Hello and a Happy New Year to you!
For those that can make it through the ice and snow this Sunday (and I completely understand if you can’t), I hope you’ll feel rewarded with what I hope will be a special service. It is our Covenant Service, where we renew our promises to serve God and each other in the context of our life together at Greenfield Church. As well as making those promises, we’ll be thinking a bit about what it means to do so, what it asks of us and the character of the God to whom we belong. If you want to know the passages we’ll be thinking about, they are:
Isaiah 43:1-7
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-22
Please don’t forget that the following Sunday 17th) is our next church meeting. Please make every effort to come to that if you can, as it will mark the start of what I hope will be a very significant period of thinking, praying, reflecting and praying over the next few months leading up to our AGM in May. I’ll tell you more this Sunday – another incentive for you to brave the Arctic conditions and come (but, please, don’t take any unnecessary risks to do so.)
Posted in Uncategorized.
By Stephen
– January 8, 2010
… I’m back. Many apologies for not having blogged here in agggeeesss, but hoping to correct that now with a sort of quick summary of stuff that you might want to know (mainly/especially if you’re a Greenfield church member – a Greenfielder?)
Firstly, Northern Baptist Learning Community (formerly Northern Baptist College, where I study) are posting throughout Advent some readings and prayers. The idea of this is to encourage all those linked with the Learning Community to be praying together throughout Advent. The prayers and readings are on the front page of the site, and there are links to the readings from the New Revised Standard Version.
Secondly, did you know that the UK is the only country in Europe to lock up the children of asylum seekers? Most of these are under 5s and none have committed any crime. A group of MPs recently criticised the government for this and the lack of definite figures or information on the children’s welfare.
The Joint Public Issues Team, a group set up jointly by the Baptist Union, Methodist Church and United Reformed Church to campaign and bring a Christian voice to issues such as this, is calling on all those who feel strongly about this to send One More Christmas Card to Phil Woolas MP, the minister for immigration. These cards are to wish him a happy Christmas but also to call on him to end this practice. Full details of what to do are on the website.
Thirdly, as I mentioned on Sunday, our Carol Service this year is going to be on Saturday 19th December. The idea behind this is to make it possible for as many people as possible to come to the service. As part of this, could you think of someone you’d like to invite? If you invited someone to Back To Church Sunday in September, why not invite them to the Carol Service? I hope there’ll be some invitations available from Sunday for you to take, so please do take one (or more!) and help make this a really special, community event.
Finally, you may have been expecting me to be preaching on Sunday, particularly if you’ve a copy of the rota. However, it’s not; Ralph has very, very kindly offered to take the service so that I can get on with the essay that’s looming large on the horizon and also begin getting the Christmas services I’m taking ready. So that’s why it won’t be more; I’m not shirking – honest!!
Posted in Greenfield Events, events.
Tagged with Christmas, college, events, Misc., news.
By Stephen
– December 2, 2009
As I mentioned on Sunday, the Smith family is making it’s great adventure down south for a week and a bit on Saturday. We’ll miss you while we’re away and hope you enjoy what Ralph and Bob Cartledge have to say over the next two Sundays.
While we’re away, though, please please don’t forget Back to Church Sunday! Please remember to think and pray about who you’re going to invite on September 27 and then bring back your pledge cards so we get an idea of how many visitors we’re going to have.
And please be praying for the day itself. There’s a lot to plan and not a lot of timne to do it in. Be thinking and praying about what we do as a church: are we as welcoming as we’d like to be? What do we do in our services that will help people feel welcome and encounter God? What might we need to change or do differently?
I’m open to any ideas: drop a note through my door, send me an e-mail, leave a comment on this blog (and remember you can respond to any of the posts on this blog) or bend my ear when we get back. I can’t promise we’ll do everything, but I hope together we can make those who are coming to church on that day to feel welcome and comfortable – welcome and comfortable enough to join us again and again.
And we’ll see you when we get back!
Posted in Greenfield Events, Sunday services.
Tagged with Back to church Sunday, events.
By Stephen
– August 20, 2009
First of all, welcome to the new blog! Hope you like it and the new look (for which I can take no credit!)
This Sunday will be a little different from most. As it’s our Communion service, we’re going to be thinking about Communion itself: why it’s important, what’s so special about it. As I’ve said during the last two Sundays, it’d be great if you could come having thought aboust some of these things for yourself: not just the “right” answers, but what you think. The text for this will be the passage which includes the words of institution we say during every Communion service: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.
Also, don’t be shocked if the church is set out slightly differently!
Secondly, we’re going to be thinking about Back To Church Sunday. I did talk about this at the Church Meeting last week, but I know a lot of you couldn’t be there; plus, the technology let us down! Hopefully that’ll all be up and running for Sunday (you don’t escape that easily!), so we should be able to watch a short DVD and have a think about what this important Sunday is all about. I’ll hopefully put up some more information on thios blog as well – so eyes peeled!
Posted in Sunday services.
Tagged with Back to church Sunday, events, services information.
