News items for public viewing
Rod Russell who very recently visited the USA has very kindly sent us these three images.
The first (left) Rod spotted outside what he describes as a outwardly Christian/evangelical cafe in West Virginia, the other two, the “so called” Beautiful One -liners were in a church bulletin.
How do you feel about MBC adopting a similar outreach strategy?
Answers on a postcard please.
For all Fairtrade and Beehive supporters we have some very sad news. Traidcraft PLC, the Christian pioneer of Fairtrade since 1979 has announced that unless there is a remarkable improvement in sales, they will have to cease trading at the end of December.
Despite its pioneer status and close links with churches across the UK, Traidcraft has been facing serious trading difficulties caused by many of the issues affecting all retailers and by the fall in the pound since the decision to leave the EU. Traidcraft’s ethical model also means it pays its suppliers on time and will not squeeze the prices it pays them – the enhanced prices for producers being the baseline of Fair Trade. The hope is that there may be a way of restarting in a different form next year.
On a more positive note Traidcraft Exchange (the charitable arm of the PLC) will continue to work with marginalised producers and help them find ways of trading themselves out of poverty.
Traidcraft have produced a great final catalogue with a wide range of really lovely products. It is very important they have a strong selling season this Autumn to give them the best chance of moving forward positively.
If you want to help Traidcraft please continue supporting The Beehive (formed in 2000 by members of MBC and other local churches and currently the only fully fair trade outlet in Leeds). We will be very much business as usual to the end of the year and beyond – as long as possible- and we are running stalls at MBC on October 28th and on November 25th for your Christmas preparations.
Please pray about this situation – for leaders and workers of Traidcraft based in Gateshead; for Church Leaders and all the ‘Fairtraders’ volunteering in the nation’s churches; and for outward – looking Christian concern and action for justice in God’s World.
Please, please follow this link to the Traidcraft website and read CEO Robin Roth’s statement: www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/traidcraft-update
To encourage Traidcraft you can email lovetraidcraft@traidcraft,co.uk
Fears that with Cas Stoodley’s departure one of MBC’s longest running outreach projects would come to an end have been allayed. Rewind to Christmas is a tried, tested and much loved feature of church life that has run here at Moortown for almost fifteen years. And that’s why we are delighted to announce that Shelley Dring (pictured above) has agreed to take on the main up front role. 
Over two days – this year that’s the 26th and 27th of November upwards of four hundred Year 4 children from a dozen local primary school will join us as over four one and a half hour sessions we employ drama, storytelling and craft to show and tell what we as Christians believe the true meaning of Christmas to be.
Shelley who lives locally, is married to Nathan and has two young children works at Temple Newsam House. There she heads up the Learning and Access team. “Although up to now I have never seen an MBC Rewind I have heard lot’s of great reports about them” says Shelley. “As many of you already know I love working with children so being given the opportunity to join your team is something that really excites me.”
Fearing Shelley might be being thrown in at the deep end Rewind veteran John Sherbourne (who if you remember announced his retirement from up front duties after our 2017 Easter Rewind) is making a one off comeback. “It’s funny” John says “but after so many years of working up front with a number of different Children’s Workers, and then being quite content with my decision to take more of a back seat role Shelley’s enthusiasm for the job is really firing me up. Rewind really is a fabulous project, it’s one that invites us to tell the Christmas story to so many different people and I’m sure Shelley will be brilliant.”
COME AND JOIN THE TEAM. One cute little trick that Cas used to use was that once you’d signed up to help at Rewind you’d signed up for life; in other words Shelley and John will be hoping that the list of team they have on file today is as up to date as it was last year at this time. However, if for some reason you can’t come or equally important is you fancy joining us – and that doesn’t mean you need to be available for all four sessions – please see Shelley or call John on 07913505865 as soon as you can.
There’s a gallery of pictures below which give you an insight into what goes on at Rewind. To view a larger version of any of them simply click on the image.
I’ve just returned from a long weekend (Friday to Monday) visiting Cluj in Romania. It may seem a bit “crazy” to go all that way just for a weekend but the availability of direct flights twice a week from Robin Hood Airport at Doncaster now makes this possible!
As most of you will know we have had links with Romania since 1991 and with Manastur Baptist Church in the city of Cluj in the Transylvania region of Romania. The reason for my visit was to be able to join them at the induction service of their new pastor, Daniel Lacatos (pictured below). The church there has been without a pastor since the previous pastor retired three years ago and so it has been a difficult time for them during this period.
Pastor Daniel is married to Simona and they have four children. He was previously pastor at a church in the eastern part of Romania and so they have had to relocate to Cluj. If you would like to see the induction service it is available on the internet via the following link http://bisericamanastur.ro/ (select “arhiva video” and then “7 octombrie dimineata”) – however as it is nearly 3 hours long and has 3 sermons (in Romanian) you may want to just dip in!
