Our meeting today had a harvest/creation theme. It was a joy to welcome back our friend, Phil Cook from Lancing Tabernacle Community Church.

“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

Genesis 8 v 22 (NIV)

Phil remarked that some churches are not in the habit of commemorating harvest, which is a shame! Phil felt it was important to share the abundance of what we have with others especially those who have very little and he reminded us that it is Biblical!

We were encouraged to be enthusiastic in the harvest of the five ‘P’s because we should all be involved!

1. Ploughing: Harvest involves ploughing with thorough and necessary preparation for sowing in order to see good results.
2. Planting: We need to sow but also to know and believe that the seed will produce a great and mighty harvest.
3. Patience: Crops do not come up over night! Phil told us about the farmer who had to get down on his knees and put his head to the ground to see the green shoots. It is so easy for anxiety to take over while we are waiting for something to happen.
4. Power: Remember, nothing is impossible with God.   God multiplies. We were reminded of the stories of the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000 and how much was left over after everyone had been filled.
5. Prayer: We need to be faithful in prayer and a good place to start is by saying the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, the Lord’s Prayer. It is a pattern for all true prayer.

This harvest time, let’s celebrate with great joy all that the God of creation, our Heavenly Father has provided for each one of us.

We sang, We plough the feeds and scatter and You shall go our with joy before Sue closed our meeting with the blessing from The Message version:

“God bless you and keep you, God smile on you and gift you, God look you full in the face and make you prosper” – Numbers 6 v 24-26

“Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

2 Corinthians 4 v 16-17 (NIV)

Remember: Even as a Christian, you are not exempt from life’s problems. When you are hard-pressed on every side, there is One who stands with you, the Holy Spirit who will encourage you and enable you to stand firm and carry on. It is ok to struggle but trust in the Lord.

The verse of the week is inspired by the teaching the previous Sunday. You can listen to a recording by clicking on the link below:

https://downsbaptistchurch.org/resources/sermons/

Thursday Fellowship will reconvene for its autumn session on 4th September, 2025 and we welcome back Beverley McArdle from Brighton & Hove City Mission to be our first speaker. The programme up to Christmas is listed below.

Please do consider joining us at 2pm in the Parish Room of the Holy Cross Church unless stated – we can assure you of a very warm welcome! 

4th September – Beverley McArdle (BHCM Care Homes)

11th September – Maeve Whitchurch

18th September – Sue Cunningham

25th September – Jane Leaver

2nd October – Phil Cook

9th October – Graham Dawson

16th October – Connie Croly

23rd October – Ann Dracott

30th October – Gillian Clark (Books Alive)

6th November – Bryan Pickard

13th November – Sue Cunningham

20th November – TBA

27th November – Roger, Rosemary, Tom & Mike from Seaford Baptist Church

4th December – Our memories of Christmases past!

11th December – Carols, Candles and Cake

For further information head to the following link:- Thursday Fellowship

To know God and to make Him known

A WORSHIPPING CHURCH OF PEOPLE WHO PRAY AND FOLLOW THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE.

Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14 v 6

A WITNESSING CHURCH OF PEOPLE WHO SHARE OUR FAITH IN WORDS AND ACTIONS.

Jesus said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” Luke 10 v 27

This week we were delighted to welcome as our speaker one of our own members, Jane Leaver.

Jane explained that her talk had been inspired by an old chorus which her Mum used to sing to her when she was a child.  Through this song (see below), Jane introduced us to various Bible Characters, some very familiar and some obscure; for example, few of us had heard of Shamgar, who merits just one verse in the Bible! But all seven characters in the song had one thing in common, they used whatever they had, however ordinary or insignificant, to serve God, with amazing results.

Jane also referred to the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans (chapter 16 v 1 – 16), which is a long list of some of the people who had helped him in spreading the gospel. Jane encouraged us all to recognise that God has given each of us unique gifts, and placed us exactly where He wants us to be, so that we can serve Him and His kingdom, and be a blessing to those we meet every day.

To finish our time together, we sang the lovely song, Beautiful Lord, wonderful Saviour as a prayer, asking God to take us, mould us, use us and fill us as we give our lives to the Potter’s hand.

