Regular Meetings @ SPBC What’s on in 2008? The calendar of church events through the year is available Sunday on the church website. If you need to know what’s 10.30am happening when . and much more . visit Morning Service. Creche and Sunday School groups also meet. www.stpetersbaptist.org.uk 6.30pm Christmas Services Evening Service. Sunday 21st December: Christmas All Age Service Monday at 10.30am 6.30pm MX (Yr 3 - 6) Youth Club. Sunday 21st December: Traditional Carol Services Contact: Steve Thomson (358848) at 4.30pm and 6.30pm Tuesday 10.00 – 11.30am Christmas Eve: Midnight service at 11.15pm Refresh Bible Study Group Christmas Day: Worship at 10.00am 2.00pm – 4.00pm Tuesday@Two 7.00pm Contacts: Xplode (Yr 7) Youth Club. Contact: Steve Thomson (358848) Minister Wednesday Martin Hodson 10.00 - 12.00 8 Tay Avenue, St Peter’s, Worcester WR5 3UB Tick Tock Parent & Toddlers Group Tel: 358869 E-mail: [email protected] 7.30pm House Groups Assistant Minister Youth House Group Steve Thomson Contact: Ruth Brown & Tim Judson (354392) 32 Rosemoor Gardens, St Peter’s Worcester WR5 3QS Tel: 358848 E-mail: [email protected] Thursday 6.15pm Xclusive (Yr 3 - 10) Youth Club for Magazine deadlines: children with learning disabilities. January magazine is: Wednesday 10th December 2008 Contact: Simon Grew (356298) February magazine is: Wednesday 14th January 2009 7.30-9.00pm Please send articles to: [email protected] XL/XS (Yr 8/9-10) Youth Club. Alternate Weeks. This gives us 2 weeks for editing, designing and printing Contact: Steve Thomson (358848) More information about the church and audio downloads Friday of recent sermons, visit the church website: Xpress - Art Class (Yr 3 - 4) www.stpetersbaptist.org.uk Contact: Steve Thomson (358848) A .pdf version of ‘Transmission’ is available for download on the website. Sundays Xtreme (Yr 11 +) Contact: Steve Thomson (358848) St Peter’s Baptist Church, Eden Close, St Peter’s, Worcester Tel: 767090 From Martin World Mission Briefing… I have started preparing for Christmas using On Christmas Day there will be a short Seeking out new worlds and civilisations? a book of daily readings called ‘Joy To The service (lasting about 40 minutes) where Boldly going where no-one has gone before? World’ by David Coffey. You will probably we can come together to share our joy at remember that David is the President of the the birth of Jesus. This will be at 10.00am If you are considering taking Baptist World Alliance and he came to speak (not our usual Sunday time of 10.30). part in short term mission next at the opening of our church centre last year. year then we can help! The World His book is a series of daily Bible readings I would like us share the invitation to our Mission Task Group wishes to with astute comments, prayers and Christmas services as widely as possible. support your plans and preparations reflections. This week we have been reading Jonathan Stroulger has once again designed and assist in any way we can about God’s promise to Abraham, that all some terrific invitations. There will be plenty throughout the process. We can nations will be blessed through his of these available at the church centre for coordinate prayer for you and help descendants – a promise that is ultimately you to give to friends and family. I would to give you opportunities to share fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. God has like as many of us as possible to get involved your experiences on your return. been speaking to me about his intention that in distributing them to all the homes in St Peter’s also has a fund available everyone who discovers his blessing in Jesus St Peter’s and we will also be trying to ensure to help anyone actively involved with Christ should be a blessing to others. I’ve that everyone who visits the church centre the church who is participating in been finding it a great way of approaching receives one. short term mission with a recognised life, asking two simple questions each day: Christian agency overseas or in how have I been blessed? and, who am I Incidentally, on the subject of Christmas the UK. blessing? presents, I guess many of us will be continuing the practice we have begun in Please contact Pete or Safe and Sound This month we will be very conscious of the recent years of buying gifts such as goats, Deborah Crookall CHANGE OF ADDRESS The new address for Anna, Alistair approach of Christmas as we make our plans chickens and school books through charities for further details… Within Your feathers and Matthew