I was asked to give a greeting to the congregation on behalf of our church. As well as it being a time of change for them I referred to change in our church with discussion about Sunday services and also with Norman Hiley’s passing. I read Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. “ After the service I was invited to join the invited guests and their families for lunch in the church.
The visit was also an opportunity to meet a number of people I know in the Cluj. I stayed with the Rusu family who visited Leeds in May last year and enjoyed their excellent hospitality. I met Rei Abrudan who was formerly youth pastor at Manastur Church and is now pastor at the new VIA church which seems to be going well and has grown to 500 members during its 3 year existence. I was also taken out to the Apuseni mountains where we visited a waterfall and then stopped at restaurant for trout and chips (and admired the two wolf skins hanging on the wall). I also saw the new Christian centre being built by Manastur church in the mountains particularly for groups of young people and which is getting nearer to completion.
Altogether an action packed weekend which felt as though I had been there for a week!
Howard Dews
As predicted, and to put it mildly Sunday September 30th was extra busy. At 10.30 Shona led our Harvest Thanksgiving Service. This in itself was a three part affair with a special monetary offering which raised £461.50 for BMS World Mission and Christian Aid, a huge selection of tinned or dried foodstuffs and toiletries that’s either gone to a local food bank or into our own Lord’s Pantry and finally a beautiful display of fresh fruit and veg complete with a Harvest Wheatsheaf – and mouse.
Then at 11.30 Graham joined Shona to chair one of our occasional all together Church Meetings. Accepting that on Sunday mornings MBC is currently functioning at maximum capacity the hundred and fifty present were invited to follow on from the the ten “What do you see” questions that have been circulating both on line and on paper for a good couple of months by discussing and then feeding back their thoughts on two quite specific questions 1). Who are we making space for? and 2). What sort of space should we offer?
Naturally there were a whole raft of different answers; from making space for international students and for new Christians to providing bouncy castles in the car park and designing a bible based set of Jenga blocks. All comments were of course duly noted and an assurance was given that our Leadership Team would give them their full attention.
The next step, then, is to move on to a number of what are being called Pilot Sundays, days when at least some of the suggestions made can by put into practice. These will be Sunday 14th October, Sunday 4th November, Sunday 2nd December and then the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th of January.
Although one could argue that the initial consultation process is now drawing to a close Graham and Shona felt it important to stress that both they and the whole of the Moortown Baptist Church Leadership Team are still keen to take feedback and they urged people to keep thinking, to keep talking and to keep praying.
Finally, at 12.30 and to round off the first part of our busy, busy day over a hundred of us stayed on and enjoyed a splendid Shared Lunch. To the small band of volunteers who “manfully” set up, cleared up and washed up we say a very sincere thank you.
To view a larger version of any of our gallery pictures simply click on the image.
Below is the headline and opening paragraph of an article from this week’s Baptist Times… it makes very interesting reading.
A Baptist minister shares what it’s like to feel anxious all the time – and what has been helpful in working through it.
Today is World Mental Health Day and I know what it’s like to feel you are falling apart. One of the things I was told as anxiety split my being was that I needed to be more resilient. I already believed that and was beating myself up for feeling anxious all the time. However, what I found out and this is one piece of wisdom I want to pass on today is that just because you suffer from mental health distress does not mean you are not resilient.
You can read the whole story by clicking on this link.
https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/531776/Mindfulness_resilience_and.aspx
Huge thanks to all who attended our SAFER Project Doorstep Crime workshop on Monday 8th October at the Beacon Cafe – a great turnout! All enjoyed sharing experiences, ideas and tips on how to stay safe.
Also many thanks to West Yorkshire Police for attending… together we can beat the scammers!
In August 2016 American footballer Colin Kaepernick first ‘took the knee’; in 2006 Tarana Burke began using the ‘Me Too’ phrase which went viral in 2017 following actress Alyssa Milano’s stand against sexual harassment, in July 2017 an outcry followed the publication of a report showing that two thirds of the highest earners at the BBC were men.
High profile people grab attention and shape an agenda.
These have been important factors in addressing injustice yet at the same time they raise uncomfortable questions about how we highlight issues and fashion positive change.
How do you change things for the better? How important is it for individuals to take a stand? How do you do this if you aren’t famous?
It is great that celebrities and the wealthy make a stand and raise profile (and indeed such people do face difficult moments), but it is important that injustice is not tolerated at any level of society – top, middle or bottom. But if you are at the bottom few people take note if you take the knee in public, or post a protest on twitter, or when your minimum wage salary is less than your male counterpart. If you are at the bottom of the pile you will usually have complicating factors of lack of money, poor employment, difficult house to compound the challenges.
