Tuesday 30 September 2008
Pot Luck is back
This Sunday there is a Pot Luck lunch, where we bring food for ourselves and enough for others. There are some new rules about the food being chilled when it is brought. Speak to Jennifer R or Daphne for more information.
Iain on Obadiah
Iain Clements is going to be preaching this Sunday on the prophet Obadiah. This weekend I am preaching in Whitefield Presbyterian Church, Abergavenny at a church's centenary, I'd value your prayers.
Paul Meiners is also preaching at South Ealing Mission
Paul Meiners is also preaching at South Ealing Mission
Saturday 27 September 2008
Pray for preachers this Sunday
Graham is preaching tomorrow for Solihull EPCEW and Paul Meiners is preaching for the Ealing Korean Church at their anniversary services.
Wednesday 24 September 2008
Book of the Term
We have decided to start a book of the term and to have a discussion evening on the book. Our first one is the above. It's 80 pages long, there are 5 chapters. it normally costs you £4.50 but at IPC it costs you only £3.50.
We're going to get together to discuss the book on Saturday 15th November. We might even experiment in reading a chapter a week and commenting on it on here.
Reading Retreat
Reading Retreat - the plan is to go to the Pines in Pulborough, WEst Sussex.
We'll be leaving first thing on Tues 21 and coming back Thur 23 arriving early evening.
Iain Clements will be leading some bible studies and we'll be reading various chapters of books.
The cost for the accomodation is £5 per night and we all cook a meal.
We'll be leaving first thing on Tues 21 and coming back Thur 23 arriving early evening.
Iain Clements will be leading some bible studies and we'll be reading various chapters of books.
The cost for the accomodation is £5 per night and we all cook a meal.
Saturday 20 September 2008
Friday 19 September 2008
Presbytery News
IPC English Presbytery met on Saturday in Ealing.
Graham Weeks is the new moderator and Joel Rinn is the new clerk. John Scott was visiting us as a representative from EPCEW.
These are some of the decisions that were made
Graham Weeks is the new moderator and Joel Rinn is the new clerk. John Scott was visiting us as a representative from EPCEW.
These are some of the decisions that were made
- Doug Curry was examined by Presbytery for him to be installed as the minister of Liss IPC. The previous day he had been examined by the Candidates and Credentials committee and they recommended him. A vote was taken on the day and Doug was approved.
- There was some musical chairs on the committees. Paul Meiners is now chairman of the Candidates and Credentials committee which examines people who become elders/ church planters/ ministers. With Alan Waldecker being back in the US Tom Nachtergaele was nominated to be chair of the committee and Pete Harris was also appointed to the committee. Paul Levy is now the church relations co-ordinator, it was decided at present there was no need for a committee.
- There will be a conference of European Reformed Churches in Holland in 4-7 November run by ICRC and John Scott extended a welcome for us to attend.
- Doug Curry was appointed Prayer secretary to gather in and send out prayer requests for the presbytery once a month.
- There was some debate over who actually is a voting member of Presbytery and so the BCO committee (Book of Church Order) are going to report back with a list!!
Pray for Graham's Travels
This Sunday Graham Weeks is preaching at Kingston Korean Church and then next weekend he is attending EPCEW presbytery and preaching at their church in Solihull
Thursday 18 September 2008
Street Outreach this Saturday
This Saturday from 12-2 at Ealing Broadway we will be having booktable and giving out tracts. The more people that can come the better, for more info contact Amir
Wednesday 17 September 2008
Presbytery Dates08-09
1 Dec - Belgium
7 March - Ealing - possibly joint Presbytery with EPCEW
5-6 June - Ealing - Synod and Presbytery
4 Sept
4-5 Dec
7 March - Ealing - possibly joint Presbytery with EPCEW
5-6 June - Ealing - Synod and Presbytery
4 Sept
4-5 Dec
Sunday 14 September 2008
Handling the Bible Training Evenings
On Monday 13th, 20th Oct & Monday 10th Nov We are going to be having 3 training evenings for the church on how to handle the Bible.
It will be ideal for all who already lead or would like to start leading bible studies but everyone is welcome - for more info see Iain Clements
It will be ideal for all who already lead or would like to start leading bible studies but everyone is welcome - for more info see Iain Clements
Early Morning Prayer Meeting
We have our monthly early morning prayer meeting this Tuesday morning 6.30 - 8am, come and go as you please
Thursday 11 September 2008
Martyn Lloyd Jones lecture
This Monday 7.45
The John Owen Centre
The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Memorial Lecture: The Gospel and Creation - the significance of a theology of creation for preaching - Rev. Philip Eveson
@ Kensit Evangelical Church
The John Owen Centre
The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Memorial Lecture: The Gospel and Creation - the significance of a theology of creation for preaching - Rev. Philip Eveson
@ Kensit Evangelical Church
Wednesday 10 September 2008
Why two Sunday services?
