Messy Church - January 2017

Saturday 21 JanuaryQueen Mary Centre, Wisbech3:30pm-5:30pmFree entry

Messy Church is a fun and creative way of exploring the Christian faith for the whole family. There are lots of crafts and activities as well as a Bible story and songs. We finish by sharing a meal together.

This month we are learning about how we can listen to God.

Entry is free and open to all. So why not come along and join in the fun!

www.messywisbech.org.uk

Three Cheers for Christmas!

The Riding Lights Theatre Company were back in Wisbech on Friday with their 'Three Cheers for Christmas' play that was performed in the Queen Mary Centre. It explored the story of Christmas from three different perspectives: a shy shepherd; a wise man and an angel. It was full of bad jokes and fun, yet also presented the story of the birth of Jesus in an original and meaningful way.

There were two performances. On Friday afternoon the play was watched by over 400 primary school children from around Wisbech. Upon leaving they were given a Christmas gift from The King's Church Wisbech of the Bible Society's Christmas book ' The Well Good News of Christmas' in conjunction with Wisbech Reads. Friday evening saw an audience of about 100 people, a good mix of children and adults who also enjoyed the performance.

The event was sponsored by the Ferry Project and The King's Church Wisbech.

The Well Good News of Christmas

Watch the video that tells the story of Christmas. We will be giving away over 400 books to Wisbech school children that tell this story as part of Wisbech Reads. We will also be giving these to children who come to December's Messy Church.

Enjoy the video - Merry Christmas!

Come to Messy Church in October

Come and join in the fun on Saturday 8 October at the Queen Mary Cenre, Wisbech from 3:30pm - 5:30pm! Messy Church is a monthly creative way of having fun for all ages. It is also church, so we learn about a theme from the Bible - this month it is 'Salt and Light' - sing a song and say a prayer as well as having a meal together at the end.

This month we are learning about what it means to be salt and light to the people around us - come along to find out all about it!

www.messywisbech.org.uk

Saturday 8 October
3:30pm-5:30pm
Queen Mary Community Centre, Wisbech
PE13 2PE
Free of charge (although donations are welcome)

New Sunday Morning Service Structure and Times

New Sunday Morning Service Structure

As from Sunday 18th September our service structure will be as follows: 

• 10:15am - Bible teaching and discussion
• 10:50am - Fellowship in the foyer with refreshments
• 11:15am - Celebration service, concluding by 12:15pm

These changes will be in place until Christmas at which point a review will be conducted.

Sermon notes will be sent out a week in advance with the e-newsletter and will also be available on the information table.

Messy Fun at Rose Fair

Messy Church set up outside the Queen Mary Centre during the big Saturday Rose Fair event last week. A craft gazebo and bouncy castle were on offer as well as a puppet show. Despite the torrential showers that most managed to dodge, the event was a success and saw many new connections made with many good conversations about Messy Church. The puppet show was a huge success, performing to an audience of about 60 people who were all quite receptive to the gospel message and Bible stories and sings being performed.

Thank you to everyone who helped in any way. If we met you for the first time at the Rose Fair - we hoe you had fun and we look forward to seeing you at Messy Church in September.

Book Your Place for 'Word on the Wash'!

Message from Helen Slipper at Terrington St Clement church:

We would be delighted if you would take a look at the Word on the Wash webpage - http://www.tsc-church.org.uk/wordonthewash/ - to see all the latest details about the programme, speakers, seminars and practical arrangements for Word on the Wash 2016.

We look forward to welcoming Hugh Palmer and Tim Chester as our main speakers.  Hugh will be teaching us from the book of 2 Timothy and Tim Chester will be unpacking Galatians chapter 2 for us under the title ' Rediscovering Reformation Joy'.

There will be a full programme for children aged 5-15 (including creche facilities for 0-5's with an audio link to the main hall) throughout Saturday 17th September - so please bring the whole family and make a day of it!

There will be four interactive seminars to choose from this year covering a wide range of topical issues - do please click on the 'Seminars' button on the webpage to browse the topics.

If you would like to support the event in prayer you would be most welcome to join us at our monthly prayer meetings at the St John's Centre, Kings Lynn, 4pm on Sunday's  19th June, 17th July and 21st August.

We look forward to receiving your booking online soon - or see you in September!

Messy Fun at Messy Church!

This was our sixth messy church and the theme for this month was not to worry for God takes care of us. Everyone who came enjoyed the activities especially making hats and garments from junk .Some had fun making a bird feeder mixing lard ,cheese,bird seed and raisins together. Another activity was making a grass head,filling a pop sock with some grass seed and then sawdust to take home and water and watch the grass grow to make hair,after an hour of activities we all came together for a short celebration where some of the children had bubble wands and made bubbles Mike spoke about how as the bubbles fly away we can give God our worries and he will help us,then we all had a meal of hot-dogs coleslaw and then strawberries and shortcake a good time was had by all.

 

Val's Prophetic Word

This image captures a vision that Jane saw about our church some years ago.
It also ties in with Val's words that she gave on Sunday.

I feel that the Church has been asleep for a long time and that God is now using the very difficult circumstances that some of us have/are experiencing to "wake us up".  I feel that God is going to do something big with us in the future and he is getting us ready, that he is preparing us for an explosion.

Now adding my own take on this.  I feel very excited about the future of the church and even more so now that I now we will be around to see it and be part of it.  I think what we are currently experiencing is like birthing pains.  Yes, it is difficult and painful but it will be wonderful when we have finally "given birth" and can give glory and testimony to God for what he has taken us through.

