Fire Pit Service on 1 Nov 2020
Mens Matters with an invitation to breakfast
Another month, another lockdown! When will it all end? Will it all end?? One answer might be “On December 2nd – it’s written into the legislation, innit?”; another might be “This year, next year, sometime,….”! Meanwhile, on t’other side of The Pond the wheels seem about to come off the car of Democracy while Trump and Biden wrestle for control of the steering and gear selector.
Uncertainty seems to be the only game in town at the moment and, while some uncertainty is natural and healthy, like so many things in life too much can lead to problems. Sadly one thing that is certain at the moment is that we can’t meet up for our (in a former life!) traditional “light but perfectly formed” brekkie, with Alan B’s unforgettable porridge; instead we are doomed to Zoom…
To which end here is the link for Saturday’s Virtual Breakfast, kicking off at 09.00 and ending about 40 minutes later:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79603567340?pwd=aFd3SHl0WWVvOHBEeFVncXFNU0NxZz09
(This should take you straight into the meeting, but just in case you need them the Meeting ID is 796 0356 7340 and the Passcode B4t0CN)
So set your alarm for 08.55 on Saturday morning, make yourself a good, strong coffee (or potion of your choice) and join us at 09.00 as we discuss lockdowns, the death of democracy, and anything else that takes our fancy…
Keep safe!
Dudley (for Men Matters)
Greetings. I hope that you are managing to put a brave face on the difficulties that now face us. Many of us felt optimistic and resilient during the first Covid phase in the Spring but it is clear that the second lockdown will test our fortitude even more.
The encouragement of others is a central tenet of our Christian faith and most of Paul’s New Testament letters can be seen in this light. So on behalf of our men’s fellowship in Busbridge can I offer you the thought that we will of course overcome and that we will be able again to meet in fellowship.
Our Christian faith was made for times like these and each of us will be challenged in different ways. All things can and do work together for good for those who love God. The second half of that verse from Romans adds ‘to all those that are called according to his purposes’. We do hope that whatever situation you find yourself in that you will still be able to feel that you are part of God’s purposes and plans.
Alan B for Mens Matters
Lockdown II: You have such beautiful feet
This is an exciting time. Yes, you heard that right. Excited, not to be locked-down but because we’re ready to provide worship, teaching and community through Lockdown II. It is about having beautiful feet. Everyone else probably has scarred and scared, worried and worn feet. Yours my friend are… beautiful. You are a person of the beautiful feet.
Did you know that you have beautiful feet? Now, honesty, how are your feet doing? What state are they in?
As a follower of Christ you have beautiful feet because your feet carry you to the places and people that God has prepared for you to do his mighty works (Ephesians 2:10). This is what we are about in Lockdown II and though our feet and hearts are worn and scarred, we know that “As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:15
Tim Davies’ has beautiful feet. His work on cameras and tech in recent months has put us in good place to be creative for the Gospel. We’re deeply grateful to Tim and we were recently able to show this thanks with a card and a little something else as a token of our appreciation. Tim is now taking a well-deserved break and Jacob Taylor is currently helping us to take things forward.
We’ve got beautiful feet for the Gospel because our online ministry is growing and we would love to open up an opportunity to be part of the team that are shaping it. You’ll be helping reach several hundred people a week! Last Sunday’s services have been viewed nearly 500 times.
We’ve got beautiful feet that mean the Holy Spirit takes us to proclaim peace and salvation (Isa 52:7). God takes us to people and places where he knows we can make a good difference.
From Nov 15th we’ll be offering a fantastic array of worship:
· 9am Recorded Heritage BCP on youtube
· Live Classic and Contemporary ZOOM Livestreamed, Classic at 9am, Contemporary at 10.15am
· Contemporary taking a ‘conversations from the couch’ format and including breakout rooms, video clips and live discussion
· Classic and Contemporary services also live on youtube (but you won’t see faces on that one, so better on zoom!)
· A ‘highlights’ version of Classic and Contemporary on youtube from that evening onwards
· Youth and Children’s ministry will continue online.
