Open House! (7:30pm Wed 29th June)
23/06/2022
Good question!
As a Baptist Church we're committed to the practise of the priesthood of all believers. We believe that the Holy Spirit can and does speak to and through each and every believer in the mission and ministry of Christ's church. That is why we often meet together for Church Members Meetings to share together, pray together and to seek to discern the mind of Christ together.
(On that note - if you're a passionate follower of Jesus and believe that He has called you to be a part of Bethel to worship and serve with us, then why not become a member? If you'd like more information about this please speak to one of the leaders who would love to chat it through with you!)
But to cast the vision further than our church members, once a year (at least) we have a special OpenHouse meeting for anyone and everyone who is part of the Bethel family to come and share together! It's a great chance to talk and pray together, and these times of discussion and discernment have often been a big part in shaping and clarifying the future vision of the church.
Well... if you haven't guessed yet... you are! If you've been coming along to Bethel for any length of time and you're looking to get more information and get more involved - you're really welcome!
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Bring your passion & ideas...
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Bring your questions & concerns...
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Bring your heart for Jesus & the church...
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Bring your love for people & for the lost...
Everyone is welcome because everyone is called by Jesus into His Church, and equipped by His Spirit to serve His people and His purpose!
Yet another great question! If you don't mind me saying so - you're on fire!
Our next
OpenHouse is on
Wednesday 29th June and will start at
7:30pm. As always there will be chance to hear something of the current direction of travel from the leadership team, and there will be plenty of time to share and shape this further in discussion groups together!
This time around there
three threads for us to explore together:
(1) What's in a name?
The name of the whitchurch centre where we hold our weekly children and youth groups, and that we hire out to various community groups... what does it tell people about the link between this building and Bethel? Is it confusing for those looking for Whitchurch Community Centre? Is it time to revisit the name?
(2) What are we trying to build here?
Chance for us to revisit the "3 Pillars of Being Church" that we established a while ago as:
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Connecting Deeply with: God (Discipleship, Worship)
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Connecting Deeply with: Each Other (Fellowship, Pastoral Care)
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Connecting Deeply with: Others (Evangelism, Mission)
We want to really explore how that looks in a post covid world, and what places the Lord might be calling us to strengthen and support.
(3) Why are we thinking small?
A big part of Bethel's vision to connect with each other is the life and work of the Small Group Network. These meet weekly in people's home to share and pray together as well as time for Bible Study which is often linked in some way with the current Sunday sermon series. We want to take time to hear from people about how that's working and what might be possible going forward!
That's ok!
If anything is still unclear or uncertain, please do feel free to ask!
We really hope to have a good number of us there to hear from the Holy Spirit and from each other the ways in which He is calling us to work and serve to see the Church built and the Kingdom come!