Pastor @ mbc’s Weblog

Monday, 29th September

On Saturday, we had a really good Barn Dance, which was attended by getting on for seventy people. This was part of our Harvest Festival Celebrations – a centuries old custom of rejoicing in God’s goodness, and worshipping our creator. I must confess, its ages since I had a really good dance, and this was a great opportunity. Discos are fine – but they tend to appeal to the younger generation; ballroom dancing is lovely too – but it is mainly the older folk who can do it well; but with a Barn Dance, everyone gets to join in and have fun – from the youngest to the oldest. We were well organized by our visiting caller Patrick, and the food was provided by Brian and Jacky – and the rest was a really enjoyable evening, which I think was a great success. My poor old bones were aching on Sunday – but it was worth it! I hope we can do it again next year (the last one was in 2006!)

It was good to see several “returnees” in Church on Sunday, at both morning and evening services. We had made a real effort to invite people “Back to Church”, and quite a few were able to come and celebrate Harvest with us. It was a good day, and hopefully we will be able to build on this as a new beginning. This week we have our monthly Prayer Meeting on Wednesday at 8pm – do come and join us if you can. On Saturday, we will join our friends at Beltinge as they welcome Mark as their new pastor. Lets pray for a wonderful day, and a joyful celebration.  Have a great week – Stephen.

“Last week, the Men’s Forum had a very interesting talk about the Titanic. It went down very well.”

Friday 26th September

This coming Sunday is “Back to Church Sunday” – a great oppotunity to invite people “back to Church” who havent been for a while. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people who “used” to go to Church – maybe even in their childhood or teens. Research shows that a very high precentage of these people would be open to going to Church again if someone took the trouble to ask them. Its difficult to set foot inside a Church if you dont know anyone, and if you are not sure you will be welcome.  When we moved to Margate, we thought we would go for a drink in a local pub (just an orange juice, of course!). We walked into a certain establishment (which shall remain nameless), and were greeted by being stared at, no welcome at all, and we were told that we should have used the other door (we didnt even know there was another door). Needless to say, we havent been back. Its just a small illustration of how important it is to make people feel welcome.

I’m sure we will do better on Sunday. Lets pray for a great response to all the letters and cards that have gone out, and for a really warm and welcoming atmosphere in Church. Its Harvest Festival too, of course – I’m looking forward to the Barn Dance! Harvest is such a lovely time – time to give thanks for all that God has provided. We may not “plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land” ourselves these days, but we still benefit greatly from God’s good earth, and its right that we should thank him.

Hope to see you on Sunday – 11am or 6.30pm (or both!) – lets make it a memorable day!

Every blessing, Stephen.

“I’m so thankful for the man who invented blinds. Without him it would be curtains for us all!”

Monday 22nd September

This past weekend saw twelve young people and five adults spending time together on a “sleepover” or youth camp, at the Church. The original intention was to stay at a large barn at Detling, but when this proved to be too expensive, we opted for a simpler plan – we would sleep at the Church, and the young people would help to decorate the room which will become their own – the Youth Room, or “Pink Room”, as it has hitherto been called. Friday evening (after Brigade) was about pizza and movies; Saturday morning was about painting and decorating; Saturday afternoon saw us visit the Kite Festival on the beach; and in the evening we went to Gillingham to go ice skating – followed by chips, hot chocolate, and another movie. On Sunday we all went to Church together, and ended our weekend with a roast dinner before cleaning and tidying and heading for home. I hope the young people enjoyed themselves – I certainly did. I was sleeping in the Minister’s vestry at the Cecil Square end of the building, which I thought would be quiet – but in fact it turned out to be extremely noisy because of the activities of revellers outside, who kept me awake for much of both nights. Hence “sleepless in Cecil Square”. It was one small drawback to a tiring but successful experience. Thanks are owed to Laura (who organized and led the weekend); to the other adults who helped to supervise; and most of all to the young people themselves, who were (mostly) on their best behaviour.

