Pastoral News: 12 April 09

If you want to know who’s who in Britain you only have to look in “Who’s Who?” the definitive directory of everyone who is anyone. I suspect that very few of us will make it onto the pages of “Who’s Who”.

In our modern society many people still ask the question “who is Jesus?” Jesus himself asked His disciples “who do people say I am?” and then much more personally, “who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:27,29).

For the next few weeks at our Sunday Morning Worship Service we will attempt to answer that question by looking in John’s Gospel to find the seven things Jesus said of Himself – “I am the bread of life” “I am the light of the world” “I am the way the truth and the life” ............

Seven different speakers, seven different “I am’s”, seven different opportunities to worship the Lord together and to lift high the name of Jesus. Trevor Ransome

New Rotas

The new rotas for the summer period June to September are due shortly. If you have dates when you will not be available please let Catherine in the office know.

Extra Help Required

If you would be interested or willing to be included in helping on a Sunday morning with either setting the rooms up for worship, stewarding, crèche or refreshments please see Catherine for what is involved.

In particular we require a third person to help each week with refreshments. This is because we are no longer using the plastic cups as environmentally, they were very unfriendly. The ‘Green’ cups we are currently using are recyclable but expensive. Therefore, we are considering using mugs that will require washing up. To achieve this we are inviting you to donate a mug to the kitchen. Thank you.

Alpha Restarting

Alpha will start on 29th April at 7.45pm until 20 May and recommencing on 3rd June until 24th June. If you would welcome the opportunity to explore the Christian faith please let one of the leaders know. The course will be led by Eric Eyre and Mary Buckell.

News Of Our Church Magazine

Following the last 4-5 years of stewardship by Rod and Chris Sparkes, the Admin and Communications Committee have had a meeting with people interested in participating in a new team to re-launch the church magazine. We are delighted to tell you that this was a very positive meeting with lots of good ideas generated. The questionnaires filled in by you have been taken into account and the good ideas and volunteers have started to be recruited.

Our aim is to publish the new look magazine in September and revise it to a quarterly publication with items of interest for church members as well as for people in the local community who might not yet know Jesus. In order to achieve this, we need your articles, jokes, stories, testimonies, life histories, youth activities, news from reviews of Christian or other media, articles to help inform and outreach to non-Christians, so please either email them to us or hand them to one of us at church on Sunday mornings.

We are holding another meeting on Thursday 28th May at the home of Paul Manning in Willen at 8.00pm to bring all the volunteers together into the new editorial and production team. So if you haven’t told us already and would like to participate in any way, however small, please let us know ASAP.

A PRIZE of a box of chocolates is yours if you can come up with the winning new title of the magazine, so please get your thinking caps on and let us have your ideas by 20th May.

We are also looking for volunteers to help with the production of Junction 14. Again, please let us know if you are interested.

Paul Manning, Adrian King, Sue Richards, Cathy Hall.

Easter Cracked - Thank you!

We have just completed our Easter Cracked sessions with the year 6 children from Cedars, Giffard Park, Green Park, Portfields, Tickford Park and Willen Schools, as well as supporting the presentation in Olney Middle School. In total we have seen over 500 children and distributed the same number of Creme Eggs - thank you for your generosity.

The feedback has all been positive, with children and staff asking when Christmas Cracked is due! A big thank you to all who helped and supported the presentations, and to those who prayed for these events - a job well done!

Revised Date for Church Meeting

The May Church Meeting scheduled for Tuesday 19th May has been brought forward a week to Tuesday 12th May.

Mary Magdalene

“Mary Magdalene” is a Roger Jones musical telling the story of Mary Magdelene and the dramatic changes wrought in her life through her encounters with Jesus. The musical is being performed by the Ampthill and District Churches Together choir at the Newport Pagnell United Reformed church on Saturday 25th April at 6.30pm.

Milton Keynes Interchurch Quiz League

The first round is being held mid May (date to be confirmed) with a further 4 or 5 rounds during the year. If anyone is interested in making up a team, please let Keith or Barbara Bedford know.

Lent Lunches

Thank you to all who participated in the Lent Lunches held at the URC church. The total profit to be donated to Christian Aid amounted to £1,071.32.

Who to Contact During Paul’s Sabbatical

During Paul’s sabbatical, the elders will take it in turn to be the main point of contact for a period of one week at a time, starting at the end of each Sunday morning service. They will be at the door at the end of the service, will coordinate with the pastoral assistants and submit pastoral news for publication in J14.

If you need to leave a message, please be aware that you can do this by leaving it at the church office (under the door if locked!) or by passing it to Catherine. The church answer phone will also be checked regularly.

Our Elders are here to serve you in the place of Paul, so do please feel you can approach them whenever you need to. The name of the duty elder will be published each week.

Service Details 12/04/09

Today is Easter Day and our minister Paul Rosier and our worship co-ordinator Bev Wright lead our worship. The service includes the act of Believers' Baptism as Lesley Christopher witnesses to her faith in this way.

Preaching Elsewhere

This morning we remember in prayer our Elder Eric Eyre as he leads the service at Duke Street Evangelical Church in Northampton..

Service Details 19/04/09

Next Sunday 19th April at 10.30am our worship will be led by the worship group, with Rev. Dr. Derek Tidball preaching.

Derek was Principal of the London School of Theology (formerly London Bible College) from 1995-2007. He has served as pastor of two Baptist churches, and began teaching at LBC in 1972, where he was Director of Studies 1978-85. Between 1991-95 he was the Head of the Mission Department of the Baptist Union.

He was President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain1990-1991 and became a Vice-President of the Evangelical Alliance in 1995. Over the years he has served for varying periods as the Chairman of British Youth for Christ, Shaftesbury Project, British Church Growth Association, On Fire, Mainstream, Association of Bible College Principals and until recently, the Council of the Evangelical Alliance.

Derek is the author of over 20 books. He edits the Bible Themes Series. His latest book Signposts: A devotional map of the Psalms is due for publication in May

CHURCH DIARY

EASTER DAY 12 April
10 – 10.15am Prayer Time in the Chapel.
10.30am Easter Morning Worship led by Bev Wright & Paul Rosier.

TUESDAY 14 April
7.45pm HomeGroup Meeting in Newport Pagnell.

WEDNESDAY 15 April
11.00am Bethany Lunch Club for Senior Citizens. Contact Peter Faulkner for bookings and Elsie Smith for transport.
7.30pm Data Projection Training Session in the Chapel

THURSDAY 16 April
7.00pm Music Group Meeting in the Portfields Room

SUNDAY 19 April
10 – 10.15am Prayer Time in the Chapel.
10.30am Service of Worship led by Rev Derek Tidball.
7.00 – 9.30pm The Hub at Water Eaton Church Centre.