Shamgar had an ox-goad,
David had a sling,
Dorcas had a needle,
Rehab had some string,
Samson had a jaw bone,
Aaron had a rod,
Mary had some ointment,
All were used by God.

Sue led our meeting today and was also the speaker! Thank you Sue for blessing us with your gifts – we so appreciate you!

Sue took Philippians 2 v 1-11 as her passage alongside the Graham Kendrick song, The Servant King, as we thought about the humility and servanthood of our Lord.

We were reminded that The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Graham’s song says, He came from heaven, a helpless babe, His glory veiled, not to be served but to serve and to give His life that we might live! God chose it to be this way. It’s hard to take it all in isn’t it! But it is by His example that we learn how to sacrificially serve others.

Verse 3 and 4 says that we should “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests , but also to the interests of others.”

Sue encouraged us to use the gifts God has given us.  Sometimes we may have a tendency to do too much or even too little! Is there joy when we serve or do we do it grudgingly? Are we perhaps doing things we shouldn’t, like being square pegs in round holes? Whatever our circumstances we need to be faithful in using what God has given us to humbly serve others.

As Graham’s song says in the last verse, “So let us learn how to serve, and in our lives enthrone Him; each other’s needs to prefer, for it is Christ we’re serving.”  Amen!

We closed our service by singing this song as a prayer.

We welcomed back Maeve to our little gathering this week and interestingly, Maeve’s message was all about being welcoming!

Maeve told us about a series of incidents and happenings whilst on a little vacation in the Cotswolds.  She met a lovely old gentleman by the name of Wayne in a place called Upper Slaughter, who, after chatting for about half an hour, invited her back to the local hotel for a free coffee morning along with some people from the village. Wayne never mentioned the name of Jesus once or church, yet he was so warm, friendly and welcoming that it made a lasting impression. When she arrived at the hotel she was told that the free coffee morning was for local people only! Not so welcoming! But when Wayne arrived he told the group that Maeve was his friend and that he had invited her! Maeve remarked that Wayne’s church is the church she would like to go to!

What a contrast to the razzamatazz of Vice President J.D Vance and his large entourage visiting friends in the area. The local people were not at all interested or welcoming!

It led Maeve to think about Jesus and the ‘triumphal’ yet humble and lowly entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey (Luke 19 v 28-40). No fanfare, no razzamatazz!

What was it about Jesus that made Him attractive to people? Most of the crowd stopped, looked and connected in some way. And that makes us think  about how we are perceived in church. Is it all about trying to be relevant to attract people like having a drum kit and offering great coffee and biscuits?! Surely, it is Jesus that makes the difference and connects us all and makes us attractive to those who are seeking!

Let’s be gentle, kind, friendly and welcoming to all we meet.

After a long summer break apart from four Coffee Mornings, Thursday Fellowship returned on the 4th September.

It was a lovely day and 13 members gathered for the first session where we welcomed back Beverley McArdle from the Brighton & Hove City Mission.

Beverley gave us an update on the work of the Mission which has been working in the city for over 175 years. Their vision is to see a Christian influence in every environment and to help facilitate this, there has been some structural reorganisation to accommodate a different focus and wider sphere to touch more people.  Beverley is now the Older Person Lead which encompasses so  much more than being solely responsible for the Care Home Ministry. There is a vision for partnering with Churches to assist them in reaching out to the Care Homes in their communities as well as enabling befriending opportunities for those who are lonely or isolated.

Beverley’s message to us was taken from the Great Commission in Matthew 28 v 16-20 with the emphasis on “Go!”

What are we being called to do? We were reminded that we all have a ministry! What a challenge for us! What might that look like for us as individuals?

Beverley told a very poignant story about an elderly gentleman who needed help with his Bible reading devotions. Although one of the Activity Co-ordinators in the care home was a Christian, he decided to ask the non-Christian to assist him with his readings! Food for thought indeed!

We were encouraged to pray for the Mission: That good partnerships will be formed with local churches; for new staff members for all of the teams; for continued funding to meet the needs, and for new opportunities to share Jesus.

