Welcome to our online service. This service is a replica of our in person service at 11am. If you are planning on joining in person, please bring a mask for singing. This week Sunday Zone returns - our group for children and they will be exploring the same theme.
Next week we are very excited to be holding a baptismal service, where Janet and Lionel will be being baptised. We will be hearing their stories and worshipping together as we support them in this next step on their journey of faith. All are welcome to join us at 11am - it will be an all age service and then after the service there will be cake. We will upload the different elements of the service to YouTube afterwards so if you are unable to make it person you can still join in the celebration. Please pray for Janet and Lionel as they prepare for baptism.
As we move into the autumn we will only have one all age service a month, on the first Sunday of the month. October's all age service is our Harvest service, watch this space or keep an eye on facebook or WhatsApp for more information on our Harvest offering.
Our mid-week groups are beginning to return. Crafty Needles and Poppy Cafe returned this week, Evolve continues to meet and Chatterbox will be returning at the end of September. For more information check out the activities page of the website.
From the 27th September (with a break for half term) we will be running The Prayer Course on Zoom at 8pm on Mondays (we may hold one in person during the day if there is demand - please get in touch). This is an 8 week course that will help you to grow and deepen your prayer life and it is based on the Lord's Prayer. See the intro video below.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Jamaica Baptist Union Appeal. We sent a donation of £220 to London Baptists to add to their appeal.
Worship
Call to Worship
And the Lord said to Jeremiah, "Go down to the potters house, and there I will give you my message"
When we take time to be still and watch
When we take time to marvel in creativity
When we take time to understand the ordinary things
It is so often that it is there that God speaks
As we come to worship today, let us be inspired
By the things we see and have seen
By the intricacy of the things created around us
By the ordinary, everyday encounters
It is so often that is there that God speaks
Lord, as we come to worship you today,
Open our eyes, unblock our ears
Soften our hearts
Help us to hear your voice
Amen
Songs for today
You might want to save the last two for after the sermon
This time tomorrow
Romans 12, in the Message version, starts like this:
"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you"
Our lives have changed a lot in the last couple of years. What hasn't changed is that we need God to help us to live the best lives we can. As we begin a new term in the life of the church and in our own lives, we are going to focus on making a commitment to hold the ordinary bits of life before God and to pray for one another in whatever we do during the week.
What will you be doing this time tomorrow? What will those closest to you be doing this time tomorrow?
Make a commitment to pray that God will guide you and ground you in your everyday life. However ordinary it is. In our in person service we will be praying for one another. You might want to pray for others in church, or even ask them what they might want prayer for as you enter a new week.
Prayers for the World
On the morning of September 11 2001, 2,976 people from 93 nations lost their lives in New York, at the Pentagon, and on Flight 93.
Today, we pause to remember that moment of horror and pray for those left scarred by those terrible events."
We remember the first time we heard the news.
We recall the first time we saw those images.
We remember the way our thoughts
and prayers were with those families
who lost loved ones.
Our thoughts and prayers are with them again today.
O God of Comfort - though the years have passed, you are faithful still.
Yesterday, today and forever; let your love and peace endure.
We remember those who survived.
We recall their heart-breaking stories.
We remember that their lives are forever scarred by those moments.
Our thoughts and prayers are with them again today.
O God of Healing - though the years have passed, you are faithful still.
Yesterday, today and forever; let your love and peace endure.
We remember the pain we felt.
We recall the bereavement and bitterness of the aftermath.
We remember that you are a God of redemption and restoration.
Help us forgive those who caused so much trauma,
and that we may find release in that forgiveness.
O God of forgiveness - though the years have passed, you are faithful still.
Yesterday, today and forever; let your love and peace endure.
We remember that you love the world.
We recall you sent your Son to bring reconciliation and salvation.
We remember your Spirit inhabits your Church.
Help us bring your comfort and peace to all.
O God of hope - though the years have passed, you are faithful still.
Yesterday, today and forever; let your love and peace endure.
Word
Our sermon today is based on Jeremiah 18:1-12. You can read it here
Here is Claire with the sermon
Claire refers to a video to help you reflect at the end of the sermon, here it is below