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.

Sorry it been so long

well what can i tell you:

we've given ourselves a working title 'church 123' i'll example more in our next prayer letter out in the next couple of weeks.

the summer is going to be an amazing opportunity to hang out with people we've met and got to know as well as a chance to have our batteries recharged.

please pray for the follow:

plans for next term, a good summer holiday, time with our new friends.

we what can i tell you that we've been up to.

On Saturday we hosted the graduation BBq for the latest parenting program, it was a really good day. The local MP came and all in all it was a great example of what we're about.

fun family and coming together to support each other. the Parents are asking loads about church so it's all very promising.

rich

Parenting course

I’ve been able to be involved in the parenting course this time round and have been helping with the crèche. It’s been great to get to know the kids of those on the course and has helped me begin to connect with the parents too. We’ve enjoyed a picnic in the park with some of the families and I often see them around in Harold Hill. I guess knowing that I know their kids, the fact that the kids will say hi all helps with building trust in new relationships. Here’s hoping this will continue to develop over the summer.

A

what you did for my dad that was.....

I did a friends funeral from Harold hill, i saw him in the pub the following week, he was very grateful for what i done and said

"What you did for my dad that was the bollocks!"

I love being in such a real part of the world.

r.

my sister's wedding this weekend

hi all, hope you're well, my little sister is getting married this weekend, i'm preaching which is a real privilege.

please pray, kids are being a nightmare at the mo when it comes to sleeping!! the joys of having three!