We’ll also be posting short video blogs from time to time, so do join/subscribe to our youtube channel
We’re asking Home Groups to meet on zoom or similar for coffee on Sundays and if you’re not connected or haven’t folded into a home group then this is your chance. Email simon.willetts@bhcgodalming.org to be connected right now. it is a chance for the people of beautiful feet to gather together in fellowship.
Our online ministry is currently allowing us to reach 100’s of people who currently cannot attend Church physically, people who are shielding or quarantining for health reasons, our young people who have gone off to University but can’t get access to their Christian Unions or join Churches, families during a time when gathering for children’s ministry is compromised. It’s also for those that are exploring Church and the Christian faith but who aren’t ready yet or don’t want to attend in person.
We know that our online ministry is making a difference. Did you know that there is a night-time ‘spike’ in when people connect? We’ don’t know who, but we do know that there is a regular ‘spike’ of people tuning into our soundcloud past-sermons on the website, often at around 2-3am. We’re offering a Gospel message that helps people sleep! (Psalm127:2).
We have the ability to reach a whole community of people with the gospel but we need your help to do it. Right now, over the next 3-5 weeks, we need you! We want to build a team of beautiful feet people who enable this ministry to happen. You don’t need any prior skill – you really don’t. You can be 10 years old or 100. Age is no barrier.
We are not just looking for operators we are looking to form a team that will shape the future of this ministry and take Christ’s love into people’s hearts and homes. You’ll be the people of beautiful feet who carry the good news (Isa 52;7) This team will consist of the following roles;
– Visuals laptop operators
– Sound operators
– Someone to monitor and host the zoom call (and laptop) so that we can invite participation from our community
– Point the camera people
– Vision mixing operator
For each role full training will be given but the first and only requirement is that you have feet that might look worn to you, but as you engage in this Gospel mission, you will have beautiful feet.
Please contact Dave Preece, Simon Willetts, Frances Shaw, Jacob Taylor or Simon Taylor and get those feet moving!
Simon Taylor: Lockdown II – You have such beautiful feet
This is an exciting time. Yes, you heard that right. Excited, not to be locked-down but because we’re ready to provide worship, teaching and community through Lockdown II. It is about having beautiful feet. Everyone else probably has scarred and scared, worried and worn feet. Yours my friend are… beautiful. You are a person of the beautiful feet.
Did you know that you have beautiful feet? Now, honesty, how are your feet doing? What state are they in?
As a follower of Christ you have beautiful feet because your feet carry you to the places and people that God has prepared for you to do his mighty works (Ephesians 2:10). This is what we are about in Lockdown II and though our feet and hearts are worn and scarred, we know that “As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:15
Tim Davies’ has beautiful feet. His work on cameras and tech in recent months has put us in good place to be creative for the Gospel. We’re deeply grateful to Tim and we were recently able to show this thanks with a card and a little something else as a token of our appreciation. Tim is now taking a well-deserved break and Jacob Taylor is currently helping us to take things forward.
We’ve got beautiful feet for the Gospel because our online ministry is growing and we would love to open up an opportunity to be part of the team that are shaping it. You’ll be helping reach several hundred people a week! Last Sunday’s services have been viewed nearly 500 times.
We’ve got beautiful feet that mean the Holy Spirit takes us to proclaim peace and salvation (Isa 52:7). God takes us to people and places where he knows we can make a good difference.
From Nov 15th we’ll be offering a fantastic array of worship:
· 9am Recorded Heritage BCP on youtube
· Live Classic and Contemporary ZOOM Livestreamed, Classic at 9am, Contemporary at 10.15am
· Contemporary taking a ‘conversations from the couch’ format and including breakout rooms, video clips and live discussion
· Classic and Contemporary services also live on youtube (but you won’t see faces on that one, so better on zoom!)
· A ‘highlights’ version of Classic and Contemporary on youtube from that evening onwards
· Youth and Children’s ministry will continue online.
We’ll also be posting short video blogs from time to time, so do join/subscribe to our youtube channel
We’re asking Home Groups to meet on zoom or similar for coffee on Sundays and if you’re not connected or haven’t folded into a home group then this is your chance. Email simon.willetts@bhcgodalming.org to be connected right now. it is a chance for the people of beautiful feet to gather together in fellowship.
