Pastors Note November
I am being reminded as I get older how easily we can forget things. My wife asks me to get the meat out to defrost for our evening dinner before I go to work and on numerous occasions, as my wife anticipates, our menu changes simply because I’ve forgotten – again! Why is it that something so simple can be overlooked – is it really age? I suspect it has more to do with how much we try to fit into…
Pastors Note June
Have you ever had a work colleague who made going into work ‘that’ much better? Someone you worked well with, someone who made you laugh? Someone who ‘got you’? Someone who when you worked together, made the working feel less like work and more like joy? I have had the privilege of working alongside many brilliant people, but one of my favourites was named Lynda – we were church children’s workers together for several years. We had the same sense…
Pastors Note May
“To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be.” Fyodor Dostoevsky In 1997, American journalist Philip Yancey published a book called What’s so Amazing about Grace?’and it was a number one hit in both the Christian and secular world – selling 16 million copies by 2006. It is rumoured that the author was inspired to write the book after Bill Clinton asked him ‘Why do Christians hate so much?’ I am sat here planning a…
Pastors Note April
Did you see the gigantic, human sized Easter bunny hopping around Lisvane last week? It was caught on camera, but it was tough to get a close up! Thankfully it left lots of chocolate deposits behind and all it cost was a simple carrot to keep it happy. I’m glad it’s not that straight forward in the supermarkets, ‘excuse me, can I swap this carrot for some chocolate?’ – there would be no end of public health warnings. But what…
Pastors Note March 2018
With Easter fast approaching I was recently thinking about our Community Easter Egg Hunt, followed by our Easter Café Church and all the planning needed. I messaged our Café Church Team and set a date to meet and plan, dug out the plans from last year, set our graphic designer to task in designing our flyer and then I stopped and thought “Café Church is so different to conventional church – but what is church? Will people see ‘church’ in…
Pastors Note February 2018
“A person with a Primark bag in their hands always has a smile on their face”. So, said, a good friend of mine in Lisvane. This made me laugh and made me think about what might be in my Primark bag – probably new shoes and new bags! But then I thought, what are we carrying in our bags that would make a difference and bring a smile not just to our faces, but to those of others? My friend’s…
Pastors Note January 2018
There have been many famous catchphrases, I wonder how you will get on with some of these. ‘I don’t believe it!’… ‘Shut that door’ … ‘Nice to see you, to see you … nice’ … ‘Ooh you are awful but I like you … ‘Lovely jubbly’ ‘Listen very carefully I will say this only once!’ and probably my favourite of all … ‘It’s good night from me’ … and … ‘It’s good night from him.’ How did you get on?…
Big Tent Event
Thank you to everyone in the church who just kept giving during the Big Tent Event. Whether it was putting up or taking down the marquee, making sandwiches, cooking hot meals, night time security, helping with transport, serving coffees, stewarding, setting up / down for various events, tech, music, helping with the holiday club, youth events, women’s event, Days gone by or men’s event you served with a smile! It’s no wonder we are tired! It was a great time and…
Pastors Note September
The Big Tent Event 29th October to 5th November Hopefully you read the article in last month’s Link explaining that St Denys Church and Lisvane Baptist Church (LBC) are holding a ‘Big Tent Event’ here in Lisvane this coming Autumn. With summer ebbing away and the nights drawing in quite quickly now, it’s rapidly approaching and our excitement is continuing to mount! Since the last article we’ve had quite lots of people asking more about it … so we thought…
Pastors Note July – August
If I was to say the word ‘tent’ what would come to mind? Holidays Family Friends Fun Rain Baked Beans Personally I am not a fan of camping or tents, even though I subject myself to a tent every year for a Christian Festival called New Wine. Indeed, I recently stumbled across a most fitting quote that explains my experience of camping through and through. It’s written by an American author by the name of Dave Barry and reads: “It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel…