Our latest video update is now out ... and yes, it does include a bit about shopping!
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If your relationship with God is feeling a bit flat at the moment (it happens to all of us at times), Advent can be a great opportunity to give it a bit of a jump-start. In fact, even if you and God are on really good terms at the moment, it's easy to lose sight of Jesus in all the busyness of the run-up to Christmas.
Ironic, huh? Here's some suggestions for an advent devotional book - a few pages for you to read each day, often with a suggested prayer. Ideal for helping keep you and God on track together as we prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth. Tom Wright "Advent for everyone" - unpacking some passages from the New Testament about the coming of the Lord. Available as a book or on kindle. Michael & Rosemary Green "In touch with God" - looking at some Old Testament characters each day in December. Available as a book or on kindle. Paul David Tripp "Come, let us adore him" - looking at themes each day, with some suggestions for family discussions as well. Available as a book or on kindle. Tim Chester "The one true gift" - going slowly through an amazing passage about Jesus from Philippians 2. Available as a book or on kindle. Happy reading - and happy advent! So this month's PCC was my turn to start us off with a bible reading and prayer. I cheated and took inspiration from the sermon on Sunday from Isaiah 40, particularly 29-31. I was particularly inspired by this in the context of mental wellbeing as an area where more support is needed, and with it being remembrance sunday the day before, thinking of those people affected by war.
The first item on our agenda was budgets. This is unfortunately one of the boring parts of being on PCC but so so necessary. It became apparent as we were being taken through the figures that we are going to have quite a big deficit in 2018. Now this is where you come in....we need your help! Any amount large or small would make such a difference to the church and the work we do in the community, so I'd really urge you to consider if there is anything you can do. We moved on to discuss the deanery mission action plan, we will need to create a parish mission action plan which links to the deanery one. Some of the actions for this plan will be determine by the outcome of our current mission priorities review. The final planned meeting to look at mission priorities was on 22 November and we hope to share more with you all once we've had a chance to review all your thoughts and suggestions. We chatted also about the continuing frustration that some of the bands and technical teams feel about Sundays mornings. We'd love the congregation (that's you!) to encourage them as much as possible at the moment as we continue to work with them to make life easier. Last but not least, I am pleased to report that I was elected as a fully fledged PCC member....essentially I haven't had voting rights for the last 6 months! But now I do...oh the power! That's all for now folks! Helen |