John Sherbourne 
On a recent visit to York Garden at Adel one of our members took this picture. It’s of a yew tree that not long ago had been cut back right to the ground.
It hardly needs a caption; suffice to say that no matter how savage a gardener prunes away the old, provided what’s left is rooted in fertile soil new life will grow.
ROAD CLOSURES – SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5th
This coming Sunday, the 5th of September, the Leeds Half Marathon will once again be passing MBC. However, for obvious reasons unlike in previous years we won’t be handing out sweets and drinks. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the fact that at the time of our morning Service the chosen route means that Meanwood Road, from the centre of Leeds to Waitrose junction, Stonegate Road between Meanwood and the King Lane roundabout and King Lane down to the Ring Road will all be closed to traffic. Please be aware of these closures and plan your journey accordingly.
At the Service, which will begin in church at 11am (and all being well will be streamed live on our YouTube channel) we will be taking a look back over the last few weeks and asking what we may have learned from the exploits of David, a truly remarkable person who from being a rosy cheeked, giant killing shepherd boy went on to be the man God chose to head up a “house and a kingdom that shall endure forever.”
Kosovo, Peru, Mozambique and Uganda are just four of the countries that feature in the latest edition of the BMS World Mission magazine, ENGAGE. Filled with news and comment from some of the army of BMS workers who are spread out across four continents ENGAGE is available free of charge through the post or on line.
To sign up for your regular copy go to www.bmsworldmission.org, call 01235 517700 or speak with Roger Robson, MBC’s missions link. Roger also has details of several other support initiatives that you can register for.
Thank you.
John Sturges who died on Tuesday 27th July at the age of 81, was a Midlander who converted to being a Yorkshireman in the late 1960’s. Brought up in Birmingham John grew up in a Baptist Church and committed his life to Christ in his mid teens. He also met his future wife Alison in church.
From school John started work as an engineering apprentice and came to Leeds and MBC when he moved to Leeds University as a Metallurgist. He later worked at Leeds Metropolitan (now Beckett) University rising to be a Professor.
Here at MBC John was elected to the Diaconate in 1970 and served for 5 years. He played a notable part in putting the church’s finances on a secure footing and also in the reorganisation of the Sunday School into the Family Church system we are still familiar with. Alison played a leading role in Church Playgroups for pre-schoolers and also in Brownies and Cubs. They were an integral part of the church from the 1970’s onwards and faithful , loyal church members. Sadly Alison died early, ten years ago.
Both John’s professional and Christian interests were broad. As a materials scientist he produced numerous papers and books and was a respected teacher. Latterly he became very involved in issues of sustainability and climate change. In fact on this website you can find a series of articles John wrote about that very subject.
In his late seventies John again served as a Deacon besides continuing to work academically and also volunteering as a counsellor at St Gemma’s Hospice. His long early morning walks were legendary among close friends.
John’s sudden and short illness leading to his death has shocked many and prevented him completing ongoing work. However, he spoke frequently of how blessed he was in life and of his confidence in his faith.
There have been many expressions of love and respect for John in the church. We uphold his daughter Julia, son David and their families before God at this sad time.
Roger Robson
John’s funeral service took place at Moortown Baptist Church on Monday the 23rd of August and will be streamed live on the Moortown Baptist Church YouTube channel.
Only a few weeks ago John recorded a series of prayers for our online Church at Home Service. Below you will find a link to the final part of that recording in which he concentrates his thoughts on Moortown Baptist Church.
On line and in the building…
Once again we begin our Sunday worship at 10.45am from MBC with a live Facebook stream. You can connect to this either HERE or by going to facebook.com/moortownbaptistchurch
Following that those of us that are in church will switch over to MBC’s YouTube channel where together we will watch all our prerecorded material. For those of you viewing at home you can of course watch this where ever you are and when ever you like via the same link.
This week, part four of our look at one of the Old Testament’s best known stories, that of David and Goliath sets the scene for the next week’s finale in which any lingering doubts anyone has about the sword being mightier than the word of God are blown away.
Just a quick reminder about our second Safeguarding training session which is happening this coming Saturday, the 21st August. It’s 10am for breakfast with a prompt start at 10.15 and anyone who didn’t attend the session on 7th August is invited to join us.
In light of the Baptist Union’s most recent guidance we now require, not recommend or suggest but require that for any Service or event taking place inside Moortown Baptist Church anyone attending, unless exempt for proven clinical reasons to wear a face mask. This requirement applies to Sunday services, Lunch Club, Beacon Café, the Thursday Craft Group and Friday Bible Study.
