17 Dalling Drive Houghton Regis LU5 5EF Tel 01582 529788
Feb 23rd 2014
Dear Friends, Welcome back to the HRBC newsletter. Apologies that this March edition is the first of the year! It was a privilege for our church to be asked to host a Service of Thanksgiving for Jack Goodchild back in January. Jack served our community in Houghton Regis over many years. There were moving tributes throughout the service. He was both Mayor of the Town Council, a County Councillor and a leader of the Liberal Democrat party locally. But much of his service was behind the scenes, quietly getting alongside all sorts of people. A weight lifting coach and passionate sportsman, he often worked among the young at the leisure centre. The church was filled to capacity with people from every part of the community. Peter Williams, the present mayor of Houghton Regis and David Jones, his predecessor, were among those who spoke. Thank you to everyone who helped. Please continue to remember Sue Goodchild in your prayers. January also saw us hosting a meeting with the local planning authority to discuss a proposal from local churches for a new Church / Community Centre to be included in the new development. (HRN1) Planning approval has just been received from Central Government for the development to proceed. The local authority have now asked us to a high level meeting with developers to discuss our proposals, sometime in March. More immediately, a big thank you also to Penny and Hannah Lawrence who this Monday were Stars on Three Counties Radio. They were there to promote the Singing Cafe and presenter Nick Coffer gave it a really good airing. This is one of a number of ways they have been working to create awareness about this new project which we launched in the autumn. Looking ahead there are a number of key events to plan to be involved in. On March 16th, we will be welcoming Alastair Clunie from BMS World Mission. In the autumn Andrew North, who works across Africa for BMS came and shared with us about some of the different sorts of ministries and personnel we could become involved in supporting more directly. We’re hoping on March 16th to get some direction from the whole congregation as to where you would be interested to build some links. So we’d love as many people as can to come so we can hear from you and we invite everyone to stay for a church lunch afterwards. If you’d like to be involved in pulling the lunch together please let me know.
On March 23rd we’re planning a ‘Vision Evening’ from 6pm. We’d love as many people as can to come together to pray and discuss about the future direction of our church, especially in relation to the establishing of a new church. We’re advised to listen to people who have experience of church planting and to ’collect their stories’. So on April 6th we’re delighted to have Rev Jack Walker coming to share his experiences with us. Jack has recently moved to the Northampton area. He has a lot of experience planting churches in urban areas. He’s a great speaker with some amazing stories to share! The Christian season of Lent will get underway on March 5th. In our Sunday evening services we’ll be following themes drawn from the much loved Easter hymn ‘My song is love unknown’. In the lead up to Easter, on Sunday mornings, we will have a couple of special opportunities to invite friends and their children into church. March 30th is Mothering Sunday and we will be running a Holiday Club for children in years 1-5 at school, called Mega Makers, in the week leading up to Easter April 14th, 15th, 16th. Our primary way of drawing youngsters in will be through personal invitation from members of the congregation. So we’d love everyone to get prayerfully involved in these initiatives now. May God bless you, as we seek to serve Him together.
Contact information: David Skinner
David
email: david.skinner4@ntlworld.com phone: 01582 529788
Or, for the Community Link project: Penny Geraghty: email:
penny.clp@outlook.com
for the latest on what’s happening at church: check the church blog: http://houghtonregisbaptistchurch.blogspot.co.uk/ or find us on facebook: Houghton Regis Baptist Church If you want anything included on either platform please contact Keith Wallis
Church Diary March - May March: 2nd
