a part of our fellowship. We are amazed at the number of potential new ministers God has connected to us… and others outside our church have noticed that something amazing is happening here. God is moving in this place….. So have we heard the messages about humility or is grumbling still the top of our agenda? As deacons we hear the grumbles, and we are listening, but we are also hearing God in and through what He is doing in our Church, and we are thankful and joyful about His work in our church. Please join us in celebrating those amazing things through this week and plan to join us on the 26th.
The deacons.
For your diary…
Bring and Share Lunch Sunday 26th March at 11:30 am IN THE LARGE HALL. We will have our monthly church meeting to look at what God is teaching us through His word concerning “what does it mean to be a Church that is Humble?” This will be preceded by our regular business meeting where we will hear about the christian journeys of at least 7 people who have asked to become members of our Church (there are more but we may not be able to get all the reports done in time) .
With so much going on we thought it would be best to invite everyone to bring a picnic lunch and a little extra to share. We will provide hot and cold drinks and have a bit of a chance to sit and talk. We hope that this will mean that parents with children will also be able to join in as we listen, eat and celebrate God’s goodness together.
Small Groups
For those who are already a part of a small group, we are hoping that you will have already had a chance to explore together the question “What does it mean to be a church that is humble?”. If you are not already in a small group but would like to join in please do let us know via the office and we will do our best to connect you into our groups.
For action ….
From Amelia and Eve:
We need your help! We love Story Box and it is a really important part of our Sunday service. We really enjoy hearing from lots of different people and it is a good way for the children and adults to get to know each other. Story Box is important because we learn about the bible in a fun way which helps us to remember the bible stories.
We spoke to Rosie about why she likes Story Box and she told us that she likes finding out what is inside and she likes coming up to sit at the front of church so that she is closer to what is going on.
Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far, we would really love it if you could sign up again.
If you have never done Story Box before we would love it if you would think about signing up.
You can sign up on the website by clicking here or by speaking to Jennifer or speak to any deacon or call the office.
You can record your Story Box and it can be played during the service if you don’t want to do it in person. You don’t need to come up with a bible passage, it is on the church website already and if you aren’t sure what to do then Google is amazing at coming up with lots of ideas which can help you to get started, or you can speak to someone who has done it before.
If you need help recording it then there are plenty of people who can help with that too..
We would really, really, really love as many people as possible to sign up and give it a go, it is really important for all the children and we know that lots of adults love Story Box just as much as the children!! Thank you.
What does it mean to be a Church that Worships?
One of the learning points we all took from this discussion was that we need to worship God in spirit and truth - every day.
What can we do to help? How could the church help you to worship even for a very short time every day? There are plenty of bible reading notes to help us read and learn each day, our weekly prayer notes are already used by a good number of us to pray every day. We are trying to think about what would help us all to recognise what God is doing in our own lives, in the world around us and in our church that would help us with a daily routine of worship… Please let us know via the office.
Join us in prayer this week.