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Month: August 2022

Shelley’s post 20 August 2022

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Dear friends

Its been good to catch up with many of you this week.  If you have been away I do hope you have had had a refreshing time.

Tomorrow our service moves onto the next theme of ‘I am not’s’ of Jesus and we move onto ‘I am not of this world’.  Jesus said this a couple of times as recorded by John and one of those times was in front of Pontius Pilate as part of the trial he went through.  It will be 11am until 12midday in the building and on youtube.  There will be activities for our younger friends during the talk. Usually we would have communion on a third Sunday but this has been postponed until next week just this month.  Sorry to those who may be disappointed about this.

Just like Jesus we are called to be in the world but not of it.. I leave you with that thought over the next few days.

Beacon is back as usual 10-12 on Monday and we host the memorial tea to celebrate the life of Margaret Rhodes in the building on Thursday at 1pm. 

I’m away today and tomorrow but I am back again on Monday.

Do pray for the leadership team who have a meeting on Tuesday night to collate reports from the past few years.

A reminder too to put ‘Space’ in your diary, 8th September from 6.30pm in church: a time to play your instruments, draw, sing, dance, relax and worship (no previous experience necessary).

There is a week left to apply for the administrator job at MBC. Do have a look at the website to see the job description and details on application.  Any questions, get in touch.

Thanks for all your prayers for the church.  We gave out two more bibles to people coming to our café and want to read more about God.

Praying we all know the refreshment of God through His fountain of life (Revelation 22)  

Many blessings

Shelley

New BMS Engage magazine out now complete with Prayer Guide and (whisper it) a Christmas catalogue

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At MBC, this last year has been something of a mission special. We started last summer with a visit from our BMS Mission Partners Sue and John Wilson from Paris who joined us on our first day back together. Then at Christmas, rather than holding our traditional toy and gift Service we decided to support a BMS initiative called Protect a Child at Christmas which saw us send almost £1,200 to BMS for their work among children in Uganda. Then of course it’s only a few weeks ago that Andrea and Mark Hotchkins visited us and shared stories and pictures of their life working with BMS in Chad. 

Add to this the two way visits members of our Romania Support Group and our friends in Cluj have made to the UK, plus the extraordinary amount of money we raised to help them assist their Ukraine neighbours and you will see just how much we as a church reach out not only within our own community but also far beyond.

One way BMS World Mission keeps in touch with us is through their Engage magazine and right now Issue 54 is available either online or free through the post. 

The online edition can be downloaded by following this link HERE and the postal one is available by contacting www.bmsworldmission.org

Issue 54’s reports include stories from just about every country BMS is active in, and it also gives you the opportunity to further follow the great work they are doing by signing up to any number of initiatives such as the BMS Birthday Scheme or becoming a Prayer Partner.

Any queries you have about anything to do with BMS World Mission just have a word with Roger Robson, who as I always say will be more than happy to give you more details. 

Oh and one final thought – did you know that as well as our personal involvement with BMS World Mission (for example personal one off donations) year by year Moortown Baptist Church sends them a percentage of its income by way of a tithe.   

Administrator required for MBC

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https://moortownbaptistchurch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Admin-job-church-web-site-versoion.pdf

 

Moortown Baptist Church  

‘Welcoming all. Living the Christian faith.

 Teaching God’s word and sharing His love.

 

Role:                  Church Administrator

Location:            Moortown Baptist Church. Leeds 17

Salary:               £10,799 per annum (£11.54 per hour)

Hours:               18 hours per week    Holiday days:  12.5 days + bank holidays

Moortown Baptist Church is seeking to appoint an office based Administrator for 18 hours per week (days/hours to be negotiated). Training will be provided as necessary.

Role: 

We are seeking a warm, reliable person with good I T skills to be our administrator.

Your role would be to ensure that the admin duties of the church are undertaken efficiently and in line with the church ethos in order to facilitate its overall ministry.

We require someone with personal integrity, resilience, and confidence to offer a warm welcome to all.

Someone with the ability to maintain confidentiality/accountability as they would have access to all church records and certain monies, in conjunction with the treasurer.

Essential skills:

The person should be sympathetic to the Christian faith and the ethos of the Church.

The person should have good working knowledge of Microsoft 365

The person should have recognised and experienced secretarial or similar skills.

The person should be able to communicate well and work in various teams as needed.

Responsibilities:

The person appointed would be responsible for:

  • All work on the office computer, using Microsoft 365.
  • Producing minutes from meetings, some being taped from a Zoom.
  • The typing up and amending of policies.
  • Writing and answering a variety of letters and correspondence as required.
  • Maintaining a yearly calendar and members listings, plus all other admin work as needed e.g. making posters or downloading children’s work.
  • They will have to answer all telephone calls and check recorded messages, passing the information to the required relevant persons.
  • They will need to order and maintain all consumables needed for the smooth running of the Church.
  • They will need to purchase yearly licences and maintain and pay bills to the necessary contractors used in the running of the Church.
  • They will pay expenses to staff and volunteers in conjunction with the Treasurer.
  • They will need to liaise with the cleaning staff and all other persons working in the building, which may change daily.