By Stephen
– July 29, 2009
Just a reminder about what’s happening this Sunday. At 6pm, we’ve our joint service with the other churches from Churches Together in Urmston. This is happening outside, in the car park – so pray for sunshine!! It’ll be followed by a family barbecue. It should be a great sertvice; Ralph has been working really hard on it and has managed to get the Salvation Army band to come and play for us (I think the offer of food helped!), so it’s definitely something to look forward to.
See you there!
Because of this, we’re not having our normal 10:45 service. So if you turn up to church then, you’ll be the only one. Instead, Ralph is leading a Communion service at 9:30, so try and be there for that.
I’ve was going round the houses around church yesterday giving out invitations to people in the area to come. And what surprised me was that most, if not all, people were very pleased to be given an invitation to come. I hope as many as possible of them do come. But even if they don’t, it’s just refreshing that people weren’t openly hostile towards the idea of being invited to a church service. I think we can get a bit paranoid about how people see us and I was definitely nervous before going out yesterday. But I think if we give the impression that we’re not out to judge or condemn people, but that we actually quite like them and want to show them something incredibly positive – the love of God shown through Christ – then we’ve perhaps a little less to fear than we might think.
I don’t think this means everything will be plain sailing and people will always respond positively to what we say – Jesus certainly didn’t promise us that. But it’s good that people are open to this and willing to give us a chance.
Posted in Greenfield Events, Sunday services.
Tagged with events, outreach, this week.
By Stephen
– July 1, 2009
Ship of Fools: What makes a church feel welcoming to you?.
Again, this isn’t directly related to us at Greenfield, but is important and interesting. It’s from a web forum I look at and asks other forum members what makes them welcome when they visit another church. Food for thought – are we a welcoming church? I’d say “yes!”, but it’s always good to see what other people think makes for a good welcome and whether we provide it.
Edited to add: People on this site don’t always pull their punches (although it is a Christian site) – so don’t be alarmed if there’s a full and frank airing of views!
Posted in Misc..
Tagged with church issues, Misc., web links.
By Stephen
– June 25, 2009
Just a quick reminder that on Thursday, I’m hoping you’ll be able to come round to my house to take part in a discussion I’m holding as part of my studies. We’ll be looking at the issue of how society views children and young people: are they seen as a threat, a nuisance or something more positive? Hopefully we’ll also be thinking about how we as Christians can address these issues.
If you want to come, it’s at 8pm on Thursday at my house. You don’t need any specialist knowledge and I won’t be judging you on your opinions: free thinking is welcome! You’ll also be helping me (again!) in my studies – which I’ll be very grateful for!
Looking forward to seeing you then!
Posted in events.
Tagged with events, Studies, this week.
By Stephen
– June 9, 2009
This isn’t really anything to do with my studies or Greenfield, but thought you might be interested.
Biblegateway.com is a site which allows you to search numerous versions of the Bible in many different languages on-line – which is very useful indeed (not least for sermon preparation). Ralph will correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s the site he uses to get the readings for each Sunday on Powerpoint.
Anyway, they’ve just published the 100 most-read Bible verses on their site. Have a look – no real surprise for what the top one is! Looking through the list, I don’t think there’s any real surprises, though I’m quite intrigued as to why Philippians 4:8 is higher than Philippians 4:7!
If anyone’s reading this, and is prepared to comment, what’s your favourite/most treasured verse – what would be the one you’d search for first on that site?
Posted in Misc..
Tagged with Bible, Misc..
By Stephen
– May 17, 2009
Well, we’re back from the Baptist Assembly in Bournemouth – and what a fantastic time it was! It was great meeting with so many others, sharing stories (even if only in the “how far did you come?” type) and worshipping together. Those who spoke, both at the big events and the smaller seminars, were inspiring, encouraging and challenging. I’ll post more throughout the week as I get my head around it. But I was intrigued (and slightly surpised) to find an interview with Jonathan Edwards, the General Secretary of the BUGB, posted on the BBC News website on Friday. If you want to read it, it’s here.
Posted in Misc., events.
Tagged with Baptist, BU Assembly, events.
By Stephen
– May 5, 2009
As we mentioned during Sharing on SUnday, we won’t be around this weekend, because we’re in Bournemouth. Not because of a holiday (though we’re hoping for some sun…), but because it’s the Baptist Union Assembly.
And it’s an important one as well. This year has been chosen as the year to mark the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the first Baptist congregations. Clearly, this is a significant milestone and the whole Assembly is geared around this; the title is “Who do we think we are”, exploring our identity as Baptists, where we’ve come from and where we’re going to.
It should be a good weekend – and it’s our first BU Assembly, so we’re not quite sure what to expect. There’s childcare for Amy in the mornings, when the main business meetings are, but none in the afternoon when the seminars are on. Also, there’s evening worship times but we’ll need to work out childcare for those as well. But between us, we hope to sample something of the Assembly. And no doubt it’ll be a very weary Smith family that wend their weary way back to Urmston on Bank Holiday Monday…
Please pray, not just for us, but for everyone attending that as we celebrate this important milestone, we’ll gain a new sense of what it means to be Baptist and how that affects us as we seek to serve God and each other.
I’ll make sure I report back when we return!
Posted in Misc..
Tagged with Baptist, BU Assembly.
By Stephen
– April 29, 2009