‘Why do you go to church twice on a Sunday? Isn’t once enough?’ In many churches the Sunday evening service is disappearing.
There are two main reasons for this. First, demands from employers have increased enormously over the last 30 years. Weekends have become precious. Two Sunday services are seen as taking up too much of the weekend. Second, back in 1994, the Tory government legalised Sunday trading. This secularised the day, giving people many more options with regard to how we spend it. Simultaneously it put extra pressure on many to work on Sundays.
Scripture tells us to ‘not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching’ (Hebrews 10.25). While many Christians are faithful to meet once for worship on the Lord’s Day, they leave it at that. There are those who through age, ill health or other circumstances really can’t make it out twice on a Sunday. So is there any sense in the tradition of two services? I believe there is.
1. Because two services are helpful practically
For example, I know of a Christian couple, a nurse and a policeman, who often have to work shifts over the weekend. They started going to a new church which met in a school and just had a morning service. But their shifts clashed with the morning service. Suddenly it hit them that they had not been able to attend a Sunday service for weeks. They concluded they would have to leave and find a church which met both morning and evening to give them an option.
Two services are helpful evangelistically also. Many non-Christians have to work on Sundays. I had a conversation like this recently. ‘Come to church,’ I said. ‘Well, I have to work through the night on Saturdays, so it’s a bit difficult for Sunday morning.’ ‘How about Sunday night?’ ‘Well, yes, I suppose I could come on Sunday night.’ So, two services make sense practically.
2. Because two services are a pattern in Scripture
While there is no explicit command in the NT, this is evident in the OT. We find this ‘morning and evening’ pattern explicitly in Psalm 92: ‘It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.’ As Christians, we meet on Sundays as the day of Christ’s resurrection. It is suggestive that the gospels record resurrection appearances in the morning and the evening (John 20.1,19).
3. Because two services match the fourth commandment
The commandment tells us to ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’. With the change from the Old Covenant to the New, the Sabbath is changed into the blessing of the Lord’s Day. According to Genesis 1, a day has both a morning and an evening. And despite what has become popular in our evangelical culture, it is still the Lord’s Day, not the Lord’s Morning, which we are to celebrate.
4. Because two services are the tradition of the church
As we look back over history, we find that morning and evening worship on Sunday was the norm. In the early fourth century (by the time persecution had receded and the church had a chance to settle), we find the church historian Eusebius describing church practice as follows: ‘It is surely no small sign of God’s power that throughout the whole world in the churches of God at the morning rising of the sun and at evening hours, hymns, praises… are offered to God’ (Commentary on Psalm 64).*
During the Middle Ages, morning worship became known as ‘matins’ and evening worship as ‘vespers’. At the time of the Reformation the custom of morning and evening worship was continued in Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer with its rubrics for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. So churches that have dropped the evening service have sharply departed from the normal practice of Christ’s church. Now I’m not mad on tradition, but the question is this: ‘Are we wiser and better Christians than all those who have gone before us or is it because actually we are succumbing to the secular spirit of our age which marginalises God?’ Have we fallen into just doing the minimum?
And bear in mind that as we think about the pressures of modern life, it is only in the last 100 years or so that Saturday has become generally a non-working day. We actually have more leisure time and time for our families than many of our forebears.
5. Because two enthusiastic services rebuke secularism
The meetings of Christians, especially on the Lord’s Day, point forward to the coming Day of the LORD (Hebrews 10.25). The special day, one in seven, always did point forward to God’s kingdom. That is why the Lord Jesus did so many of his miracles on the Sabbath. He didn’t do it simply to upset the Pharisees. He performed those miracles on the Sabbath because it was appropriate. Those miracles were redolent of the power and joy of the coming kingdom. With the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week, Sunday speaks of the same thing. It looks forward to the rest and release and joy and fellowship of the world to come, when Jesus returns.
Now secularism sees everything just in terms of this life. But by coming to church on Sunday we are making a statement. We are saying ‘No’ to the view that this life is all. We are saying we are looking forward to Christ’s coming kingdom. And, by having two services on a Sunday, we are saying, ‘This is not a mere duty, we are enthusiastic about this!’
6. Because two services offer you two opportunities to be encouraged
Hebrews 10.25 says that the purpose of meeting together is to build one another up. We are encouraged as we meet with God’s people, pray for one another, share our lives. In particular, our faith is helped under the preaching of the Word. ‘Oh, I can listen to a sermon tape, or do a Bible study at home.’ That is true. But, as Christopher Ash pointed out so ably at this year’s EMA, that is not the same as being together under the Word of God all knowing what we have all heard and therefore looking to help one another obey. How can members of Christ’s body say by their actions ‘I have no need of you’?
