17 Dalling Drive Houghton Regis LU5 5EF Tel 01582 529788
March 14th 2013
Dear Friends, Easter is rapidly approaching. And you may see that some major supermarkets are selling faith based Easter eggs for the first time. Made from fairly traded chocolate they include references to the Easter story. I’d encourage you to support this initiative and I guess we should be pleased that for once the meaning of Easter is being put centre stage in the confectionary world. So I wonder what Lent has meant for you this year as we prepare to celebrate Easter. I’m conscious that a number of us are very stretched, whether by study or work, family demands or other pressures. You may have had little time for yourself this Lent and generally we have been fewer on the ground on Sundays. So I want to encourage you with these words about worship taken from The Message translation of the bible.
‘So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.’ (Romans 12:1) ‘This is your worship’ says another translation. It’s easy for us to be so focussed on getting to church for an hour on a Sunday, that we forget the 24/7 worship offering of our ordinary lives to God, and fail to recognise God’s call to be Christian in our workplace, college, home and family. Our ordinary day to day life is important for God, its part of our witness to Christ and our honouring of him. But our worship is nonetheless intended to be sacrificial and shared together. Easter is a celebration of the central events of our faith. Without them Paul writes we have no faith at all. So in the busyness you may be experiencing I want to encourage you to put Jesus at the centre this Easter and to set aside time to join the congregation in worship and celebration across the Easter period. From our informal communion service on Maundy Thursday evening .... to our sharing together on Good Friday morning ... to our Easter Sunday celebrations... let’s take time to meet to worship together and encourage one another. As the writer to the Hebrews says,
‘So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.’ (Hebrews 10: 22-25)
There are a number of other things I would like to highlight. Sunday Groups: We are also developing our ministry amongst teenagers on a Sunday morning and would like your help as parents. The age range of our teens group has grown too wide so we would like to launch a second younger teens group. To achieve this we need to have stronger numbers present with us week by week. So we would love you to talk to us about whether it is possible for you to find ways of coming with your children more regularly or even enabling others to bring them. We intend to invest in our Sunday groups for children and young people over the coming months as a key area of our church life and would value your support as we take this step. Thanks to Mary and Penny: When Kevin Price left our church to train to become a Baptist minister three years ago Mary Syrie and Penny Geraghty jointly picked up the role of treasurer in church. Their contribution has been substantial but one which is largely out of view of most of us. We are immensely grateful for the great service they have brought to the church. They have asked to step down from their responsibilities and we are in the process of handing on their tasks to others. We are putting together a rota of people to help count the offering each Sunday after the service. If you would be willing to spend 20 minutes working with someone else to do this once a month please could you speak to Jane Bentley or myself. Civic service: You will see elsewhere a personal thank you from the mayor. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped with the civic service which was widely appreciated by those who came. Whether you came in on the afternoon itself or helped on the cleaning days that put the church in good order for the service thank you to you all. Church Meetings: Finally, we continue to seek God’s vision for the way we should develop as a church. Following our sermon series ‘What kind of church’ we will have a members meetings on two Thursdays March 16th & April 18th and would encourage members to attend if they can. At the April meeting it is important that a large percentage of the membership gather so we can hold our election of elders. May you know great joy and peace this Easter! Every blessing
Civic Service 2013 As you will see, in the accompanying letter, our hosting of the Civic Service was appreciated by the mayor and visitors. This was the first time our church had been chosen as venue and everyone worked hard to make it a success. The church leadership team wish to thank all who helped either on the day or on the previous ‘clean up’ days.
