Friday 25 February 2011

Eastern Baptist assembily

It was better than it sounds, promise!!

Glen marshall was one of the speakers and was talking about our need to open to be converted by God away from traditions that we have held dear. He used peter and his encounter with cornelius ( in acts) to illustrate this.

This i found most comforting. Over the last year and a half not only has i had most of my ideas about church shaken and turned upside down, but I've also had lots of my ideas about God shaken and turned up side down. Those times when from behind the comfort of the pulpit ( not that i ever use it!) i've given easy, often over repeated statements about God, which when you're face to face with your own sinfulness or the mess of those around you just don't seem to be enough. I've realised that i'm not sure what i know/ think about God in so many areas of my life.

Now don't panic i've not lost my faith, i think if anything i'm finding it!

Thank you God for continually converting me.


Friday 18 February 2011

the sound of laugher

Hi all, hope your well, the sound of laugher is a great sound, to be honest when i'm feeling a been flat and low it's the comedy section on the bbc iplayer i head for, ( makes me think about why i've lead so many dull services, instead of helping people have a laugh.) Now Laughing and real joy are not the same, but to hear families coming together and laugh is surely a sign of the coming kingdom. The challenge is that following jesus requires the emotions that lead to laughter and tears, but this week at our love gathering, eat 123 and a couple of other encounters we've had with people we've heard real laugher from people i know spend a lot of time crying! ( thank you jesus for fun, please bring real and deep joy to the lives of those we know.)

Thursday 3 February 2011

Our new arrival

This week, both parenting courses went well and Alison and i have had some time to spend with some of our families individually as well. The biggest influence on our time this week as been our new Dog!! we have an 9 week old choc lab. I know crazy, but we've always wanted a dog and with the amazing garden etc we though it was time.I also need thing to stop me working all hours under the sun. (we'd saved some the money shoebury had so generously given us when we left.) So Rocky arrived on monday.

Next week we have our first gathering of 2011, which is to be a family games night next thursday night, loosely based on the theme of LOVE. We will be using the LOVE IS passage from 1 Cor 13 to do some informal teaching but our main aim is to build community and help people get to know each, we don't know to have gathering were people are strangers.

On a very practical note, could you pray for a book keeper for our money group. the person who is done it for the last two years has done a great job, but they now need to hand it over to someone else. This is a really important role and so we'd value your prayer about this.

Love and Prayers


R.