Next weekend (27th – 28th September) is our Harvest Festival, and there will be a Barn Dance on Saturday evening – come and join us for food, fun and fellowship. On Sunday, we mark “Back to Church Sunday”, as well as Harvest, which we hope and pray will bring us back into contact with many old friends, and maybe some new ones too. Come and join us at 11am and 6.30pm. Lets make it a great celebration of God’s goodness in all things!   I’m off to get some sleep now – best wishes,  Stephen.

“Call me superstitious, but I believe its unlucky for a man to see his bride before the wedding – and in my case, also for 30 years afterwards.”

Tuesday 16th September

I have “meetingitis”. Its brought on by having too many meetings to attend, and its main symptoms are headaches, lethargy and a strong desire to scream…

It always happens in September. All the groups and organizations have their summer break, and August is a lovely quiet month – but then September comes, and every group, every organization, every activity has to have a meeting to plan its autumn schedule, or to discuss its future plans. Consequently, September is usually a mad month, with comittees, planning meetings,working breakfasts and lunches of all kinds, and you end up rushing from one to the other, and wishing you were back in the lazy hazy crazy days of summer. Last night (Monday) I attended a meeting of local councillors and traders – held in our Church hall, to discuss the ongoing renewal of Margate and plans for the future. This morning (Tuesday), I attended a Minister’s breakfast and prayer time, bringing together about 30 Church leaders from all over Thanet. This afternoon I attended a meeting of local youth leaders to talk about the future; and this evening I have a neighbourhood meeting in our road to go to. Tomorrow is a Church Meeting – and so it goes on. You might almost think Jesus said “I have come that you might have meetings, in all their abundance…”  Of course, meetings are often essential, and usually productive – we need them, I suppose. But I wish there was some other way!

Sunday was a good day, with a fair attendance at the Parade Service (on the theme of fishing for people); and a pretty good number at the Cafe Church Service in the evening. One amazing thing happened. I showed a film clip about Burma, and the refugees in camps in Thailand. During the discussion that followed, we discovered that a young lady who worships with us from time to time – Katie – is actually from Burma, and the area in the film was her home region. She told us about the suffering of her people and their longing for freedom. This was an incredible coincidence – or was it? God moves in mysterious ways, and at a service where the theme was “world vision”, he opens up for us a personal window on the world! All I can say is “Wow!”

This coming weekend , there will be a young peoples’ sleepover at the Church. Pray for those of us helping to lead it, and for the young people themselves. It is sure to be exhausting – but hopefully will also be a time of growth and challenge.  Have a good week – Stephen.

“What a preacher! His sermons were like water to a drowning man!”

Saturday 13th September

On Wednesday, Nicky and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary. The curious thing is that we both almost forgot! It was early afternoon before I remembered the significance of the date – and when I called my wife to say “Happy Anniversary”, she still hadnt remembered. We made up for it later by going out for a meal, and having a nice evening together.

10th September 1977 was a good day to get married – England were doing well at cricket, and even the weather was nice. We were married at Thetford Baptist Church – our reception was at the Anchor Hotel; and as we were penniless students, we spent our honeymoon at a caravan on the Norfolk coast, belonging to a friend of my mum’s. The day after we were married was my 21st birthday (Nicky was still only 19) – so we were very young, and we had no money at all; but we were happy to settle into our first home, which was a small damp cottage in Wales, at a rent of £8 per week. Our next door neighbour welcomed us to our new home with a request that we should not flush our toilet in the evenings, as it disturbed her husband’s sleep. We had only a paraffin heater to warm the cottage, and we lived on soup and toast – but we were very content, and life seemed very much simpler in those days.

Enough reminiscing! I hope you will join us for worship on Sunday – at 11 o’clock is our Parade Service; and at 6.30pm we have a Cafe Church service on the theme “Are you a World Class Christian?” It would be great to see you both morning and evening.   Have a good weekend – Stephen.

“John was absolutely ruthless. I know this because I had Ruth with me.”

