Newsletter
A Newsletter is produced 4 times a year, at the beginning of March, June, September and December containing information and news about church life.
The following articles are abstracts from the issue for June 2008.

From our minister, Rev. Paul Spencer

Dear Friends,
Well from 5th May to 17th August this year I’ve got one of these ‘ere’ Sabbaticals. Three months in the summer, plus my holidays. Yes I know what some of you are thinking, ‘perhaps the sabbatical itself is a holiday.’ I say that because that’s what I might have thought. When I was a teenager, the minister at my home church used his sabbatical to build a boat. No his name was not Noah! In fact I was apprehensive of taking this time away from normal duties, but later I was persuaded that it is a special gift from the church to full-time ministers, and should be counted a blessing. Well I am a year late in taking it after all, so why not! It’s strange that for many of us in the ministry there does not seem the time we would want to do an in depth study of this sort. As a Probationer Minister, I was encouraged to take one day of the week for study. Not just one day, but a special day reserved for the purpose. In those days I was a member of the library in St. John’s College in Durham. It was a very special time in as much as I could study without interruption, and I had a wealth of books at hand. That is of course a distant memory. In the usual run of things there is little time for such extravagance. But praise God for the time approaching. Well what will I be doing? The main piece of work that I want to do during my sabbatical is to study John’s gospel. John is very special to me, and was significant in my becoming a Christian. It was in the first year of high school that I began to read my Gideon New Testament and especially John. He records so much about what Jesus said about himself. For instance, ‘I am the Bread of life, the resurrection and the life, the Way the Truth and the Life’, etc. John records so much about the love of God for us. He also portrays a very high view of the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus. All this and much more draws me to the Gospel of John. Something else that I want to do, is write some more interactive Children’s stories; these are bible stories, which have actions, and audience/congregation participation. I have used some from the ‘Telling tales’ series, I have also written and used some of my own already, but I would like the chance to write more. I also want to get back to my routine of swimming each day and getting fit. During my Sabbatical other ministers of the Circuit will have pastoral charge at Tottington, at different times. The name and phone number of the minister on duty will be will published in the weekly notices.

Paul

Coming Soon . . . . . . .

 

Top