Lent Dilemma

 Dan writes:

At this time of year, I have a dilemma. Not being raised in a church tradition that “did Lent” the thought of giving something up still seems… odd; and I struggle to participate.

I see the biblical merits and good intentions. Sacrificing something of value to try and identify with Jesus in the desert. However, Luke 4 says “Jesus returned… in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.”

My dilemma lies in our method, not the intention. Often, we go for a minor-substitution approach. A pseudo New Year’s resolution.  Sugar for sweetener. Chocolate for fruit. Caffeine for decaff. TV for books. Smoking for vaping. Swearing for “Dag-nam-it!”

All great ideas, but do these types of substitution help draw us closer to God? Do we finish 40 days full of the Spirit? Does news about Jesus spread as a consequence?

This year, as we pursue God together, consider making a swap that answers with a resounding “Yes. Amen and Hallelujah!”.

The Lent Locker

The season of lent can offer a great storehouse of opportunities to ready ourselves for Easter. Here are a few things in the Lenten pipeline:

Ash Wednesday, 26th February, 8pm @ St John’s

Jesus Christ has died; Jesus Christ is risen; Jesus Christ will come again.’ The Prayer and Worship Teams invite you to mark the start of Lent with an evening of prayer and worship. If you can’t make this time, there is a Communion Service with ashing at St Francis at 10:45am.

Quiet Day, 7 March, 10:30am-3:30pm @ St John’s

Organised jointly by St Francis, St Mary's and St John's. It will focus on the “I am” sayings of Jesus. Please join us when you can.

New Teaching Series

Building on our ‘Pursuit of God’ series, we’ll flip the focus and start a new series called ‘God’s Pursuit of Us’, thinking about the extraordinary lengths to which God goes to bring us back to himself.

Vocations Explorations

Southwark Diocese are increasingly inviting people to explore different expressions of ‘lay ministry’. In March, there are a couple of opportunities to consider this in more detail:

i)   Vocations Fair – 19 March, 6:30-8:30pm at St Mary’s Church, Lewisham High Street, SE13 6NX; and

ii)   Vocations to Lay Ministry: Residential Conference – Friday 6 March – Sunday 8 March, Wychcroft Retreat Centre, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 4NE.

You can register for both of these at southwarkvocations.eventbrite.com

There are also details about ‘Lay Pioneer Ministry’ in the leaflet on the Welcomers’ Table, or via the Southwark Diocese Website.

Unity, Prayer & Mission

As we draw near to the end of our ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity’ it’s worth reminding ourselves that our ‘togetherness’ and the prayer that fuels it, isn’t just something that we pay lip service to in a programmed week of the year. The three components of the heading – unity, prayer and mission – are inextricably
connected. This is no better exemplified than by Jesus’ own prayer that his followers would be completely in step with one another so that the world would recognise that God sent Him for their sake:

“I am not just praying for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who have faith because of what
my followers will say about me. I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.” (John 17: 20-21)

Our Churches Together Service at Emmanuel on Saturday starts at 10am, with a focus on prayer – which seems to fit quite well with some things we’ve been talking about recently…

The Pursuit of God

If you don’t like being challenged then don’t pick up Tozer’s book, ‘The Pursuit
of God’ – the title of our current teaching series. He wasn’t one to mince his
words, but written in the late 1940s, many parts have a surprisingly
contemporary ring:

“We have been trying to apply
machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our
short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy
by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story
told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of
this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the
preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of
men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships,
salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the
Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and
serious malady of the soul.”

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Happy Christmas and a Peaceful Rest of 2019

You might be seeing
this a little early, but the message for the coming days is a simple one:

HAPPY
CHRISTMAS

&

A
PEACEFUL REST

OF 2019

Working Those Kneelers...

It’s been amusing to witness some of the baffled responses to the invitation to grab a kneeler from the church and take it home…‘Does Jon want us to bring them back next week?’…‘Is this his way of getting rid of the kneelers on the sly?’… ‘will the pews for the log burning stove be next?’

It really is as simple as encouraging you to press into prayer this advent.

It’s surprising how a physical, visual prompt can be more helpful than we might imagine. Some people have said they put it in their bedroom and it’s caused them to kickstart the day in prayer.

Fix it to your wall, put it in your fridge, use it as your bed pillow – however it will best serve as a disruption to your everyday. The power is not in the kneeler, but in engagement with the One who longs to break into our every waking moment. Happy praying.

Christmas Charities

We like to give you advance notice of some of the charities we will be looking to support over the Christmas season. They will be as follows:

 Christingles Services – As always, we’ll be taking a collection for the Children’s Society, which seems particularly poignant this year in light of some of the political ‘discussions’ over the true level of child poverty and homelessness in our country.

 Carol, Midnight & Christmas Day Services – (i) The Bromley Homeless Shelter support the homeless by providing a Winter Night Shelter. Further information can be found on www.bromleyshelter.org.uk.  (ii) ‘There is Hope Malawi’, an organisation who work with refugees in Malawi, where it is particularly hard to be in that desperate situation.

 Please pray for all these organisations and the people they are trying to help.

Mental Health Awareness Week

All You Cricketers

Are you interested in releasing that inner Ian Botham (or Jos Butler, for a younger generation) for an afternoon? Fancy dusting off those cricket whites, which don’t quite fit any more? Haven’t unleashed a Shane Warne googly for a while…possibly ever?

Well, here’s your chance. We’re trying to arrange a cricket match at the Warren. Unfortunately, we have to put a minimum age limit of 13 years old for participants, as it is a hard ball game. However, the idea is to make a family afternoon of the whole event – with picnics and plenty of banter from the sidelines.

If you're interested, please ring John Johnes on 0208 462 4728 or speak to him in church.