This list of responsibilities is not intended to be exhaustive and is subject to review in consultation with the Minister and HR Deacon

Please note that two references will be taken up if called for interview in early September. And a full job description is available to view or download via the link at the top of this post.

Please initially send a copy of your CV and a letter stating why you would like this post by August 29th 2022 to: Mrs Karen Ross (HR Deacon) Moortown Baptist Church, 204. King Lane. Leeds LS17 6AA or drop an email to Leadership.team@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com  

 

Art and faith – how Krystyna Gadd reflects on and interprets the word of God

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These pictures have been created by Krystyna Gadd. The words that accompany them, and which are used here with her permission explain how and why in her mind art, or as she calls it doodling and faith go hand in hand. If anybody else would like to share any other images,verses or visions for the church please send them to church email address mbcnewspics@gmail.com or to my email address adaleearg04@virginmedia.com:

It was Shelley’s idea to do the session last week. I can share how I have used art to get closer to God: As long as I can remember I always loved to draw and colour in. As a child, I used to design clothes for my dolls and sew them, hoping to be a fashion designer when I grew up. Science was also a passion and this took me away from considering art as a career, although arts and various crafts have been my hobbies throughout my life.

It’s where I go when I need to empty my busy brain and relax. A number of years ago I got an iPad and discovered an app that almost mimicked how it is to draw and paint, without having to get messy. I started to use it to make visual notes of things I had read or heard. It was a way for me to focus my attention and remember things I wanted to learn. I did this mostly in work situations and even illustrated my own business book that was published a few years ago.

I started to use this technique of note taking in church too, as a way of remembering the teaching. As this has developed, it has sometimes allowed me to hear God, speak through colour and marks when pondering a scripture. My ‘doodling’ as I call it, has helped me to crystallise what God might be saying to me in a scripture or when I have been heading into unknown waters.

The doodle above I created back in 2017, during a period of uncertainty. I feel God is speaking through this to me at this time too. I have also shared it with Shelley and it seemed to resonate with her. I don’t think you have to be an artist for God to speak to you through colour and making marks.

Picture 2 – this one from a lectio divina meditation during a period of fasting and prayer.

And picture 3 – a reflection on Shelley’s teaching on Sunday.

Lunch Club enjoy a great day out… only without any of the usual hassle!

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What would summer be like without a trip to the countryside or even the seaside. And that’s what our guests at Lunch Club enjoyed this last week courtesy of MBC’s Senior’s Lead Rachel Beedle and on this occasion her little helper Shelley. 

As this gallery of pictures shows there’s a lot to be said for not getting sand between your toes or for not being late back to the bus. So thank you to everyone who came, went or helped to organised it. 

As my old mother in law used to say “ee, and a good time was had by all.” 

A hectic week in near record temperatures make the Fodor family’s visit to the UK a time to remember.

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With temperatures hovering around the 30 degrees C mark it almost goes without saying that this last week MBC handed out an extra warm welcome to our friends from Cluj – Napoca… Dana, Florin and their daughter Irene Fodor. 

Hot on the heels of Florin’s most recent humanitarian trip into Ukraine the family were hosted by members of our Romania Support Group and from what I hear with hardly a minute to unwind their visit included just about everything from sharing some of their experiences in a Sunday service, a jaunt around the Yorkshire Dales, the now obligatory visit to York and of course popping into a certain well known local supermarket for gifts to take home. 

Here’s a little bit of what Phil Coates had to say about the Meanwood visit: “On Tuesday evening Irene Foder joined Eleanor, Philippa, Mary, Jess and Sam who together with Jane and myself had a ‘pizza plus’ picnic in Meanwood Park. As the sun sank slowly in the west the younger ones did games – including the ‘slack line’ that Philippa brought.  For over 3 hours they managed eating and chatting, badminton, tightrope walking, football, and frisbee – and of course, the children’s playground.”

An update from Shelley – 13th August

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Dear friends

Last Sunday we started a summer ‘3 part mini series’ looking at the ‘I am not’s’ that Jesus spoke in John 8.  Nathan shared on the topic of ‘I am not here for my own glory’.  This week we move onto our second ‘I am not’ when Jesus said ‘I am not alone, I stand with the father’ from John 8:14.  It’s a huge statement as it implied to the Pharisees that Jesus wasn’t making judgements on his own but he was in relationship; not only that but he was in relationship with God the father.  We’ll unpack this and its implications on Sunday and there’ll be linked activities including crafts for our younger friends.

