“….I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.“

Acts 26 v 20 (NIV)

Consider: If we know the Lord Jesus, then we have a story to tell others of what God has done in our lives. Our stories can be powerful but remember that it is God who brings people from darkness into light. 

Challenge: We don’t need to be able to preach like Paul. Think about what God has done for you and pray for opportunities to share with others.

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

Sermons

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.  We are also investigating whether we might qualify for a BU Home Mission grant.  

Live Facebook Feed and recording of services
Although we are no longer live-streaming our Sunday services, the sermons will still be available on the Sermons tab of this website.

Contact Details

We are in the process of updating the DBC members and regulars contact details.  If you have not recently completed a contact form, could you please ask Judith for a copy.  This will allow us to communicate more effectively with all of our DBC friends.

Leadership vacancy

Kathy has now stepped down from her role as deacon, having served for 6 years.  We shall be looking to appoint someone new on the leadership team so please prayerfully consider whether you could serve in this capacity, and feel free to speak to one of the current leaders if you would like to know more about the duties and responsibilities of being a deacon.

Gareth, Rose, Margaret and Sue.

Invitations are available to pass on to family and friends!

Thursday 23 March – 6.00 – 7.30pm
Church Social/Prayer event in the original meeting place of DBC, the room at the back of the Green Hut Barbers. Entry via the driveway between the Beauty Shop and the flats at the top of Falmer Road.

Saturday 25 March – 3.00pm into the Evening
Celebration social at Woodingdean Primary School with food around approx. 6.00pm and maybe a quiz in the evening. All who have any association with DBC are invited to drop in and join us for however long you are able.

Sunday 26 March – 10.30am
Morning Service of Celebration at Woodingdean Primary School followed by light refreshments.

BMS (Baptist Missionary Society) works among some of the most marginalised and least evangelised people, in some of the most fragile places on earth. 

As a church we support their work and have signed up to their Birthday Scheme which is administered by Maria, one of our members. To find out more, head to https://downsbaptistchurch.org/community/mission-works/

BMS World Mission Birthday Scheme has been revamped and exciting changes made in order to achieve its full potential, as follows:-

• Birthday Scheme Secretaries have been renamed Birthday Scheme Co-ordinators.  This means someone who organises the BS in the local church, such as an administrator.
• Resources have been refreshed. These include the gift envelopes and the news bulletins.
• BS gifts will continue to support BMS medical work. We were giving to Guinebor 2 hospital in Chad, North Africa, on the edge of the desert, to support them with medicines, operations, surgeons, nurses etc., etc.  Now, however, our gifts will be used for other urgent BMS work, such as evangelism and church planting, education, justice ministries and relief work.
• Birthday Scheme members will receive a free copy of ‘Engage’, the BMS magazine, 3 times a year, to see their birthday gifts at work. Members can, of course, opt out of any mailing and their details will also be fully data protection compliant.

Appeal for more BMS Birthday Scheme Members:-  

We would love to see some more members in the DBC Birthday Scheme. Why not join us and bless others with a gift on your birthday! It will bring encouragement and hope to so many as well as blessing you!

Thursday Fellowship will return on 2nd March for the spring session.

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 March:

2nd March – Sue Cunningham
9th March – Wynn Funnell
16th March – Sue Cunningham
23rd March – Ann Dracott
30th March – Phil Cook
6th April – Maundy Thursday 
13th April – Keith & Laurel Barnes
20th April – Spring Lunch with Linn Davies
27th April – Sue Cunningham

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

Three of our local churches are opening up their premises during the winter to provide a welcoming, warm place for people to go:

Churches Warm Spaces

Holy Cross Church – Fridays 9.30-12

Methodist Church – Thursdays 10-1

St Patrick’s Church –  Mondays 10-1

Everyone is welcome to go along to a warm and special space – for hot drinks, soup and friendship. Why not give it a try!

Sue continued her series on the writers of the four Gospels and this week we finished with Matthew. Sue left Matthew till last because there is so little about him in the Bible!  It doesn’t really matter as all we really need to know is that he was chosen by Jesus.

What we do know is that he was Jewish, sometimes called Levi, son of Alphaeus and was an educated man and a tax-collector. When he was called, he rose up and followed Jesus and left everything except one thing – his pen! He used his pen and deep knowledge of the Old Testament to write down the sayings and teachings of Jesus in Aramaic and they were translated into Greek by others. The book of Matthew is very much a Gospel for the Jews relating the Old Testament prophecies about their long-awaited Messiah to their fulfilment in Jesus.