This is not to criticise the high profile who make a stand, because I know that in most case they are connected with a far-reaching movement. I do recognise that maybe it needs such people to seize the agenda. But it is not to the credit of society that this has become the norm for getting attention. We should remember that for the wealthy and connected their injustices are often offset by access to power and resources not available to the countless people who bear similar burdens at the bottom of the pile.
Here’s another way of change – philanthropy. As Andrew Carnegie, the philanthropist of the 19th and early 20th century wrote his aim was “To promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world” and “to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” He concluded “he who dies rich dies disgraced.” A pattern mirrored by fellow Scot of the same period Angela Burdett Coutts. This is a heritage followed by those like Bill Gates and J.K. Rowling.
For all its benefits this philanthropy created it is basically about patronage of these few people and their legacy of charitable foundations.
The challenge is to secure universal access and opportunity and to secure accepted norms of justice, to stop help being the luck of those being in the right place and the right time. This is where laws and government come in. This is where widespread movements bringing together those across society are vital. This shows the importance of broad-based collaboration as we recognise the complexities of our challenges but maintain a will for transformation.
A Christian perspective on such matters varies. Some Christians fight shy of any campaigning, while others make it their all. Some follow Christian only action, whilst others seek to find common cause across society.
For Christians, it is helpful to note that God laid down power and privilege to engender the most radical of changes (take a look at Philippians 2). It is also worth noticing that the idea of the Kingdom of God is about a radical new norm, a new encompassing world order now and forever.
It is good to have Kaepernick, Milano and senior female BBC staff taking a lead, it is encouraging to note by organisations like Nike, Holywood institutions and the BBC are taking things on board. We benefit from the Rowlings and Gates of this world. Yet for all their value change is about a deeper, broader and more rooted process.
Graham Brownlee, September 2018
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There’s so much going on at MBC this Sunday that we thought we’d give you a heads up on what to expect, what to bring and where our harvest contributions are going.
Firstly: Harvest Financial Offering: This year we are supporting two Harvest Appeals: BMS and Christian Aid.
Secondly: Our Harvest Food Offering: any food donations (tinned, dried goods etc but in particular toiletries) will be shared between our local food bank at Moor Allerton and our own ‘Lord’s Pantry’ that provides one off food parcels.
And thirdly our Harvest Produce Offering, that’s anything that has been home grown in gardens or allotments.
Church Meeting and Shared Lunch: after the service we are a holding another of our all together church meetings; this one to discuss feedback on the proposal to change to holding two services on Sunday mornings.
This will then be followed by a shared lunch. If you can please bring a plate of savory or sweet food to feed yourself and three or four others.
There will be a table in the sports hall to leave food before the service begins.
Thank you.
Over the last couple of months we have been asking the question “how best, in terms of Sunday worship, might we respond to the growing number of people that are attending MBC.” Part of this process has been to ask a number of people what it is they see when they look at Church; their comments which were recorded on video were shown on Sunday September 2nd.
However, if you missed that service or if you would like to see the film again here it is. There’s also a link here to the sermon that Graham preached at that Service, based on Acts 11 which also looked at the subject of change.
https://youtu.be/5GKlgwFquYQ
Furthermore, below we’ve reproduced the original text of a post that was published at the start of this consultation. Also to give more time for discussion the deadline for comments has now been extended until Sunday the 30th of September when following our Harvest Service we will be holding one of our all together Church Meetings and a shared lunch.
Moortown Baptist Church is growing in numbers, diversity and experience of God together. With so many people in our building we know that services can feel packed and busy. So we are looking at how we can make more space to grow and flourish whilst cherishing our diversity and community.
The Bible is clear that the church is nothing short of being the body of Christ, the people of God gathering to be equipped and sent, a community experiencing and sharing God through the Spirit.
People have many reasons for coming to church, to find and deepen faith, to enjoy community and friendships, to encounter God and be caught up in hope, to equipped to love daily and be capable of love.
Gathering on a Sunday is only one part of our wider Christian lives.
So we want to hear from one another as we consider doing things differently on Sundays.
Our intention is for these questions to stimulate discussion in small groups of friends, families, home groups, teams that play a part in church life etc virtually or in person, rather than to receive individual responses.
Responses should be sent to moortown.baptist@btconnect.com or handed to a minister or member of the Leadership Team, by Sunday 30th September.
Some Bible references that might aid your discussion are:
Matthew 28.16-20, Acts 2, Hebrews 10.19-25, 1 Corinthians 12,13,
