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December update

Everyone for Christmas

Mr Andy Park according to Wikipedia is Mr Christmas.  He has celebrated Christmas everyday since July 1993 and eaten 135,000 sprouts, 107,000 mince pies and sent himself over 235,000 Christmas cards.  Christmas is definitely for him.  Children?  Many people say Christmas is for them with all the excitement around presents.  But it can feel like Christmas is not for everyone.  It can be a hard time for many after a tough year, with the financial strain, being on their own or having everyone round to theirs.

But Christmas is for everyone.  Think of the people involved in the Christmas story:
Mary – a teenager shamed by being pregnant and not married in that culture.
Joseph – a tradesman involved a scandalous pregnancy.
Shepherds – thought of an unclean and on the edge of society.
Herod – a man most interested in his own position and power.
Wisemen – would have been treated with suspicion as non – Jewish people from a distant land.
Innkeeper – Unknown person who rejected the Son of God in the same way record companies rejected the Beatles and football pundits rejected Man Utd’s young players years ago.

Christmas is for everyone: not necessarily all the stuff that surrounds it like the sprouts, the mince pies and the cards but the reason we have it is for everyone.  Jesus came to save everyone (Matthew 1 v 21).

So why not try to share some of that Christmas cheer with more people this year?  Some short video clips of ideas to share your faith at work, in the community and even when out shopping during Christmas are at: http://www.licc.org.uk/resources/festive-top-tips-for-sharing-your-faith/

Have a look at them, try some of them out and encourage people from your Church to do them by putting the link in the Church news sheet / on your Facebook.

Happy Christmas to everyone.

Done in November / December…

Leading Chelmsford Diocese’s Chelmsford area Certificate of evangelism training – another great 2 sessions with 6 people exploring evangelism for themselves and their churches.  We looked at sharing our stories, events, enquirers courses, strategies, team work and being an evangelist with some very positive feedback at the end about them being encouraged to share their faith more and wanting to encourage their churches to more as well.

Preaching at Great Leighs free church and Broomfield Road evangelical church with general discussions afterwards with church leaders about evangelism, where they are and where they are going.

Attending St Michael’s Evangelism team meeting to help plan the Christmas program, the follow up to it and evangelism plans for next year.

Training in personal evangelism at CGC Basildon as part of their Discipleship course. Before we started a woman shared a story with the group of sharing her faith with a man at work that just about said all there was to say – I could have stopped there!

Doing in December / January…

19th December – part of the team for Nativity at the pub with St Michael’s.  The initiative for this has come from the pub themselves who the church has been building links with through having a quiz night team etc.  The vicar has written the script which the pub regulars have then made their own and are playing all the parts for.  The pub then asked the vicar to say a few words at the end explaining it!  Great to work with the community not just in it.

15th January Is there more to life than this? Wine and cheese evening at St Michael’s to follow up with people interested in finding out more after Christmas events and services.

24th and 31st January – preaching series at Great Leighs free church.

Dates to be confirmed:

St Luke’s evangelism team meeting to review the year: very encouraging to see the parent and toddlers group grow this year plus a messy church style slot in their family events develop.

Training in personal evangelism training at CGC Basildon part 2.

 

 

 

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