easter nesw

Hi all easter news is out, hopefully you'll have all got a copy by email, but if not, let me know and i'll email you one.

Happy easter, Rich

thank you

Below is a report we were asked to write for Romford baptist church's annual meeting, but we think it applies to all those who love and support us.

Report from Church Planting team on Harold Hill

Once again thank you so much for your faith in keeping the buildings on Harold Hill available for the people of Harold Hill and the mission of God on Harold Hill.

Over the last six months we have much to be thankful to God for. Here are three things that we hope will encourage you.

Community impact

A large amount of our time has been spent getting to know local people and local organisations. This is now starting to show fruit, people ring us, recommend us and suggest us to others in the community. (This we I have a house exorcism to do at the request of someone in the local authority!!)Now being liked isn’t everything and sometimes being a follow of Jesus means being unpopular, but I think people like us because of what they see us doing, loving and caring for those others don’t want to invest in.

Starting to be congregational

We now have a monthly time set aside in our groups to spend time talking about what people feel we should be doing and how they feel things are going. We point out that as Christians we believe that Jesus is the unseen person helping us in our conversation. Our hope is that this models an approach that allows all to come and have a voice, to be heard and to try to hear what others are saying. This is not a church meeting, but hopefully it is laying the foundations of a congregational community.

Sharing communion

Each week after our community meal, we share communion. Why? Because it helps us to tell the gospel in an accessible, visual and encouraging way. As we have been sharing communion this term we have been weaving the Gospel of Matthew through it. It has been a real time of learning as a team about how to tell the Jesus story. Each week we give people permission not to take it and state that communion is for those trying to follow Jesus. It has created loads of questions and God moments. Our hope is after Easter to do some ‘teaching’ on why we eat so much.

So once again thank you, because of your faith and commitment to Harold Hill and to Jesus, people are trusting the church and seeing value in it. People are having an opportunity to be part of community that believes in God speaking through the collective rather than just the ‘leader’. People who would have never have heard that Jesus Christ died, rose again to forgive sins and give life are hearing week after week after week.

Please ask our gracious Father to continue to lead us and to fill us again with His Holy Spirit as we share the story of his Son.

Thank you.

getting ready for easter

So it's going to be a busy time for us over the next couple of weeks.

We are having a two day children holiday club, a passover/ birthday community meal for me!! Steve and I are taking the Easter sunday morning service at brentwood Bap and then we have our easter 'thing' ( can;t think of a better word for it!) down the pub.

We have no idea who will come, we have no way of even knowing if anyone will come!! Still we plan/ pray and try to discern what God will have us do in these encounters.

Thank you for your support to us here. Over this easter people who would never consider going to a 'normal' church will hear parts of if not all of the Easter story.

A story which i'm still convinced is the one thing we have to offer here on the Hill. People need resurrection life, i can give it, but i can speak of it and live and as we see families come together and people start to hope for a different way of life we can see the seeds of new life growing up.

Next week as a family we're going to a family event of some friends of ours, some friends whose life has been changed by resurrection being found where there was death, God still brings new life to the darkest of places, and i at times a struggle with the faith to believe that we'll see it on harold Hill, but i do believe, please pray we see it over the coming weeks.

what can you do for us? you can ask......

Juls Hollidage asked us a couple of months at what people could do for us ( in addition prayer and giving money)? at the time i wasn't sure. But now that i've thought about it i would say please prayer, give if you feel led too, and ask one question. "Are you being orthodox?"

When asking us this you should expect the answer 'Yes and No'!..............you see what we are doing is a privilege, but it's risky, creative and times making it up on the spot and at times well plan. Were often trying to think about how and what the gospel looks, sounds and lives like when it's set free from the constants of what people conducer normal for the church. However in all this wrestling, stretching, twisting and moulding we still need to be Orthodox to the core values and theologies of our faith.

If what we plant is a nice humanitarian community/ project which is not distinctive as a church of Jesus Christ then we have drifted from what we said we were going to do. So the first time you answer the question- are you being Orthodox you should hear the answer Yes, but don't stop there, ask it again and this time we should say 'No' NO we are not being Orthodox. The baptist union, our friends and family and amazing God has not planted us on Harold Hill to be Orthodox with 'Church', our faith, maybe, but church NO. Give two builders the same set of materials and your still unlikely to get the sam sort of building. PLant a seed and watch a tree grow and you'll unlikely have two tree looking the same. The 'materials' and 'seeds' which when in to growing and building the church are very different from the 'materials and seeds' we are using. Culture is very different and context is very different so it not going to look like an orthodox church of 20, 30, 50, 200 years ago. What frightens me is that with all the church plants going on, they might be a bit trendier, but under the surface they have the same orthodoxy of churches planted 50/100 before them.

We are so so grateful to be given a blank sheet of paper, some fresh materials and seeds. We struggle to not return to the orthodoxy of our youth. But we are commitment to being honourable to this call and opportunity.

So please ask and probe until you are satisfied we are being both orthodox and unorthodox is healthily ways.

we're ill!!

Hi all hope you're well

We could do with your prayers at the moment- the last couple of months have been good, but the biggest challenge has been sickness! this last week we've all be ill again- would value your prayer it's getting us all down a bit.

rich

two interesting months

hi all,

The last couple of months have been interesting and this goes some way to explaining why the blog has been a bit quiet.

In January we like many other were visited by the sickness bug- or rather alison was in a major way. The knocked her out for nearly the whole month, not nice and for those who know her will know this is really not normal. This month has been dominated by conferences. The first for me was the baptist minsters conference, which was enjoyable, each year they invite two speakers it seem that i tend to connect with one more than the other!!

This week alison and i went to the new wine conference for church leaders in urban areas, it was challenging and inspiring for many reason and i found God reminding of some stuff of His which i've put down.

The weekend i'm preaching for a church weekend away and then after that a normal week would be good ( what ever one of those on Harold Hill is!!)