Our online ministry is currently allowing us to reach 100’s of people who currently cannot attend Church physically, people who are shielding or quarantining for health reasons, our young people who have gone off to University but can’t get access to their Christian Unions or join Churches, families during a time when gathering for children’s ministry is compromised. It’s also for those that are exploring Church and the Christian faith but who aren’t ready yet or don’t want to attend in person.
We know that our online ministry is making a difference. Did you know that there is a night-time ‘spike’ in when people connect? We’ don’t know who, but we do know that there is a regular ‘spike’ of people tuning into our soundcloud past-sermons on the website, often at around 2-3am. We’re offering a Gospel message that helps people sleep! (Psalm127:2).
We have the ability to reach a whole community of people with the gospel but we need your help to do it. Right now, over the next 3-5 weeks, we need you! We want to build a team of beautiful feet people who enable this ministry to happen. You don’t need any prior skill – you really don’t. You can be 10 years old or 100. Age is no barrier.
We are not just looking for operators we are looking to form a team that will shape the future of this ministry and take Christ’s love into people’s hearts and homes. You’ll be the people of beautiful feet who carry the good news (Isa 52;7) This team will consist of the following roles;
– Visuals laptop operators
– Sound operators
– Someone to monitor and host the zoom call (and laptop) so that we can invite participation from our community
– Point the camera people
– Vision mixing operator
For each role full training will be given but the first and only requirement is that you have feet that might look worn to you, but as you engage in this Gospel mission, you will have beautiful feet.
Please contact Dave Preece, Simon Willetts, Frances Shaw, Jacob Taylor or Simon Taylor and get those feet moving!
Lisa Olsworth-Peter: Find your own song
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“My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul”
How can we worship God through music?
What music speaks to your soul? What genre awakens your heart?
For my husband it’s a Rachmaninov Piano Concerto, for me it’s Gospel, for my son it’s rock music. We are blessed with so many genres of music to choose from, choral, rap, orchestral, rock, blues, gospel, electroacoustic, folk I could go on….
Worship is connecting our heart to His, it’s praising Him, thanking Him, loving Him and doing all of this while being real with Him.
So here’s your challenge…
1. Find a piece of music that stirs your heart.
2. Thank God for this music, for the people who created it, the musicians and singers that brought it to life, for the gifts that He gave them.
3. Allow the Spirit of God to move through the music and bring you into a place of Worship.
If you take on the challenge and would like to share your experience, I’d love to hear from you
Lisa Olsworth-Peter
Music Worship Pastor
lisa.olsworth-peter@bhcgodalming.org
· Worship is not just singing
· Worship doesn’t require a song with a beginning a middle and an end
· What is your song?
· Worship is kindness to all His people
· Worship is devotion
· Music as teaching
· Music as love
Paul urged the Ephesians (and us) to “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:18-20 ESV)
785 Christmases
The Plan for Older People’s Ministry – Autumn 2020
Older People’s Ministry is continuing – but out of necessity it is taking a very different form as the majority of older adults known to us are preferring to limit their social contact in order to reduce the risk of exposing themselves to the virus. Large group gatherings such as the regular Prime Time events are therefore unlikely to happen for the next six months at least; especially as unlike acts of worship in church premises, social activities such as Prime Time are governed by the ‘Rule of Six’. The plan for this area of ministry is to continue offering opportunities to engage through the use of varied means; online through Zoom and YouTube, telephone contact and post. We are currently exploring the possibility of face-to-face meetings in very small groups if there is a demand and if it is within current guidance. It is also the hope that we will be able to utilise the newly installed technology in Busbridge Church to offer a live streamed service at key times in the church calendar. Our established befriending scheme is to be given greater promotion and the model of telephone befriending is being added into the existing operation. All Community Hearing Aid Clinics across the Diocese remain suspended pending further guidance from the Diocese and hospital Audiology departments. Penny Naylor will continue to respond to all hearing aid related enquiries and offer advice and signposting to anyone who requires it. Penny can be contacted via the Church Office or by email: penny.naylor@bhcgodalming.org
Do you feel Useless? Well you’re not!
This week’s Prime Time message is from Shelagh Godwin
Hello, I’m Shelagh, that small woman who is sometimes to be seen seated at the organ at Busbridge or Hambledon Church, but currently restricted to practising on a Wednesday afternoon!