HOUGHTON REGIS TOWN COUNCIL Peel Street, Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, LU5 5EY Telephone: 01582 708540 Fax: 01582 861102 Email: info@houghtonregis.org.uk Website: www.houghtonregis.org.uk
4th March 2013 To the Members of Houghton Regis Baptist Church Dear All Re: Civic Service I am writing to thank you all for your support at the Civic Service. The Baptist Church has been most accommodating with everything from arranging the service, to making and serving refreshments, and I would like to thank you for your kind hospitality at this Civic event. The Civic Service was very successful and my guests commented about how much they had enjoyed the service and the refreshments that followed. Thank you too for making my guests so welcome. The event was very much a service for the whole community and guests included one of the Deputy Lieutenants for Bedfordshire, the Speaker from Bedford Borough Council and the Town Mayors from Dunstable, Luton, Leighton-Linslade, Harpenden, Ampthill, Kempston and Sandy. I was also delighted to have welcomed representatives from the Army Cadets, local charities, churches, community groups and clubs, and the Ex Services organisations to Houghton Regis as they play a large part in our local community. I would like to thank you once more for all your support at this Civic event, which has made it a very special occasion. Yours faithfully Councillor David Jones Town Mayor
Church diary March 24th Sunday Service 11am Palm Sunday Afternoon service 4:30pm ‘cry Hosanna’ 25th Monday
Funspace
8pm Meeting with HMF visitors
th
28 Thursday Maundy Thursday: 8pm (communion) 29th Friday Good Friday: 10:30am Service 31st Sunday Easter day. Services at 11am & 6pm Church diary April 7th Sunday Service 11am ‘and He appeared to me’ 6pm (communion) 14th Sunday Service 11am Melvyn Fenton speaking 6pm Joint service with Stanton @HRBC Richard Starling speaking 15th Monday 16th Tuesday 18th Thursday 21st Sunday
Funspace 8pm Finance Mtg Pastoral Team Parents & Toddlers 8pm Church Mtg Service 11am (communion) 6pm
22nd Monday 23rd Tuesday 25th Thursday 28th Sunday
Funspace 8pm Leaders Mtg Afternoon devotional 2.30-4.00pm Parents & Toddlers 8pm Housegroup Service: 11am Ruth Bennett (LCET) speaking 6pm
Church diary May 2nd Thursday Parents & Toddlers 8pm Sunday Leaders 5th Sunday Service 11am 6pm (communion) 6th Monday 9th Thursday 12th Sunday
Funspace Parents & Toddlers Service 11am 6pm
13th Monday 14th Tuesday 16th Thursday 18th May 19th Sunday
Funspace 8pm Finance Mtg Pastoral Team Parents & Toddlers 8pm Church Mtg (church in use by Pastor Sammy) Service 11am (communion) Afternoon service 4:30pm
20th Monday 25th Thursday
Funspace Parents & Toddlers
8pm Leaders Mtg 8pm Housegroup
8pm Leaders Mtg 8pm Housegroup
Holy week services at Houghton Regis Baptist Church: Thursday 28th March
Maundy Thursday: 8pm (communion) a reflective service in the church lounge led by Keith Wallis Friday 29th March
Good Friday: 10:30am Service led by David Skinner Sunday 31st March
Easter day. Celebration Services at 11am & 6pm led by David Skinner ________________________
Two opportunities particularly with our older folk in mind:
T s and ots t n re Pa
C EasSttory triaft er c me a k es
Thursday 28th March
9.30-11.00am or 1.30-3.00pm Houghton Regis Baptist Church
invite a friend We continue to communicate by e-mail, face book and through our blog spot. Where Keith kindly maintains a full diary of church events so you can check ‘what’s happening and when’. So do keep in touch at:
http://houghtonregisbaptistchurch.blogspot.co.uk/ or find us on facebook for the latest on what’s happening.
NB. We are still looking for an editor for the newsletter, who can work with David to gather and prepare items for publication. Keith Wallis will continue to prepare the layout of the magazine. If you’re interested please speak to David.
Church ‘work days’. Dates we have assigned year: 20th July 28th September 23rd November (all subject to final confirmation nearer the dates) Please add the dates to your diary so that you can spare some time to help with some of the maintenance tasks, around the Church.
Thanks for your support
Paul Contact Number David can be contacted on 01582 529788 at anytime of day apart from Saturday. Otherwise contact one of the leadership team (Eric Gurney, Jane Bentley) or for Community Link project Penny Geraghty.
And still they stand And still they stand upon the hill upward gazing wondering still or worse than that they mock His pain who stand and share our landscape. We, too, wretched stand and wonder, when the mocking voices thunder, when our eyes though filled with tears still stand and share our landscape. So Easter’s long and ancient days assault the world in wounded ways and fills them with relentless fears who stand and share our landscape.
Then resurrection brings its light exposing endless days of night as marauding thieves who run away and do not share our landscape.
Keith Wallis