Harvest Celebration

This weekend we mark Harvest with our Uniformed Groups in an ‘All Together’ service. Don’t forget that Tea & Coffee will come before the service, starting at about 9:45am.

 Harvest is a great opportunity to express our thanks to God for so many things that we often take for granted. It’s also a time to extend generosity to others and remember our collective responsibility to care for this amazing world which God has given us. During the service, we’ll be taking a couple of collections:

 ·         Food for the Bromley Foodbank; and

·         A money collection for Link to Hope and their project the ‘Inn of Love’ – details of which we will profile during the service.

 We look forward to seeing you there to celebrate God’s goodness.

Feeling Connected?

There has been some recent global research amongst the 18-35 age group around how they navigate church, faith and life in general. They called these millennials the ‘connected generation’ in recognition of their incredible ability to utilise technology to connect with others. At the same time, it was noted that alarming numbers expressed feeling ‘relationally disconnected’.

 In old fashion terms – lonely.

 The need to feel supported, experience face to face contact with others, be part of a loving community isn’t just a millennial thing, it’s a human thing. We’ve always said that it’s hard to fully experience that on a Sunday morning, so we encourage people to join a home group. That’s simply a smaller group of people who meet at someone’s home during the week, to encourage each another, explore matters of faith and spur one another on to pursue our vision of ‘doing life with Jesus’. Philippa Tagg has oversight of these groups and has included a message inside about leadership of these groups. But more generally, have a chat with her if you would like to find out more.  

Discerning our Gifts

This is the next subject in our ‘Gifts’ series that Dan will be speaking about on Sunday.

 In the coming weeks, we’ll be suggesting a few different tools that are available to help us work out together what our respective gifts might be. We are also giving thought to a ‘personality test’ that we could do as a whole church – to help us get to know one another better, and understand how we each might exercise our gifts. So watch this space…

 Another aspect of this whole arena is the idea of ‘calling’. Exploring vocation often takes time and space, and so the Diocese offer regular Quiet Days to facilitate this. The next one is on 8 February, 10:00am-3:30pm. It offers a mixture of short talks, reflections, prayer and plenty of room for personal prayer and reflection on the ways in which God might be calling. If you are interested please let Jon know.

New Sermon Series: "Gifts"

Back in November, we met in the Assembly Rooms and discussed ways we might come to a clearer understanding of what our individual/joint strengths and gifts might be.

 Part of the fruit of those discussions is this new series, which we will be running up to Lent. It will start by drawing us right back to our purpose/vocation as humans, but will consider how we discern, exercise and grow our gifts, and reflect on the relationship between ‘spiritual’ and ‘natural’ gifts. Through the series we will also offer different tools to help people gain a clearer insight into their gifting.

 On 24 March, we’ll get back together in the Assembly Rooms with a view to re-invigorating some of our Teams, and thinking how we can give expression to our gifts for God’s kingdom. 

'Gospel Glasses'

I’m reliably informed that a leader should keep repeating an organisation’s vision ‘ad nauseum’ for it to stick. So, here’s a reminder of our church vision:

‘We aim to help anyone and everyone ‘do life’ with Jesus so that individuals, our local community and beyond can flourish.’

 Hopefully, that doesn’t induce feelings of nausea, but has an appeal all by itself. However, it sometimes helps when it’s made a little more specific. Last Sunday, we talked about how we are going to run after this vision in 2018 by referring to ‘Gospel Glasses’ – seeing people and situations with ‘Jesus eyes’.

So, this week, I want you to pray for God to lead you to someone who on the surface may look a long way from Him. Ask God to reveal the masterpiece in them that lies beneath the surface and engage them in conversation. Your only goal is to ask questions, listen and learn about them as people. Just one person you don’t know well, or at all.

See what God starts.

Young People and Families Enabler

YOUNG PEOPLE AND FAMILIES ENABLER

This week we completed the Job Description and Application Form for the post for which we are looking to recruit.

From the beginning of February, the Job Advert will be going on-line with New Wine and Church Drum, and into the newspapers of Southwark, Rochester and London Dioceses. Obviously, we’ll also place it up on our own Website and Facebook page. When that happens, we’ll ask as many of you as possible to share it through your contacts, so that it is circulated as widely as possible.

Far more importantly, please can you all commit to praying in earnest about this position – individually, and in the church groups to which you belong.

This is a significant step for us as a church, and we want to continue to underpin this whole venture with prayer. Thank you.

New Alpha Course Starting Soon

Alpha UK has recently revamped their materials and we’ll be running the new look course at SJ’s from Thursday 25 January, 7:45pm, including food and drinks.

Alpha is a natural follow-on from our Inquisitive evenings – equally relaxed, but looking in more depth at the claims of Christianity. Alpha have produced a series of high quality films, which tee up discussion around a subject for each evening. You can get a taste by following the link on our website.

If you’re wondering about Jesus, intrigued why people believe, or simply feel you want to cement your understanding of the basics of the Christian faith then Alpha could be for you. Feel free to come along and dip your toe, and if it’s not for you, don’t worry there’s no binding contracts!

If you are interested follow the link on the website, or notify Margaret directly at the Parish Office (see email address inside).