Tuesday 9th September

This coming Sunday evening (14th September), we will be holding our fourth Cafe Church Service at 6.30pm. These are held in the Church hall, and are a new style of service, to appeal to people who are less at home with our traditional forms and ways. We sit around tables, and food and drinks are available throughout the evening (just as at any cafe) – while the worship consists of music, perhaps drama, film, interviews, discussion and other less conventional content. We last did this in May, when we were led by Viz a Viz at our Church Anniversary. The two previous Cafe Church services included contributions from our young people. Unfortunately, on this occasion, many of our young people will be away on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition, and they will not therefore be taking part – but it still promises to be a lively and interesting evening on the theme “Are you a World Class Christian?”  Do please come along, and join us as we enjoy Cafe Church together. The weekend marks the second anniversary of my induction as pastor at MBC – two years which have flown by very quickly indeed. Thank you for all your support.

It was lovely to welcome so many visitors on Sunday (7th), as little Grace Waters was blessed and presented by her parents. We talked about “reaching out to our prodigals” as we began to think about who to invite to “Back to Church Sunday” on 28th September. Lets keep on praying and thinking seriously.

Have a good week,   Stephen.

” I have CDO. Thats OCD – but with letters rearranged into alphabetical order, as they should be.”

Saturday 6th September

When is it going to stop raining? It has been such a wet summer, and August in particular was so grey and miserable, its hard to think that the summer seems to have completely disappeared, and autumn has arrived early. I speak as someone who is quite seriously affected by the weather – this is NOT GOOD!

This week, things have started up in earnest after the summer break. We had a very good Day of Prayer on Wednesday – it was particularly good to be able to do a prayer walk around our Church in the evening, and pray about every aspect of our Church’s work. Afternoon Fellowship had its first meeting of the autumn on Thursday, and Brigade restarted on Friday. The Band have gone to a “Band camp” this weekend at Leeds Castle – rather them than me in this weather!

On Sunday Morning at our 11am service, we will be welcoming baby Grace Waters and her family in a service of Infant Blessing. We will also be launching our planning for “Back to Church Sunday”, which will be on 28th September. Between now and then, we all need to do a lot of thinking, praying and preparing. In the evening service at 6.30pm, we will celebrate Communion, as we continue our series on The Sermon on the Mount.

I do hope that you will be able to join us for these times of worship this weekend. Please note that we are also hoping to have a good attendance at the Barn Dance, which will be held at our Church on Saturday 27th September. Get your tickets now!    Best wishes,    Stephen.

“Apparently there is a new telephone service for atheists, called “Dial a Prayer”. You call the number, and no-one answers.”

Monday 1st September

We had a good day yesterday. Morning Worship included a report from Nicky on her trip to Tanzania, with pictures and artefacts to illustrate her adventures. In the evening, we had a very informal time of fellowship in the hall – what I am calling “Prayer and Share”. We began with a cup of tea, then had some songs of praise, a Bible reading and a reflection on the importance of prayer; then a time of sharing various concerns, encouragements and blessings, followed by a prayer time. This was very enjoyable, and was a change from our usual more structured evening service. Thank you to those who came and took part – we will be doing it again in due course.

Some time ago, we had a discussion about Housegroups. We currently have three – but there are many people who do not attend a Housegroup of any kind. We particularly noticed that Cliftonville has no Housegroup, even though many of our fellowship live there. We are therefore giving you a chance to say if you are interested in joining a new Housegroup, if one is started in the Cliftonville area. Please speak to me if you might like to explore such a possibility. So far, four people have expressed an interest, and it seems that a day-time group might be preferable – possibly on a Tuesday afternoon (this is just a suggestion at present). Housegroups are a great way of building deeper relationships with other Christians, through time spent together in fellowship, prayer and Bible Study. I can recommend them! So come on Cliftonville – what do you say?

Please dont forget that Wednesday 3rd September is  our Day of Prayer at MBC – the Church will be open for prayer between 10am and mid-day, between 3 and 5pm, and between 8 and 9 pm (for our monthly Prayer Meeting). Come and pray as and when you can – there will be a Prayer Sheet to help you.  Have a good week – Stephen.

“I told my wife that I like her mother-in-law a lot better than mine!”