Val.

Good Friday Walk of Witness

Yesterday, on Good Friday our congregation joined with others from around the town of Wisbech to take part in a united Walk of Witness. Over 100 people attended the event, led by Russell Day from the Salvation Army and the opening service of collective worship held at St Peter’s Church, saw four processions, each reading part of the Easter story, walk around the town. We concluded by gathering together in the Market Place to form the shape of the cross by holding four strands of rope where we read the Bible, sang hymns and prayed together. It was a powerful witness and sign of unity. 

Messy February

At Messy Church yesterday we explored the meaning and significance of The Last Supper. We painted our own place mats (picture above), squished our own grape juice, created and decorated our own goblets and constructed a huge wooden door frame which was used as part of the teaching during the Celebration.

Our messy volunteers did a fantastic job once again! We had a total of 20 people (including volunteers).

Our next Messy Church is on 19th March 2016 where we will be learning all about Easter! It is going to be a lot of fun for the whole family - and of course its going to be MESSY! You are very welsome to join us. Find our more at www.messywisbech.org.uk 

Christian Passover Meal

Last night a group of us gathered together in the church rooms at Octavia View to take part in a Christian Passover Meal. This helped us to deepen our understanding of Communion as well as helping us to identify with the Jewish roots of Christianity. The evening was led by Andrew Saunders and was most enjoyable.

Homeless Sunday

This week we celebrated Homeless Sunday during our morning service. As well as learning more about the work of our local homeless charity the Ferry Project, lead by one of our Elder's. Keith Smith, we were also fortunate enough to hear John's story.

Messy Church Starts - Don't Miss It

You are invited to bring your family along to Wisbech's new all-age Messy Church. We are launching on Saturday 23rd January and for every new registration you will receive a free gift! Come along to experience church in a fun, creative, friendly, all-age way with celebration, Bible teaching, a song and food! You don't want to miss it!

3.30 - 5.30pm
Queen Mary Centre, Wisbech
Free (but donations welcome)
All-ages (Children must bring an adult with them)

Prophetic Worship Workshop and Evening Service

Angie Lendon, songwriter and worship leader from Revive Church in Hull, travelled down to Wisbech on Saturday to hold a prophetic workshop with our church band. Everyone was very receptive to what she brought and were stretched to step out in courage and respond to what the Holy Spirit was doing and where He was leading amongst us. She gave many practical tips and suggestions as well as provided opportunities to put them into practise.

Saturday evening saw our band joining with Angie for an evening of prophetic worship. Here the band flowed from known songs into spontaneous times of singing and playing. Angie also brought some prophetic words and sung over a few people. Someone was also healed when the clarinet was played over them (no words at all!).

On Sunday, when the whole church gathered together, the time of worship was extremely powerful. As the band continued to flow and use what they learnt from the previous day, the congregation responded very well and the Holy Spirit was very evident amongst us.

God is alive and moving powerfully amongst us!

New Song on Sunday

Here is a new song we will be learning in church this Sunday as we celebrate 2016 together. Have a listen.

Contemporary Christmas Carols

The evening of Contemporary Christmas Carols hosted by Wisbech Churches Together with The King's Church, Wisbech in aid of the Refugee Fundraising Appeal happened on Saturday. The Queen Mary Centre in Wisbech came alive with rousing music - some familiar Christmas Carols alongside more contemporary Christmas worship songs which were enjoyed by all. Video clips of the Christmas story set within a modern context punctuated the music. Just before the interval, there was a moment to pause and pray for those caught up in the refugee crisis in Europe with prayer stations to help bring a focus to our prayers.

During the interval there were tea, coffee, mince pies, a variety of items needed in the Calais 'Jungle' Camp in France posted on an Amazon Wish List and some needlework crafts on sale to help raise funds for the appeal. A total of £247.36 was raised at the event that will be shared between the Hope For Calais Amazon wish list and the Christian Aid emergency appeal.

Thank you to everyone who attended.

Verse for Sunday's Service

James 5:19-20 is the verse we will be looking at this Sunday in our 10:30am service and will be preached on in out 11;30am service.

Read it - pray about it - think about it - share it.

This image has been shared on our Facebook and Twitter feeds to enable you to share it with others. Or you can use the tools below to help you share this Bible passage with the people in your world.

Our Website Makes Awards Shortlist

We are pleased to announce that our church website has just made the shortlist of the Premier Digital Awards 2015 in the 'Accessibility' category.

The Premier Digital Awards are national awards that seek to celebrate and encourage excellence in Christian engagement online. In the spirit of Philippians 4:8 thier aim is to focus attention on those people and projects that can serve as examples of best practice for the benefit of the Church.

Over 800 entries were made in this year's awards for the 16 categories available.

There is an awards ceremony held in central London in mid November where the winners will be announced which follows the Premier Digital Conference that is held earlier in the day, providing encouragement, resources and training for Christians interested in engaging with the digital world.

Visit our church website - click here now!

Matt Records Song for UCB TV

On Monday our Worship Leader, Matt McChlery went along to UCB Broadcast Centre in Stoke-on-Trent to record a live acoustic version of my song 'Fingerprints' that is off his latest worship EP 'All Things New'. The TV recording was for UCB Watch and is due to be aired on the 'Faith In Action' chat-show programme in the coming months.

We will let you know when the programme will be aired.