If you would like to join our little group, please do come along on a Thursday afternoon at 2pm.  We can assure you of a very warm welcome.

For further details, head to: https://downsbaptistchurch.org/community/thursday-fellowship/

Yet another overcast and breezy day for the 58th Woodingdean Carnival held this year at Rudyard Kipling Primary School. Fortunately, it didn’t deter hundreds of people from joining the colourful parade from Central Park to the Carnival field and visiting the stalls run by local organisations.

Once again DBC had a stall sited with the other Woodingdean Churches, and one of the event organisers remarked how welcome it is for the local churches to be a part of the proceedings – they really do value the support! And we love being part of what goes on in our community too!

DBC did something very different this year by providing a free children’s craft stall with tattoo stickers and badge making.  This proved to be very popular with the children and there were many good conversations with the grown-ups.

A big thank you to Judith for organising plus her willing band of helpers and supporters.

At our last session before the summer break, we welcomed Roger Case and Mike Kerry from Seaford Baptist Church.

They delighted us with a couple of seafaring songs, a poem based on the Song of Songs and a short message from Luke 9 v 18-20.

The passage about Peter declaring that Jesus is the Messiah, was read by Roger and then Mike asked us to think about our response to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?”  Why not meditate on that over the next few weeks and allow God to speak to you! How will your response shape your life going forward?

To close our time together, Mike led us in a song that he had written.

We then enjoyed fellowship with a cream tea prepared by our hard-working Committee.  Thank you so much for all that you do for us – we so appreciate you all!

There will be some coffee mornings over the summer so keep an eye on the news page for further details:

Thursday Fellowship coffee mornings

We return to the Parish Room of the Holy Cross on Thursday, 4th September, 2025 for the start of our Autumn session.

It is always a joy to welcome back Ann Dracott to our Thursday meeting.  Ann is becoming a real favourite with her visual aids and practical insights!

Ann delivered a very interesting talk about roads, and you can see from the picture, that Ann brought along a map and a Sat Nav to help us to cement some of her thoughts in our memories!

Most roads connect to somewhere and there are endless possibilities as to where we can go. It is possible these days to walk around the world! It can be an adventure, but even familiar roads can be daunting at times with the many hazards along the way. Ann likened this to our lives.

It is important to :

• Know where you are going and the way to it. We were reminded that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14 v 6).  The Bible is our guide to help us and the Holy Spirit too.
• We need to be alert and equipped for the hazards we will face. There is an enemy out there who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to trip us up and devour us (1 Peter 5 v 8). We need to resist him and stand firm.
• We need to react wisely. No road rage! Remember, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5 v 10-11). Learn to be patient with people. The Lord deals with us gently and with great patience so let’s be considerate with the people we meet on our journey.
• There are many diversions and distractions on the road which can throw us off track. Fix your eyes on Jesus – stay focused ( Hebrews 12 v 2)!
• There can be unexpected jolts on the road and in life; sometimes our fault and sometimes not. However bleak things get, Jesus has promised to be with us (Matthew 28 v 20b), journeying with us through the storm and will work for our good if we trust Him (Romans 8 v 28).
• Traffic jams and hold ups can be so frustrating.  Do you feel a bit bogged down with things? Are you possibly doing too much? Are you doing what God wants or just filling a gap and pleasing others? Maybe you need to slow down, to be still and know that He is God and to learn what is on His heart for you!
• See the signs and learn to recognise them! Red for no, Amber for wait and green for go!
• Observe the speed limits else there could be a penalty to pay! The limits are there to help us arrive safely and to protect others.  There is always a consequence for our actions so don’t run ahead of God’s plan for your life.
• Use the map (the Bible) and the Sat Nav (Holy Spirit) to assist you. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge Him and He WILL direct your paths (Proverbs 3 v 5).

Ann gave many examples of Jesus meeting people on the road when He was walking. He had such a compassion for people and met them where they were. As you think about some of the things that Ann shared, think about your own journey and the way you live, and the people that you might meet and how you might respond with the love of Jesus.