And in a society where we have so many ungodly ideas fired at us from the media to lead us astray, we need a double dose of God’s Word to feed our souls and keep us straight. Christians go back into the world, marriages fail and, not always but often, neglecting the evening service is the first sign that something is wrong. Let me say also, some of you are desperate to see your children saved. But if you neglect the evening service you are hardly setting them an example of enthusiasm for the things of Christ. Then you wonder why they are not interested.
But, of course, there is the flip side to encouragement.
7. Because two services offer you two opportunities to encourage others
Staying at home and listening to a sermon tape is very ‘me’-centred. Sunday is not just about you being encouraged but about you encouraging others. So Sunday nights give you a second opportunity to do that. Perhaps in the morning you have the children with you. It is not very easy for you to talk to others and keep an eye on them. But if husband and wife take it in turns to put the children to bed so the other can come out in the evening, now you have the chance to be free to talk and pray with others and actually encourage them.
And even your very presence is an encouragement. When Sunday school teachers. or those who can only get out in the evening, come to an evening service where the congregation is sparse and the singing a bit weak, they won’t be as encouraged as they could be by a big congregation and seeing all their friends.
So, can you see, that although there is no explicit command in Scripture that churches must have a morning and an evening service, and it is not a sin to only have one service, nevertheless it makes a lot of practical sense. And this is quite serious. Our needy nation is not going to be turned around and saved by seeing a lot of empty churches on Sunday nights. People are going to be challenged by seeing full churches, and hearing enthusiastic singing and thinking, ‘What’s going on there?’
* I am indebted to The Banner of Truth Magazine for this quote.
There are two main reasons for this. First, demands from employers have increased enormously over the last 30 years. Weekends have become precious. Two Sunday services are seen as taking up too much of the weekend. Second, back in 1994, the Tory government legalised Sunday trading. This secularised the day, giving people many more options with regard to how we spend it. Simultaneously it put extra pressure on many to work on Sundays.
Scripture tells us to ‘not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching’ (Hebrews 10.25). While many Christians are faithful to meet once for worship on the Lord’s Day, they leave it at that. There are those who through age, ill health or other circumstances really can’t make it out twice on a Sunday. So is there any sense in the tradition of two services? I believe there is.
1. Because two services are helpful practically
For example, I know of a Christian couple, a nurse and a policeman, who often have to work shifts over the weekend. They started going to a new church which met in a school and just had a morning service. But their shifts clashed with the morning service. Suddenly it hit them that they had not been able to attend a Sunday service for weeks. They concluded they would have to leave and find a church which met both morning and evening to give them an option.
Two services are helpful evangelistically also. Many non-Christians have to work on Sundays. I had a conversation like this recently. ‘Come to church,’ I said. ‘Well, I have to work through the night on Saturdays, so it’s a bit difficult for Sunday morning.’ ‘How about Sunday night?’ ‘Well, yes, I suppose I could come on Sunday night.’ So, two services make sense practically.
2. Because two services are a pattern in Scripture
While there is no explicit command in the NT, this is evident in the OT. We find this ‘morning and evening’ pattern explicitly in Psalm 92: ‘It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.’ As Christians, we meet on Sundays as the day of Christ’s resurrection. It is suggestive that the gospels record resurrection appearances in the morning and the evening (John 20.1,19).
3. Because two services match the fourth commandment
The commandment tells us to ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’. With the change from the Old Covenant to the New, the Sabbath is changed into the blessing of the Lord’s Day. According to Genesis 1, a day has both a morning and an evening. And despite what has become popular in our evangelical culture, it is still the Lord’s Day, not the Lord’s Morning, which we are to celebrate.
4. Because two services are the tradition of the church
As we look back over history, we find that morning and evening worship on Sunday was the norm. In the early fourth century (by the time persecution had receded and the church had a chance to settle), we find the church historian Eusebius describing church practice as follows: ‘It is surely no small sign of God’s power that throughout the whole world in the churches of God at the morning rising of the sun and at evening hours, hymns, praises… are offered to God’ (Commentary on Psalm 64).*
During the Middle Ages, morning worship became known as ‘matins’ and evening worship as ‘vespers’. At the time of the Reformation the custom of morning and evening worship was continued in Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer with its rubrics for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. So churches that have dropped the evening service have sharply departed from the normal practice of Christ’s church. Now I’m not mad on tradition, but the question is this: ‘Are we wiser and better Christians than all those who have gone before us or is it because actually we are succumbing to the secular spirit of our age which marginalises God?’ Have we fallen into just doing the minimum?