Services at 11.00am (All age Communion) & 6.00pm 1.00pm Ladies meal out. rd 3 10.00am Fun Space 4th 1.30pm Singing Café Pastoral team mtg 6th 9.30am Parents & Tots 3.00pm Afternoon devotional 8.00pm Holiday Club planning mtg 9th Service 11.00am only pm Growing Leaders Course. th 10 10.00am Fun Space 8.00pm Leaders mtg 11th 1.30pm Singing Café 13th 9.30am Parents & Tots 8.00pm House groups th 16 Service 11.00am only Alastair Clunie (BMS) Church lunch after service. 17th 10.00am Fun Space th 18 1.30pm Singing Café 20th 9.30am Parents & Tots 8.00pm Church mtg rd 23 Services 11.00am & 6.00pm (Communion) 24th 10.00am Fun Space 25th 1.30pm Singing Café 27th 9.30am Parents & Tots 8.00pm House groups 28th-30th ‘Missionall Conference’ 29th Church ‘Fabric’ day th 30 Services 11.00am (All-age with Mothering Sunday focus) & 6.00pm 31st 10.00am Fun Space 8.00pm Leaders mtg
April: 1st 3rd 6th 13th 14th 15th 16th
1.30pm Singing Café 9.30am Parents & Tots 8.00pm CLP mtg Services 11.00am (Communion) & 4.30pm Afternoon service Service 11.00am only pm Growing Leaders Course. Holiday club Holiday club Holiday club
17th 18th 20th
8.00pm Maundy Thursday Communion 10.30am Good Friday service Easter Sunday services 11.00am & 6.00pm (Communion)
27th 28th
10.00am Fun Space 1.30pm Singing Café
8.00pm Leaders mtg
May: 1st 4th 5th 6th 8th 11th 12th 13th 15th 18th 19th 20th 22nd 25th
9.30am Parents & Tots 3.00pm Afternoon devotional 8.00pm House groups Services 11.00am & 6.00pm (Communion) 10.00am Fun Space 1.30pm Singing Café Pastoral team mtg 9.30am Parents & Tots 8.00pm House groups Service 11.00am only pm Growing Leaders Course. 10.00am Fun Space 1.30pm Singing Café 9.30am Parents & Tots 8.00pm Church mtg Services 11.00am Communion & 6.00pm 10.00am Fun Space 8.00pm Leaders mtg 1.30pm Singing Café 9.30am Parents & Tots 8.00pm House groups Services 11.00am & 4.30pm
Church ‘fabric day’. 29th March (subject to final confirmation nearer the date) Please add the date 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
March Sunday Mornings at HRBC 11am Sunday March 2nd Communion ‘Poetic Faith’ Daniel 11am Sunday March 9th ‘Eccentric Faith’ Daniel th 11am Sunday March 16 Alastair Clunie Church Relations Manager at BMS World Mission 11am Sunday March 23rd 11am Sunday March 30th
‘Panoramic Faith’ Daniel ‘Mothering Sunday’
March Sunday Evenings at HRBC 6pm Sunday March 2nd
Love Unknown 1 Luke 24:25-27
6pm Sunday March 9th 6pm Sunday March 16
th
no evening service no evening service
6pm Sunday March 23rd Vision evening (Communion) 6pm Sunday March 30th
Love Unknown 2 Luke 4:23-29
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April Sunday Mornings at HRBC 11am Sunday April 6th
‘Stories of Church Planting’
Rev Jack Walker
th
11am Sunday April 13 ‘Louder and Louder’ (All-age Holiday Club introduction) 11am Sunday April 20th Easter Sunday ‘More and More’
April Sunday Evenings at HRBC 4:30pm Sunday April 6th Love Unknown 3
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
6pm Sunday April 13th no evening service 6pm Sunday April 20th Easter Sunday Love Unknown 6 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 6pm Sunday April 27th Love Unknown 7 2 Corinthians 3:17 - 4:6
CLP News
Penny & Hannah were on Three Counties Radio in February, being interviewed about the Singing Café. We have yet to see what interest this might stir up. There is room for many more folk to enjoy the Singing Café though. Please encourage anyone who might benefit to come along – they are guaranteed a great time (and some great cake too). A ‘Mother’s Day’ special is being planned for the Parents and Toddlers group on Thursday 27th March with craft activities designed to suit Mother’s Day, which is the following Sunday. There is still space in the group for additional people so again if you know of parents who might enjoy joining encourage them to drop in for a look.
Service with ‘Mother’s Day’ theme on 30th March.
for more details see David The Programme Friday 8pm-9.30pm: Opening celebration Saturday 9.30am–5.30pm Two keynote addresses from Paul Maconochie Two seminar sessions to apply our Sunday 10.30am-12.30pm A Joint morning service sharing stories from the weekend. Paul Maconochie is our main speaker for MissionALL. Paul is one of the UK leaders of 3DM based in Network Church, Sheffield.
other special things coming up
11.00am March 16th Alastair Clunie (Church relations Manager at BMS World Mission) will be sharing with us to investigate mission links. Followed by a shared lunch.
11.00am April 6th Rev Jack Walker will be sharing his experiences of church planting during the morning service.
Sunday March 23rd 6:00pm ‘Vision evening’ continuing our exploration and prayer for possibilities regarding Thorn.
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If you are able to help at the holiday club please see Anne-Louise Kyte for more details. If you have anything suitable for ‘junk modelling’ it could be useful to us – again have a word with Anne-Louise. Most important though is to speak to any parent with children of the right age and encourage them to book a place.