We welcomed back Roger, Mike, Tom and Rosemary, our friends from Seaford Baptist Church for an afternoon of Christmas music.  What a joyful time we had!

We were encouraged to join in and sing some carols and to relax and listen to a wide range of different Christmas songs from Gaudete to Graham Kendrick’s Thorns in the straw. A superb mix of festive cheer!

Tea and mince pies were a very welcome addition to finish the meeting! It is Christmas all the way now!

“A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40 v 3 (NIV)

The desert is a deserted, dry, barren, hot/cold, hostile and alien place where one can get lost and where you can lose your life! 

Think: Are you struggling/just plodding along? Tell God how you feel.

Moving forward: This Advent, clear the rocks and obstacles in the way to experience His coming!

The verse of the week is inspired by the teaching the previous Sunday.  If you would like to listen to a recording of the message then head to

Sermons

We had an in-house meeting this afternoon. Faith led the service and focused on God’s love and Jane took us on a journey down some paths and posed the question, “What sort of path are you on? Is it a good path? And more importantly, is it the right path?

Jane took her text from Psalm 16 v 11 – ‘You make known to me the path of life’. There are 56 verses about paths in the Bible and Jane selected some interesting ones to take us down. Here are just three to think about:

Psalm 23 shows us, that IF the Lord is our Shepherd, He will lead us besides still and quiet waters, He will restore our souls and He will guide us along the right paths.  How reassuring!

Proverbs 3 v 5-6 tells us that if we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding, acknowledge Him in all of our ways, then He will direct our paths or make our paths straight. What more can you say – that is so clear!

Psalm 119 v 105 says, Your Word is a lamp to our feet and light for our path. Isn’t that interesting? It implies knowledge for the next step not the whole plan or journey. We need to utterly depend on God and walk with Him every step of the way.

Are you walking on the path of life? Led God lead and guide you.

Next week we welcome Roger Case and the team from Seaford Baptist Church to bring us some Christmas music.

At Thursday Fellowship this week, Sue Cunningham continued with the third in her series on the gospel writers.

John was a Jew and was one of the twelve chosen by Jesus. Sue looked at John who was called a ‘Son of Thunder’, a fiery, ambitious, ill-disciplined Galilean fisherman, and compared him with the John who became ‘the Beloved Disciple’ after walking with and learning from Jesus for three years. Jesus had seen beyond the negative side of John’s character and saw great potential.

Over those years, Jesus singled him out, with his brother James and Simon Peter, for special occasions, like the raising of Jairus’s daughter, the Mount of Transfiguration and the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus’ arrest.  When Jesus hung on the cross, He asked John to look after Mary, His mother, for Him.

John went on to be a powerful and fearless preacher in the face of persecution and eventually was exiled to the island of Patmos by the authorities.

As we like John walk closely with Jesus, He also transforms our lives, to become more and more like him!

‘We had another visit from Dr. Ruth Butlin from the Leprosy Mission. Poster quote: “Leprosy is curable but the disability and stigma it causes can severely impact mobility, affect marriage prospects, exclude children from school, and make it difficult to get a job.”

Starting with Paul’s encouragement of timid Timothy in 2 Tim 1:1-7, Ruth said that 6.4% of new cases in the world are children. Over half of new world cases are in India, many diagnosed too late to be cured. Ruth gave individual examples from India of young people whose lives have been transformed in vocational training centres, where they learn new practical work skills as well as life skills, as they live and learn together. They are nurtured to reach their full potential to work. This helps both them and their families. Dr Ruth encouraged us to pray, talk about leprosy and its effects, and to give.’

Pastoral Vacancy
Our pastoral vacancy information and church profile are now on the Baptist Union website. We have also contacted Spurgeons Bible College to explore the possibility of having a student pastor.  Linda Campbell will be joining our next leaders meeting on 30th November, via ZOOM, to talk through how the process could work, if we decide to pursue this as an option. Full information about this process is available via the link in Gareth’s recent email or speak to one of the leaders.  We are also investigating whether we might qualify for a BU Home Mission grant.  Updates on these matters will be brought to the members meeting on the 4th December.

Live Facebook Feed and recording of services
Due to confidentiality issues on the live feed, we have decided, to suspend the live Facebook streaming of our services for a few weeks. Instead, we will record them and then post the recording after the service onto Facebook and the website which will allow us to pause the recording during open prayer. Your comments would be most welcome during this trial period.

Informal church social
We will do another of these on the evening of Tuesday Jan 10th 2023, again at 90 Stanstead Crescent, 6pm to 7.30pm.

Gareth, Kathy, Rose, Margaret and Sue.

During the pandemic we were blessed by Wednesday Prayers at 7.45pm each Wednesday to encourage us and sustain us. These were very precious times and were appreciated by all who had been able to listen in.

As we have now returned to a new kind of normal and are able to enjoy meeting together once again, here is a reminder of the current prayer opportunities each month:

We meet in person on the first Wednesday with another opportunity on the third Wednesday live on our Facebook page at the new time of 7pm.

Reminders will be put on Facebook and of course we will keep you informed by adding the dates and any details needed to our Upcoming Events side bar on the website.

Please do join in with us. Prayer changes things!

We welcomed the return of Thursday Fellowship on 8th September for the autumn session with a visit from Phil Cook.

We will continue to meet in the  Parish Room of the Holy Cross Church, Woodingdean at 2pm each Thursday – please do join us – we can assure you of a warm welcome! 

Speakers lined up from September:

22nd September – Cynthia Tudor
29th September – Ann Dracott
6th October – Our songs, poems and readings
13th October – Sue Cunningham
20th October – Autumn Lunch with Ramekins! (Roger & Mike)
27th October – Books Alive – Gillian Clarke
3rd November – Dr Ruth Butlin (Leprosy Mission)
10th November – Sue Cunningham
17th November – Jane Leaver
24th November – Christmas with Roger, Rosemary & Tom
1st December – Sue Cunningham
8th December – Christmas Quiz with Lis Bell (Bring your Christmas Cards)
15th December – Carols, Candles & Cake

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

We welcomed back Gillian Clarke from Books Alive to our meeting this afternoon.

Gillian brought some testimony from her own life and some thoughts from 1 Corinthians 1 v 1-9 – a passage which is well worth meditating on!

We are called to be His disciples by His grace, yet we often don’t know what God’s purposes are for us or His plans.  God is at work even when we don’t see it! The fact that God calls us into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord (v9), should humble us and encourage us to love one another.

After refreshments, we had an opportunity to browse from the books, gifts and cards that Gillian had brought with her – an ideal time to stock up for Christmas!