Prayer and Share

May 17, 2012

‘Prayer and Share’ in the Gun and Spitroast on Monday from 8pm is the church's opportunity to, er, pray and share latest news about PCC business. Come and let’s pray for the world, and for one another – as individuals and as a church family!

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Four ways to a better life

April 19, 2012

According to Richard Foster, our next Theologian of the Month (pictured below), it can be good to make a habit of doing certain things, to provide ‘a means of receiving God’s grace’. These practices ‘allow us to place ourselves before God so he can transform us’.

We’ll be looking at four of his spiritual disciplines over the four Sundays in May, as part of that month’s Teaching and Learing topic – ‘Four ways to a better life’. The disciplines are: prayer, study, submission and celebration.

More details can be found in our latest T&L booklet.

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The Guide to Being Church

April 19, 2012

This ‘Guide to Being Church’ is based on part of my recent annual parish meeting report.

The Church is a spiritual community

  • We don’t judge, we don’t dominate, we welcome – all because of the Holy Spirit in us
  • We are full of hope because we have, and are, a foretaste of heaven
  • Our present situation and future direction will always be something of a frustration and a puzzle to us because God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts
  • We thank God when he takes us beyond the way we would naturally do things

The Church is a servant community

  • Many times throughout the Bible, we read about God freeing people
  • He has freed us, so that we are free to serve him and our neighbours
  • Other words the Bible uses to describe God’s servants are: helpers, witnesses, ambassadors, co-workers. At various times, we ourselves are these
  • We thank God for the servant tasks we have

The Church is the body of Christ

  • Jesus is our head
  • We don’t belittle other members of that body, or rob the body of our contribution
  • We are rich because the members of Christ’s body here are so different, offering such variety and building one another up in so many ways
  • Our words and actions maintain harmony within the body, both in public and in private

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We’re changing the world, in the pub on Monday night

April 11, 2012

It’s the church’s  ‘Prayer and Share’ evening in the Gun and Spitroast, this Monday from 8pm. Come and let’s pray for the world, and for one another, as individuals and as a church family.

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The power of God

April 6, 2012

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18)

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Good Friday re-enactment

April 5, 2012

The crosses are up and ready for tomorrow’s Good Friday re-enactment on the Green. We start at 12 noon, just as the Farmer’s Market finishes. The crucifixion drama will be followed by a short Communion service. Don’t forget that our two Easter Day services in St Margaret’s Church are at 9 and 10.30am. You are [...]

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Annual Church Meeting: Wed 11th April, 8pm

March 29, 2012

Our annual meeting, called the APCM, will take place on Wed 11th April at 8pm in Horsmonden Methodist Church. For last year’s meeting, we met in the Social Club and prayed God’s blessing on it, and on all who serve and spend leisure time there. It was a significant prayer gathering for the strengthening of [...]

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Very special time of worship at Horsmonden

March 22, 2012

This Sunday’s worship begins at 10am in St Margaret’s Church. It’s a thanksgiving service, which will include those who ordinarily worship at 9am as well as those who would meet at 10.30. To make the change of start time even more, er, special, this Saturday is the evening we put our clocks forward one hour.

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Teaching and Learning in April

March 19, 2012

The next topic in our Teaching and Learning series is ‘The Resurrection – so what?’ During the month, we’ll attempt to answer that question in five different ways, one for each Sunday in April. Not just that, but with our Good Friday meditation and powerful re-enactment on the Green, there’ll be a lot of opportunities [...]

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Organic church

March 17, 2012

It’s now two years since Sir Ken Robinson, author, speaker and adviser to the government on education, reminded us in this excellent talk that the Industrial Age is finished. His very words were: Basically, given the choice, an increasing number of people will be unwilling to show up at your industry/institution’s equivalent of ‘the factory’, [...]

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