17 Dalling Drive Houghton Regis LU5 5EF Tel 01582 529788
Oct 30th 2013
Dear Friends, We’ll be back at church this Sunday and we’re very much looking forward to being with you all again. I’m keen to catch up with what God’s been doing and saying to you over recent weeks. It’s been great to hear of the successful launch of ‘The Singing Café’ and the Craft Workshop but I’m sure there’s a lot more to say! My sabbatical has been good for lots of things. I’ve been considering whether we should engage in church planting at Thorn as the Houghton Regis North Development becomes a reality. I’ve been excited by hearing from people who’ve used different models to plant churches in new communities and others who might be interested to get something off the ground in HRND as it is known. The planning process is suddenly on the move and on Monday we’ll be attending an exploratory meeting with the Bishop of Bedford, Methodist leaders and the Central Baptist Association. So please pray! And if you’re a member, come to our next church meeting on November 28th when we will need to make some initial decisions. To help and perhaps envision us we are privileged to welcome Stuart Murray-Williams on Sunday November 24th. Stuart is a national speaker, an incisive preacher and a consultant on church planting in the Baptist Union and beyond. So if you’re asking... what might this involve?... what is a church plant?... or how could we possibly do this?... make sure you can be with us. He’ll be at HRBC at 10.30am and sharing with all the Luton Baptist Congregations at 6.30pm at Stopsley Baptist Church. Please come to both occasions. I’ve also spent a number of weeks making good on a promise I made some time ago to edit a small book - ‘A Pastor’s guide to leading a church’. Yesterday I was delighted to send it off and by the end of the week it should be being reviewed by leaders of the Nepal Baptist Church Council, the equivalent of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. The church in Nepal is about 30 years old and the first edition of this book was widely taken up by pastors in many church denominations. I’m praying this could be a really useful tool for many pastors of churches that are small and rapidly growing all over Nepal. This year we’ve been considering how we might engage in the wider mission of God. As part of this we will welcome Andrew North on November 10th at 10.45am. Andrew will be fresh off a plane from Guinea in W. Africa. He has responsibility for all of BMS World Mission’s projects in sub Saharan Africa. He’ll speak on “Connecting with ‘The Mission of God’
across Africa”. I hope it will be the beginning of something new. If you’ve got a national dress then we’d love you to wear it to church on this day. Personally, it has been good to break the usual rhythm of leading a church and listen to God afresh. It is remarkable how God can speak even when you turn up at random churches Sunday by Sunday. On our first Sunday we attended a church we’d never been to. The address was on ‘Sabbath rest’! And God had got my attention. I’ve also been able to attend several conferences, get my office organised properly following our move to Houghton Regis, spend time with family and important friends and a lot more besides. So a big personal thank you to you all for enabling it to happen, especially to Eric Gurney, Jane Bentley and Tim Price who have done so much to share the load. I’m sorry I haven’t been around to support some of you at important moments but I hope this sabbatical will prove fruitful in many ways. Please do be in touch if it would be helpful to meet up. You will see that some dates for Christmas are still to be confirmed. I hope we will be able to confirm these shortly but it would be helpful if you could reserve the afternoons and evenings of Sundays December 15th and 22nd. May God bless you with his grace and peace this day.