Matthew would have been despised because of his profession as most were dishonest but he left his comfortable life for a life on the road following an itinerant and unknown teacher. Jesus accepted him just as he was and because He befriended sinners and visited them in their homes, many came to follow Him when they heard His teaching and saw how He spoke and lived His life.  We thought about Zacchaeus another tax collector whose life was radically transformed after meeting Jesus and who may have known Matthew!

Sue challenged us to think about our attitudes towards people who have a bad reputation or whose lifestyle or preferences we don’t like or agree with! Do we really believe that God can transform lives?

We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – Romans 3 v 23 yet when we meet Jesus and accept His call we are saved and changed by His undeserving grace because of God’s unfailing love for us.

We sang the lovely old hymn – “Just as I am” written by Charlotte Elliott to finish, but Sue concluded her talk with highlighting a particular verse:

Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,

Because Thy promise, I believe, Oh Lamb of God, I come.

Margaret leads our time of Prayer Together this month.

Faith led our time together and her focus was Romans 8 with the thought that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

It was a joy to welcome Wynn Funnell back to our meeting.  Wynn has been coming to share fellowship with us since 1999! 

Wynn started her talk by singing unaccompanied the lovely song which is actually a carol, ‘Born in the night, Mary’s child’ by Geoffrey Ainger.  In fact this beautiful song widens in its theme to include not only the birth of Jesus but His life, death, resurrection, ascension and His coming again. Nobody was expecting the way God chose to show himself to the world or how His life would pan out. Even those men whom God chose to be His closest friends were baffled as they saw events unfold over the three years they spent with Him.

Wynn shared testimony of her experiences, some of which were very challenging but she said, “take opportunities to engage with people.  Show the love of Jesus, smile and be kind.” The Lord will give us the words to say.

Sue led our first session of the spring programme on Thursday, 2nd March. What a beautiful day it was too! We had a super turnout and it was wonderful to be back together again after the long winter.

Our Motto for 2023 is from Romans 12 v 12 : Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (NIV)

It is a verse worth learning, if you don’t know it already! The Committee’s prayer is that as we take it to heart and put it into practice in our lives, we might be able to serve the Lord, each other, and those around us better.

Sue took an example of someone who lived out this verse, the Antarctic explorer Edward (Ted) Wilson, who died in 1912 with Captain Scott.  Ted was a medical doctor, scientist and artist, and also a committed Christian, who followed the example of Jesus in his everyday life.

Be joyful in hope

Ted was a man who experienced great dangers and many difficulties, but he could say that he was content and confident, right to the end of his life because of his hope in God.

Patient in affliction

In the midst of those dangers and afflictions, Ted was peaceful, constantly giving himself to the welfare of others rather than his own.

Faithful in prayer

Every day, whether on the ship, or on the ice and despite his circumstances, Ted spend time with His Lord in prayer and Bible reading. Even in his final days, starving in a tent in the midst of a blizzard, Ted wrote to his wife assuring her that he was praying for her.

A medical student friend of his said of him, “His religion was a divine life, not a divine science.” Another friend wrote to his wife, saying, “I never thought the Christian life possible as an ideal, till I saw it in your husband!”

May we be challenged by our motto this year and whatever comes our way, let’s follow Ted’s example and be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.

Jane leads us as we pray the Beatitudes from Matthew 5.

For some reason Facebook does not want to load the video so please click on the watch on Facebook link to view.  Even if you do not use Facebook you should still be able to view the video.

Do let us know if you experience problems.

Thursday Fellowship takes a break from its weekly meetings over the winter but there was an opportunity to meet at a Coffee Morning on Thursday, 2nd February at Faith’s.

16 members had a wonderful time of fellowship with lots of cake of course!

We really missed Kath who is in New Zealand at present and had been caught up in the terrible floods.  We were concerned to hear of the difficult and traumatic start to her long-awaited trip and spent some of our time lifting our dear sister to our Heavenly Father.

Kath – we miss you – we love you!  Peace to you and swift healing we pray.

We are so looking forward to our spring session commencing on Thursday 2nd March – Sue Cunningham will be our speaker.

We would love you to join us – for more information please head to Thursday Fellowship returns in March!