Hither Green Baptist Church

Here is a thought Wulf picked up from Hugo Schywzer's recent reflections on John Stott's valedictory sermon:

Faith in Christ without a willingness to become like Christ is empty faith.

That is a thought to ponder, that sits well alongside the church motto of "To know Christ and to make him known".

Our new small groups have been running for about six months now and, as decided at the start of the process, we are reviewing how they have been going. Slides from last week's Small Group MOT are now available in the members area of this website. The most important section are the questions on page 4:

• Why did you choose your group(s) (or choose not to attend any group)?
• What made you happy or sad about your choice(s)?
• How did your choice(s) reach up, in and out?
• Would you like to make the same choice next term?
• If you had to make a different choice, what would it be (an existing group or describe a new one)?
• What help would you need to lead a group?

Answers are welcome between now and the start of next week, in preparation for our church meeting on 18 July. Please pass them onto Wulf in person or by phone or email.

We try to make time in our Sunday morning services to pray for people and places that are not directly connected with our own fellowship. This is a discipline to remind ourselves that God's concerns are far wider than just what goes on in and around Hither Green.

Last Sunday's intercessions were for the nation of North Korea, prompted by news of other prayer focused in that direction.

Click on the image if you would like to see a larger version of the slide used. Those who attend the church are invited to speak to Wulf if they would like to lead an intercession slot for some place or issue that has caught their eye as something we should pray for.

This morning the H(oly)Art small group contributed to our awareness of the importance of clean water - its presence is a powerful contribution to quality of life and its absence can spell death.

We have a staff member from WaterAid among our congregation so this is not the first time that our eyes have turned in that direction (nor will it be the last). What the H(oly)Art group wanted to contribute was further imaginative ideas to help people keep the subject in mind.

That included:

• a "water stunt" from Richard
• a poem from Joyce, accompanied by a series of photos compiled by Wulf (including the rushing water shown).
• a map by Rosie and Bianca of where in the world WaterAid is working. Ribbons were also added to our hanging globe to mark those regions
• Prayers from Dave on the subject of water relief

The H(oly)Art group is one of our five small groups and the members aim at encouraging each other's creative gifts both for use in the church and in other opportunities to produce and share art. Watch out for their next planned contribution on Pentecost Sunday (27 May)!

Next Wednesday evening, 2 May, the church hall will be used for a meeting to move the Hither Green Urban Design Framework forward. There will be representatives of Lewisham Council and local councillors in attendance as well as, hopefully, many local residents.

The subject of the meeting is what can be done to help develop and improve the local area, making it an increasingly attractive area in which to live and work. The process has been underway for some time but is hopefully now going to make some visible progress.

As a church, we are not running this event but, as members of the local community, we are very keen to see suitable development and regeneration in the area and would encourage both our congregation and our neighbours to consider attending. Further discussion on the subject can be found in the local discussion forum.

Remember that this Sunday, 25 March, sees the start of British Summer Time. That means putting your clocks an hour forward. That means that churches up and down the land will have a share of people who turn up half-way through the sermon!

Therefore, remember to change your clock and set your alarm on Saturday night, whether you are coming to visit us, going to another church or just making any other plans that involve being somewhere at the right time.

Fairtrade fortnight starts tomorrow and runs to 11 March. It is a good opportunity to explore the increasing range of products on offer. How we spend our money has an impact on the lives of people in other countries; our shopping affects more than just ourselves.

At Hither Green Baptist Church, we try to use fairtrade products for things like the refreshments available in our services, so that would be one place to try them for free. Also, the local Co-op on Hither Green Lane seems to have reduced prices on all of its extensive fairtrade range at the moment.

There is no better time than the next fortnight to consider casting some more of your pennies as votes for global trade justice.

As mentioned on Sunday morning, there are a number of locally based websites around Hither Green apart from the HGBC web presence. The particular ones highlighted were the hithergreen.org.uk discussion forum and the myhithergreenorg.uk news site. Both of those are local sites bringing together local people, with room for many more to become involved.

There are also local bloggers (such as Wulf Forrester-Barker, who is also webmaster for this site and one of the leaders at Hither Green Baptist), other churches (such as St Swithun's), organisations (such as Lewisham Hospital) and more.

That is not to say that you can fully experience the area by staying indoors and surfing but you can increasingly build up a good picture to enrich living, working and walking around these streets.

Tomorrow we reach the mid-way point in our series of studies in the book of James. As it talks about the tongue, like a rudder that can drive a ship to ruin, this short New Testament letter has plenty of wisdom that applies to modern living.

The service begins at 10:30am, ends at 12 noon and is followed by tea and coffee for anyone who wants to stay and chat.

What was our top song of 2006? Looking back over the figures that are recorded weekly, it was The Splendour of a King, which was a new song we learnt this year. This was sung almost twice as much as the next most popular song, Your Love is Amazing. The full list can be seen over on Wulf's website.

The chart for 2007 has also been started.