I don’t know about you, but at the beginning of lockdown I felt particularly useless. All the diary engagements I’d been looking forward to were suddenly stripped away in the matter of a week, leaving my calendar empty, except for reminders to take pills and to attend essential if routine medical tests. And then I’d been told that I was ‘one of those people who’. Yes, one of those people who need to take longer cleaning their teeth, attending to their ears, or skin, or keep their tummies in! And all these things take time. And, in these strange times, time is something we all have more of! Many people have spent it doing DIY. I’m not a DIY person. Or gardening: no, I’m not a gardener either. Others have spent it having a clear-out. Or sanitizing their metal door handles EVERY DAY. Boring perhaps! And when it comes to routine, repetitive tasks, I can complain about them. Or I can use them to develop that wonderful spiritual gift of patience, and perhaps pray for people as I do them. That in itself makes it worth while.
At the beginning of lockdown I was thanked by many people for simply staying at or near home. And, what joy it was in the spring to walk along quiet roads, rejoice with nature as I heard birds (yes, even the cuckoo on several occasions), and find out the difference between a speedwell and a ragged robin. Easy, that one, one is blue, the other pink. Finding out these things made me feel less useless, an antidote to being told that because of my age or my health there were things I wanted to do to help others that I couldn’t do. But what joy I have had in having conversations over the phone! (And – yes, I’ll confess, we both do zoom and What’s App.) Jim has been able to sing with one of his choirs, in small groups, in a garden.
Then there’s the joy of creativity. Many poets and composers and artists have come out of the woodwork as a result of having more time to explore their creative muse. In Busbridge, a new hymn of praise, based on two psalms, is in preparation, and will soon be available on the YouTube services.
But suppose you don’t feel you have anything to offer? Does that make you useless? Most certainly not! I read not long ago, and found much comfort from an article I read about apple trees. Yes, they bear fruit, and often the fruit is eaten and enjoyed. The pips go back into the soil and in time develop into more apple trees, given the right conditions. But what of the fruit that just falls off and lies on the ground? That fruit is also useful, in feeding and fertilizing the soil it falls into. So never despair: you are, in the eyes of God, something of value!
And if you want to sharpen that grey matter, try this link to the August Prime Time quiz!
Answers to the questions posed last week by Di:
-
The rowan is also known as the mountain ash.
-
Amazingly enough, Edinburgh is west of Bristol.
-
The Brothers Grimm wrote Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
As I say when I see people: do take care, and may God bless you.
Shelagh Godwin
Margot Spencer
I recently re-read a wonderful, deeply moving book, set in France during World War 2. It tells the story of a girl who lives with her widowed father. At the age of six, she goes blind, an apparent tragedy which could fill them both with despair. But the despair doesn’t last, because “Marie-Laure is too young and her father is too patient”.
Her world suddenly becomes a maze, but her father painstakingly builds a scale model of their neighbourhood and teaches her to find her way around it. At first she is frustrated (“I can’t do it Papa!”), but by continually running her fingers over the model to familiarise herself with it, and then going out with her father into the streets, she learns to find her way home from the museum where he works. Then she learns how to get to the baker’s, by counting her steps and the storm drains, and by learning which way to turn at each intersection. In time, she learns to find her way around their neighbourhood as well as her sighted friends.
Later, when they have to flee Paris and end up living with distant family, in St Malo, the process is repeated all over again. A different neighbourhood, another maze, a new scale model.
We may feel that we had worked out to how to find our way around the world we used to live in – you know, the one we inhabited until four months ago. This new place needs to be navigated slightly differently. Some of the old landmarks are still there, but others have changed; when we reach an intersection, we may have to take a different route to our destination.
The way we live and work – as individuals, as a church and as a wider community – will never be quite the same again. But different does not have to mean less good. Who knows, we may be able to recapture the more leisurely pace we had to adopt at the beginning of the pandemic … finding different ways of doing things and taking time to discover new places.
Above all, like Marie-Laure, we may find that this new place is not as scary as we thought. And we may discover a new direction and purpose in our walk with God, who is as patient a Father as hers was.
The prophet Jeremiah says this:
This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is , and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16)
Margot Spencer , July 2020