David
Church diary November 3rd Sunday Services 11am – speaker David Skinner afternoon service - 4.30pm - speaker David Skinner 4th Monday 5th Tuesday 7th Thursday
Funspace 1.30 Singing Cafe Parents & Toddlers
8m Housegroup
th
10 Sunday
Services 11am – speaker Andrew North (BMS) 6pm – No service (Growinng Leaders @ St Hugh’s) 11th Monday Funspace 8pm Leaders Mtg th 12 Tuesday 1.30 Singing Cafe th 14 Thursday Parents & ToddlersP 2.30pm Devotional mtg 17th Sunday
Services 11am – speaker David Skinner All Age Communion
6pm – speaker David Skinner th
18 Monday 19th Tuesday 21st Thursday
Funspace 1.30 Singing Cafe Pastoral Team mtg Parents & Toddlers 8pm Housegroup
24th Sunday Services 11am – Stuart Murray-Williams 6:30pm – Stuart Murray-Williams @ Stopsley 25th Monday 26th Tuesday 28th Thursday 30th Saturday
Funspace 1.30 Singing Cafe Parents & Toddlers Church workday
8pm Church Meeting
Church diary December 1st Sunday 2nd Monday 3rd Tuesday 5th Thursday
Services 11am – speaker David Skinner 6pm – speaker David Skinner (Communion) Funspace 1.30 Singing Cafe Parents & Toddlers
8pm Housegroup
8th Sunday Services 11am – speaker David Skinner afternoon service - 4.30pm - speaker David Skinner
9th Monday 10th Tuesday 12th Thursday
Funspace 1.30 Singing Cafe Parents & Toddlers
Pastoral Team mtg 8pm Housegroup
15h Sunday
Services 11am – speaker David Skinner (Communion) 6pm – speaker David Skinner 16th Monday Funspace 17th Tuesday 1.30 Singing Cafe th 19 Thursday Parents & Toddlers 8pm Housegroup 22nd Sunday
Services 11am – speaker David Skinner 6pm – speaker David Skinner Holidays – no weekday activities
th
25 Wednesday
Service 10.30am – Christmas day Holidays – no weekday activities
th
29
Sunday
Service 11am – speaker David Skinner 6pm – No service
Church diary January 5th Sunday
Service 11am – guest speaker TBA 6pm – No service
6th Monday 7th Tuesday 9th Thursday
Funspace 8pm Leaders Mtg 1.30 Singing Cafe Parents & ToddlersTod 8pm Housegroup
12th Sunday
Services 11am – speaker David Skinner Covenant Sunday 6pm – speaker David Skinner
11th Monday 12th Tuesday 14th Thursday
Funspace 1.30 Singing Cafe Parents & Toddlers
8pm Leaders Mtg 8pm Housegroup
Sunday Mornings at HRBC new series:
Connecting with “The Mission of God” 11am Sunday November 3rd ‘Today’
Luke 4:21
th
11am Sunday November 10 ‘Across Africa’
Andrew North (BMS)
th
11am Sunday November 17 ‘In person’ John 1:14 11am Sunday November 24th ‘In New Beginnings’ with Stuart Murray-Williams new series:
“A Great Christmas” 11am Sunday December 1st ‘Open’
Matthew 1:21
th
11am Sunday December 8 ‘Unimaginable’
Luke 1:35
th
11am Sunday December 15 ‘Special’ John 1:18 11am Sunday December 22nd ‘Brilliant’ Isaiah 9:2 11am Wednesday December 25th ‘Wonderful’ Luke 2:6 11am Sunday December 29th ‘Joyful, Joyful’ Luke 2:20 11am Sunday January 5th ‘Worship’ Matthew 2:1-10
Sunday Evenings at HRBC 4.30pm Sunday November 3rd ‘A Tale of Two Gardens’ 6pm Sunday November 17th ‘The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor’ Isaiah 61:1 6:30pm Sunday November 24th at Stopsley Baptist Church and Mission in a Strange New World Stuart Murray-Williams 6pm Sunday December 1st ‘The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind’ Isaiah 65:17 4:30pm Sunday December 8th ‘A christmas Celebration’ Sunday December 15th details to follow Sunday December 22nd details to follow 6pm Sunday December 29th 6pm Sunday January 5th
No service No service
Church ‘work days’. Final date we have assigned for this year: 30th November (subject to final confirmation nearer the dates) Please add the date to your diary so that you can spare some time to help with some of the maintenance tasks, around the Church. Thanks for your support, Paul
Contact information: David Skinner
email: david.skinner4@ntlworld.com phone: 01582 529788
Or, for the Community Link project: Penny Geraghty: email:
penny.clp@hotmail.co.uk
for the latest on what’s happening at church: check the church blog: http://houghtonregisbaptistchurch.blogspot.co.uk/ or find us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Houghton-Regis-BaptistChurch/168450089848975 If you want anything included in either please contact Keith Wallis