In other words masks, not visors, as the BU say they are much less effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 can only be removed inside MBC when a person is sitting down and at a safe distance from their neighbour.
It’s been great to see so many of you in the building and joining online on Facebook or YouTube with our Sunday get-togethers. On the 15th August, 22nd August and the 29th August we’ll have a playlist of worship put together by friends at MBC that continues our ‘David, after God’s own heart’ theme. I still have some space if you would like to pray or share something for the 22nd or 29th so do record something and let me know. If you don’t know what or how to do it or want to chat thoughts do get in touch with me. I can always record you on my phone at church or somewhere convenient for you. To give you some ideas, I’m wondering if someone could say a prayer, read or take a couple of minutes to share some thoughts on the theme. It would be great to have a few of these thoughts so try not to assume that you aren’t good enough or no one will want to hear you. God speaks through all of us. We can get it uploaded to the right place ready for Sunday. We would ask if you could get it to me a couple of days before the Sunday as I will need to upload it and send it onto those who technically upload the playlist to youtube. We are trying to make our playlists all age accessible as much as we can so different faces/thoughts really help. As a reminder, we are looking at 1 Samuel 17 and specifically…
15th August: ‘the right weapon’
29th August: ‘the right power’
29th August: ‘the right focus’
You don’t need to feel too restricted by this. Last week in the service we did some ‘praying around the world’ and focused on Afghanistan helped by Phil Commons so if you have a country you would like us all to focus on then let me know and we can do that together. As we heard on Sunday from Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people”.
We’ll be having a get together in the church building and under the gazebo’s (thanks to those keeping the gazebo’s going for us, it really helps for those who don’t want to come inside). The get togethers will be at 11am on Sunday 15th, 22nd and 29th August accompanied by individually wrapped breakfast pastries and drinks although do feel free to bring your own if you prefer. There is paper and colouring things too or you may want to create something as the playlist is played. There’ll be a facebook live at 10.45am and then the playlist will be played in church as well as being accessible wherever you are, on the Moortown Baptist Youtube channel.
Other things to let you know about…
‘Unlocked’ a movement/dance workshop led by myself will take place in the building 4pm-5pm this Sunday 15th August and at the same time on zoom. All ages and abilities welcome. Come and relax, be free and explore your own movement in a safe space. Zoom details below…
Topic: Creative worship
Time: Aug 15, 2021 04:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
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Meeting ID: 844 4689 7321
Passcode: 095314
If you are joining on zoom please arrive in the zoom room ten minutes before so that we can start on time.
Most of you will have heard the sad news of John Sturges death a couple of weeks ago. We will miss him very much but we know he is in glory with Jesus who has guided Him all these years and he is not in pain anymore. His funeral date has moved to Monday 23rd August at 9am in church. There will be refreshments under the gazebo after the service. There will be no beacon café on that day.
The thanksgiving service for Irene and Wilf that was due to take place on the 11th September has now been moved to May 7th 2022 so that more people will be able to attend as requested by the family.
I do hope you are all ok. If you are on holidays, at home or away we trust you are having a good rest.
Do keep in touch and let us know if we can support you with anything at this time or you want to enquire about anything at all. Our next livestream service will be 5th September but we will have some live elements over the next few Sundays for those in the building so do come along if you can. We continue to have new people join us each week so do look out for them!
In Christ
Shelley
Dear friends
I hope you are all doing ok. I wanted to update you on a couple of things going on at MBC over the next couple of days. It would be great to see you.
Saturday Safeguarding
Just a reminder that Saturday 7th August (tomorrow) we have the first of two sessions focused on being a safe church/relating well. At 10 o clock there’ll be breakfast pastries and coffee in the Sanctuary and we’ll start the BU safeguarding training film at 10.15 with opportunities to share on what makes a safe/accessible church. The film has been updated to include help to support people in a pandemic. We are encouraging anyone to come along as the more people who see it, the better. If you are already volunteering on any team or thinking about it, it’s important that you see it. If you are concerned in anyway about content or being unable to come into the building then do let me know. If you are shielding it may be possible for you to access it at home. We’ll let you know the date and time of the second session just as soon as we’ve arranged it.
Sunday Service 8th August
We look forward to a fifty minute All Age service live in the building this week with live music, art and more, at 11am. Nathan Dring will be continuing our theme about David when we creatively explore David and the right armour (1 Samuel 17 verses 12-19). It will be livestreamed on our Youtube channel from 11am onwards and before that there will be a Facebook live to say hello at 10.45am. Bring your own drinks if you want them (we aren’t doing a café). Spaces available outside under the gazebo or in the garden too.
See you all soon
Shelley