And bear in mind that as we think about the pressures of modern life, it is only in the last 100 years or so that Saturday has become generally a non-working day. We actually have more leisure time and time for our families than many of our forebears.
5. Because two enthusiastic services rebuke secularism
The meetings of Christians, especially on the Lord’s Day, point forward to the coming Day of the LORD (Hebrews 10.25). The special day, one in seven, always did point forward to God’s kingdom. That is why the Lord Jesus did so many of his miracles on the Sabbath. He didn’t do it simply to upset the Pharisees. He performed those miracles on the Sabbath because it was appropriate. Those miracles were redolent of the power and joy of the coming kingdom. With the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week, Sunday speaks of the same thing. It looks forward to the rest and release and joy and fellowship of the world to come, when Jesus returns.
Now secularism sees everything just in terms of this life. But by coming to church on Sunday we are making a statement. We are saying ‘No’ to the view that this life is all. We are saying we are looking forward to Christ’s coming kingdom. And, by having two services on a Sunday, we are saying, ‘This is not a mere duty, we are enthusiastic about this!’
6. Because two services offer you two opportunities to be encouraged
Hebrews 10.25 says that the purpose of meeting together is to build one another up. We are encouraged as we meet with God’s people, pray for one another, share our lives. In particular, our faith is helped under the preaching of the Word. ‘Oh, I can listen to a sermon tape, or do a Bible study at home.’ That is true. But, as Christopher Ash pointed out so ably at this year’s EMA, that is not the same as being together under the Word of God all knowing what we have all heard and therefore looking to help one another obey. How can members of Christ’s body say by their actions ‘I have no need of you’?
And in a society where we have so many ungodly ideas fired at us from the media to lead us astray, we need a double dose of God’s Word to feed our souls and keep us straight. Christians go back into the world, marriages fail and, not always but often, neglecting the evening service is the first sign that something is wrong. Let me say also, some of you are desperate to see your children saved. But if you neglect the evening service you are hardly setting them an example of enthusiasm for the things of Christ. Then you wonder why they are not interested.
But, of course, there is the flip side to encouragement.
7. Because two services offer you two opportunities to encourage others
Staying at home and listening to a sermon tape is very ‘me’-centred. Sunday is not just about you being encouraged but about you encouraging others. So Sunday nights give you a second opportunity to do that. Perhaps in the morning you have the children with you. It is not very easy for you to talk to others and keep an eye on them. But if husband and wife take it in turns to put the children to bed so the other can come out in the evening, now you have the chance to be free to talk and pray with others and actually encourage them.
And even your very presence is an encouragement. When Sunday school teachers. or those who can only get out in the evening, come to an evening service where the congregation is sparse and the singing a bit weak, they won’t be as encouraged as they could be by a big congregation and seeing all their friends.
So, can you see, that although there is no explicit command in Scripture that churches must have a morning and an evening service, and it is not a sin to only have one service, nevertheless it makes a lot of practical sense. And this is quite serious. Our needy nation is not going to be turned around and saved by seeing a lot of empty churches on Sunday nights. People are going to be challenged by seeing full churches, and hearing enthusiastic singing and thinking, ‘What’s going on there?’
* I am indebted to The Banner of Truth Magazine for this quote.
House-groups
House-groups kick off this week. If you want to join a group speak to me or just turn up at one of the various locations
Friday 5 September 2008
Walk to church!!
We are going to conduct 2 travel surveys on the 14th and 28th of September. We would encourage people to bear this in mind, when choosing their mode of transport to Church on those Sundays!
Any spare bibles??
If you have any spare bibles lying round the house there's a need for bibles in Zambian prisons. Please give them to Gordon & Carolyn Figgett
London Women's Convention 08
If you're planning on going, please speak to Lesley Barnes ASAP she needs to book in
Tuesday 2 September 2008
Church Lunch this Sunday
There will be a BBQ this Sunday after church. If you could make a contribution towards cost of £3 that would be appreciated.
This Sunday
This Sunday Willie Philip will be preaching for us.
Willie is the minister of St Georges Tron in Glasgow. A city centre congregation.
Willie is the minister of St Georges Tron in Glasgow. A city centre congregation.
In the evening I'll be preaching from Mark 9
New Word Alive 09
Debbie Weeks is organising a group to go to Word Alive in April 09. Please speak to her if you'd like to go.
Below is the promo video
Below is the promo video
Need for beds
If you can put someone up over Presbytery weekend which is on 12/13 September, please speak to Graham Weeks
Monday 1 September 2008
Prayer Meeting
This Wednesday is our monthly prayer meeting, kick off is at 8pm.
It would be great to have as many as possible there.
It would be great to have as many as possible there.
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