john and wendy

are we now using this enough?

rich

last week and friday

Hi all, last week we went on the Armed forces Christian summer house party ( say that fast after having real communion wine!) any way it was a very refreshing week and the time with other and the teaching input was very good. We'll tell you more in the future.

we continue to be in the edge of not knowing what the next year will hold but we're sure we're close to something!! time to keep trusting in God.

On friday ( tomorrow) we've got a pamper lunch for the mums from the parenting course. some of the mums are still keen to do the self esteem sessions which is great as they are great ladies and have some much potential.

please pray for the pamper lunch that people enjoy, feel valued and relax an that it continue to witness to the God who loves.

(we're off for a week on our own next week thats to my mum's fiends generosity, please pray for a great time)

love and Prayers

R.

Why Our Team Name

Our team name As a team we’ve not really had a name to go by, we’ve just told people that we’re starting a new church on Harold Hill. To be honest we were keen to hold off giving ourselves a name for a while, however it has become clear for many different reasons we needed to give ourselves a name.

So after spending time thinking, praying and talking about what we’d want our name to communicate about us. We have come up with:

Church 123:Working title for a new church on Harold Hill

123 comes from Matthew 1v23

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

123 therefore hints at the bible verse, but also that we are starting something simple, easy, down to earth.

The virgin- Mary was an unexpected humble and potentiality despised woman and yet God did something amazing with her. Harold Hill is a humble and often despised, it would be an unexpected area for God to do something amazing with, but we believe that God has been and is doing something amazing on Harold Hill.

The virgin will be with child . God does the amazing, miraculous and wonderful and as a church we want to see God doing the amazing, miraculous and wonderful and bring new life among those on Harold Hill.

Working title:One of our most important values it that local people have influence over the church, it’s name and structure. We are not here to impose but to work with, we not importing a style of church which was conceived in a different culture, we are growing a church in this culture. Whilst we have felt the need to name ourselves we are very keen that people understand that the name can be changed, in fact we hope that new local believers will change it.

Church

The word church is a loaded word in English culture, but we went for it for these reasons:

We want to be a church and are not far off being one.

We want to be part of something which redeems the word

People on Harold Hill seem very suspicious of new and fancy things, the word church we felt would give some reassurance that we were not some thing to be suspicious or afraid of.

Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

The whole value of us living among people and the reality that Jesus mission style started by being among people is so important to us as a team, we believe that God is with those on Harold Hill, but we also want to demonstrate that by the way we are locally incarnated.

So it is not a usually name, but what we’ve found is that straight away it gets people talking and asking questions. On the last parenting course I told people what our name was and then spent 20mins in conversation about what it meant. It is a little strange but we hope that like all we do it will be a tool in sharing the good news and in speaking about what we are about.

team video

If you go to

http://vimeo.com/13733855

the password is church123

Steve did this for the Eastern Baptist ass. day. enjoy!!

Holidays and Parenting courses

HI all, I always think the summer is going to be a relaxing time!!! and then it gets really busy.

The last couple of weeks have been about cementing the new friendships and relationships with local people.

The Pub has been running a parent and kids group over the summer, which is great of them and means yet another good opportunity for us to hang out with people ad support the pub as they run it.

During the summer we will have the opportunity to go on Holiday. The first will be with the armed forces Christian union ( it was through them i become a follower of Jesus) it's a small family house party with excellent teaching and the best part is the kids have groups once in the morning and once in the afternoon while the adults have free time which will be very refreshing for Alison and I.

Some friends of my mum and dads are also letting us rent a cottage near exmoor at mates rates, we can't wait to be away just as a family.

please pray for these continuing opportunities for friendship, please pray that our hols are relaxing and that the kids sleep! and please pray the veggie patch and house are ok while were away.

Love and Prayers

R.