Jolly is: and preparations. Each Sunday morning will that work in the developing world. (If you [email protected] I am safely encased be lighting the Advent Candles during are not familiar with this, the goats/chickens 01905 756988 But I can also fly worship and letting their light remind us that etc don’t actually get sent to your aunt in Like a shuttlecock 13 Priory Orchard, all our celebrations are in honour of Jesus, Walsall but they are given on her behalf to Like a guided missile Wantage, the Light of the World. This year different people in real need in poor countries.) Targeted for good Oxfordshire families from the fellowship will be lighting Anyway, this year TEAR Fund has begun a OX12 9EL the candles and leading us in this prayer of new version of this scheme with a nice twist © Helen Dean 2008 blessing: to it. You buy gift vouchers and these are Tel. 01235 760490 May the Wonderful Counsellor guide you, sent to your Aunt in Walsall who can then the Mighty God protect you, go on line and decide how they should be the Everlasting Father be with you, spent. For example, if you receive a red (£8) and the Prince of Peace overshadow you, voucher you can decide whether to spend it now and evermore. on a sack of grain, 50 units of sandpaper or 140 children’s lunches. You can find out Our Christmas celebrations will include the more about this at www.livinggifts.org.uk usual all age Christmas service on Sunday 21st December, including a short play by So as Christmas approaches, may you All Stars and a song by some of the children discover afresh the blessing of God’s love for from MX. That afternoon we will have our you in Jesus Christ. And may you be a traditional carol service at 4.30pm. Last year blessing to others as God’s promise to bless there were about 100 people in the overflow all peoples is worked out through your life. downstairs for this service, so this year we are repeating the service at 6.30pm. this way we hope everyone will be able to get a seat in the main hall at one of the services. 2 7 Are you planning to read the Bible in 2009? Are you thinking of reading all of it? Here are some tips. Follow a plan. Starting at the beginning and just carrying on is not the easiest way. Most plans provide a mixture, either daily or over a week, of passages from the Old and New Testaments, with regular visits to the Psalms or Proverbs. Some plans have the Psalms and New Testament read twice. Other plans are themed - for example for each day of the week: Epistles; Law; History; Psalms; Poetry; Prophesy; Gospel. You could read the Bible chronologically [as it happened] or historically [as it was written]. Some plans, such as biographical or “highlights” only, are two or three month plans and do not cover the whole Bible. Develop a habit. One suggested rule is to read the Bible as early in the day as possible - “No Bible, no breakfast. No read, no feed” [Ray Comfort]. Choose a time and place to suit you. Set aside a regular time when you are able to concentrate. Have a way to remind you: calendar; email; RSS feed; Outlook tasks; spreadsheet; etc. Some schemes have readings for six days a week, which is useful if you occasionally miss a day. Make it interesting. You might want to try reading a different translation, listen to a podcast rather than read, find a partner for discussion or for mutual support. Read with a purpose, but always be open to something new. and helped us focus again. By the end of that day we had grown a lot closer together an come to appreciate so much of what we take for granted. We are so ignorant sometimes. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. If you are new to reading your Bible, don’t set your goals too high. You can read the New Testament in a year at one chapter, or less each The hardest thing we felt about Slum Survivor was remembering why we were putting myself day. That might be a better target than the whole Bible. Or choose a “highlights” plan ourselves out of our comfort zone. There were several times when we felt like giving up and and programme it to suit your pace. going home, like when the slum was destroyed, or when the lentils and rice made us feel sick, or when we lost our tempers with other people. These times really challenged each of us But first ... The Bible is God’s Word – to you. Each day, pray that you might learn from it. and we feel God really helped us persevere and remember the one billion people we were You should not read the Bible simply as a challenge - read with care, read with prayer.