This month’s PCC meeting was a really varied and productive session. We opened our meeting with some time spent praying and reviewing some passages from the Bible about love, and listening to the Rend Collective song, 'You bled'. If you haven’t listened to this song before, I’d really recommend you sit back and really listen to the words of this song. Our first agenda item was regarding the School of Worship. Chris Taylor who’s been helping to lead this initiative came along to give us an update on how things are progressing, how the money has been spent, and 2018 plans. This is a longer term investment but we are already seeing fruits from it with some new members joining worship groups, existing groups benefiting from jam sessions, rehearsals and coaching from experts, and also seeing people growing spiritually too. Chris has gone away to draw up more specific plans/budgets for 2018, but we were all really encouraged!
We also spent some time reviewing the outcomes of the new service patterns questionnaire. Thanks to those of you that filled this in. The majority of you would like the new service pattern to remain and there was some encouraging feedback about mingling between services, more attendees for the 9am service and being less time consuming for catering volunteers. The biggest impact from the change has been on the musicians and sound tech guys, and there is some further work we need to do to make things easier for them. There were a number of recommendations made, so we will be spending some further time discussing these and putting together some actions. [Editor's note: if you want to know more, read the summary we're produced.] Pete Craggs gave us an update on a communications review that has been undertaken by a small working group over the last few months. This looked at all the ways we communicate as a church. He briefly ran through some short term and long term recommendations. These are being put together in a report and will be shared soon. Finally, Chris Lockwood gave us a buildings update. As a result, we have agreed to:
That’s all for now! Helen
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Which are you more likely to say: “Dear God, my problem is bigger than me” or “Dear Problem, my God is bigger than you” ? It’s so easy for our picture of God to diminish – especially when faced with the challenges of life. Starting this Sunday, we’re looking at the book of Isaiah – which presents a portrait of the immensity of God. So prepare for your mind and heart to be enlarged and encouraged and stirred to worship the awesomeness of God. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth …” (Isaiah 40.28). Now, not many of us feel confident when delving into the Old Testament - and Isaiah was written 700 years before Jesus’ birth. Yet there's so much great stuff in Isaiah - including incredible prophecies about Jesus that help us understand who he is and why he came - that it's worth making an effort to get to grips with Isaiah. So if you want to get up to speed, The Bible Project have some excellent resources, including this video: We've all got some ideas on why churches exist, and why our church in particular exists where it does. In this video, Jacqui and Pete (our leadership wardens), explain why we've adopted a new purpose statement as a church ... |