Next week we move onto ‘I am not of this world’ and we’ll share communion together.  As usual you can catch both services on our YouTube channel if you are away.

This week we welcomed Florin and Dana and their daughter Irene to England from Rumania.  Thanks for helping them feel so welcome.  They have had a great week exploring Leeds and further afield and Florin wrote,

“We had a wonderful time with you and the members of Moortown Baptist Church. We were able to get to know many people, visit several interesting places but also get some rest. We want you to know that we appreciate very much the love you showed to us. As a church (Cluj, Manastur) we are grateful for our partnership with you. We will continue to send you updates, including about our work among the Ukrainian refugees.

As a family, please say a prayer for our time in Liverpool. I will be preaching on Sunday (this Sunday)  at a Persian/Iranian church. Most members are new believers, coming from a Muslim background. This is going to be an interesting experience! If you want to support our ministry in Romania, you can do it by sending your donation through Agape UK (https://give.agape.org.uk/fodor-florin-dana/).

Again, thank you very much. We will always treasure our memories of our wonderful time with you.”

Thanks to all those who helped with a Summer special lunchclub this week, it was wonderful to see so many sunhats!  Wednesday night house group had a special time in the building together exploring colour and drawing as part of their series on the holy spirit.  If you are interested in popping into a house group for a time then do get in touch.

Beacon café continues 10am-12midday in the building on Monday, if you’ve never been it would be lovely to see you.  Craft group continues on Thursday at 2pm.

See you on Sunday

In Christ

Shelley

7th August. Cafe Church, a cream tea and lots lots more – a message from Shelley

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Dear friends

Last Sunday we welcomed Andy and Norma Hobbs to MBC and he shared thoughts about blind Bartimaeus from Matthew Chapter 20 and asked the question that Jesus asked of Bartimaeus “What do you want me to do for you?”  Bartimaeus replied “I want to see”.  I wonder what we might reply, as an individual or as a community? What do we see? What is God showing us now in August 2022?

I have been sharing a lot about the water of life, the river flowing from the throne (Revelation 22) and its been good to hear some of your thoughts on this, thankyou.  I mentioned ‘daylighting’, the process of uncovering waters and literally all this week Rod has been opening up a physical water in the sanctuary by doing some initial work to sort out the baptistry ready for anyone who feel they want to be baptised.  Opening up waters is a messy task, hard work, often you need to clear out the rubbish before the fresh water can go in…but its worth it.

Woven into all this are the ‘I am’ statements of Jesus that we focused on over the last few weeks from John’s gospel.  Maybe less well known are some statements of Jesus where he says ‘I am not’… So from this Sunday we take the next 3 weeks to look at 3 things in John’s gospel that Jesus said he wasn’t…

Sunday 7th August – ‘ I am not seeking glory for myself’ (John 8: 50).  Sunday 14th August – ‘I am not alone. I stand with the Father who sent me’ (John 8:16) and Sunday 21st August – ‘I am not of this world’ (John 8:23)

This Sunday it’s café church, 11-12midday with drinks, breakfast pastries and fruit. There will be an area where you can be creative with a linked activity. We also welcome Florin and family from Romania who will update us on their recent visit to Ukraine.

Then 3-5pm we have the strawberry cream tea at church, raising money for Romania.  All welcome, if you want to bring your sandwiches in between both events then you are welcome.

Thanks for all your help with chair moving last week. We continue on Monday 8th August with Beacon café, 10-12midday.  Do look at the website for latest news and like us on Facebook.

Keep in touch. For those on holiday, have a restful time. For those who aren’t (and those who are) we pray you know God’s life giving presence and hope in the everyday and in the new…

“…and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set; your moon will not go down. For the Lord will be your everlasting light. Your days of mourning will come to an end.” Isaiah 60:19-20

Shelley

A reminder! Are you in the loop? We’re currently updating our online data base, make sure you are on it – we would hate you to miss out

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As you know, over the last couple of years lots of things have changed here at MBC and one of those is the details we have of who does and who doesn’t want to receive our newsletters, our LT emails, Shelley’s message or for that matter anything else we send out. 

Besides what might be described as many private WhatsApp, text groups etc, we currently we have almost 200 email addresses on our E-Newsletter list, 120 or so on the members register and as for Facebook, where stats vary depending on the subject matter our posts often reach well over 1.000 people. 

So, if you are uncertain as to which of our more “official” lists you may or may not be on can we ask you to drop an email to mbcnewspics@gmail.com telling us what you already receive. That way we can double check at our end.

Thank you in advance. We have some wonderful stories to share about what God is doing here at Moortown and we would hate you to miss out on any of them.

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