Prepared to serve?
Training and helping opportunities at St John’s.
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6• Training courses
• Faith in the Local Church annual conference
• Weekends Away
• Reading 1-2-1
• Learn through doing and serving!
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says:
‘Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.' (Ephesians 4:15-16)
Here at St John’s, we’re keen to develop an every-member ministry as we learn and grow in our understanding and faith, using our God-given gifts to serve together. With this in mind, we have various training courses and weekends away, in addition to Sunday services and midweek small groups, as well as plenty of opportunities to serve right through the week!
Training courses
Spring term is when we often focus on training as a church and run specific training courses. Over the past couple of years we’ve put on a ‘HOPE‘ course (‘Helping other people eternally’), and a Bible Overview course, where we’ve seen how the whole Bible points to Jesus as God’s plan rescuing humans to be in a relationship with Him in a New Creation. This last spring, we ran a course called Make Me Useful. Over six Wednesday evenings our aim was to grow in love, grasp some truth, and gather some skill, so that Make Me Useful might increasingly be an answered prayer. If you missed the evenings, check out some of the material on the Sermons page of the website.
Autumn 2010 sees a new venture as we launch a training course in partnership with the other ‘Faith in the Local Church’ churches (see below). This is aimed at those who would appreciate some training in ministry and service, but haven’t the time or opporunity at this stage to do so full-time or even part-time. On one Wednesday evening each month we’ll have a session on a given theological topic, culminating in the conference below. If you’d be interested in joining, or for more information, please contact the church office.
Faith in the Local Church annual conference
Every June, we put on a conference to address a topic which will be helpful to St John’s and other fellowships as local churches. Several churches contribute to the planning of this each year. The aims of the conference are to build confidence in the local church (a God-given tool for a God-given task), to strengthen competence in the ministries of our local churches (sharpening one another up in the exercise of God-given gifts) and to express fellowship between churches and across denominations (fostering a collaborative spirit). In recent years, we’ve looked at such topics as joy and love. This year’s title was Faith in the Local Church... for Living as God’s Household, and took place in June. To download the latest FILC brochure, please click here or visit the official website. To book a place at the next conference, please contact the Church Office.
Weekends Away
Every year we run several Weekends Away, including a big one for the whole church family. The dates for this year’s event are Friday 5 to Sunday 7 November 2010. More regularly, however, there are smaller getaways to cottages in the countryside. These are great for getting to know one another better, as well as learning from the Bible, cooking, eating, and enjoying some fresh air! For more details of upcoming weekends away, please contact the Church Office.
Reading 1-2-1
Whether you’re a Christian already and want to grow in your faith, or you just have lots of questions to ask over coffee, meeting up with someone to look for answers in the Bible is a great thing to do. There are always people at St John’s who would love to help you if this is something that would appeal to you. Please contact the Church Office or ask on a Sunday.
Learn through doing and serving!
There are many opportunities to serve, in a whole range of ways, right through the week. They will be good for you, and for everyone else! We’re
always looking for people to help with music, cooking, clearing, and running children’s clubs - to name but a few. Ask around on a Sunday and someone will point you to the right person about whatever area of service you’d be interested in getting involved in, and any training you might need.
