Thurnscoe Picnic In The Park

Aug 28, 2024

We held the last of the summer ‘Picnics In The Park’ today at Thurnscoe Plaza. Funded by the Dearne North and South Ward Alliances and the Snap Tin Community Hub, these picnics have seen families coming together to eat and to enjoy sporting acitivities, face painting, forest school skills and creative thankfulness!

Our thanks to Dan Jarvis for his nerf gun wars1

Our thanks to Sue’s Ices for providing ice-creams for us.

Our thanks to Clive, Janet & Karen who taught us much about thankfulness.

Our thanks to the Dearne Area Team for their sporting equipment.

Our thanks to members of Liberty Church, Rotherham, who did free face-painting for us,

Our thanks to all of you for coming!

Altars In The Wilderness

Aug 28, 2024

“Now those altars in the wilderness tell the story of His faithfulness.” (Phil Wickham, “This is our God”)
The art of a songwriter is to capture a world in a line, to allude to so much in few words. It’s a skill I admire but don’t possess. This song means so much to me, but I return each time to this line. The Old Testament stories come alive again; I remember all those altars, apparently piles of stones, but places that marked people’s encounters with God. From there, I remember my own altars and look with awe on the things God has done.
Each community art project is, for me, far more than a piece of art. It’s the story of God’s whispers to me and of His provision. It’s the story of what God can do when He gifts people with talents. I have my own list of Bezalels and Oholiabs: Ruth Waterworth, Lydia Caprani, Rebecca Dye, Anita Heatherglen, Pete Davies, Julia Williams, Jayde Bell. I have so many people who bless me with their talents, who have taken my dreams and breathed life into them.
But each art project is ultimately also the story of God’s faithfulness. I pray one day when people ask why there are photo boards and colourful shutters and murals and sun bears and elephants and mosaics in Goldthorpe, this testimony will remain. God cares about our community and creative people reflected that.
The community art project in 2024 is to create beautiful works of art on shop shutters in Goldthorpe. Here is artist Jayde Marie Bell working on the first shop in the project, ‘Millennium Cutters’.

The People of God

Aug 25, 2024

In tonight’s service we looked at 1 Peter 2:9-10 as we started a new series entitled ‘The People of God.’ Our identity is crucially important to us, and since God is our Maker and Creator, what He says about us matters even more than what we feel about ourselves or than what others say about us. Our identity is bound up in the fact that we are made in God’s image (Gen 1:27) and is far more than our gender (which seems to be the hot topic at present) since we are spiritual as well as physical beings. Moreover, our identity is not simply an individual matter, for Peter says here we have a corporate identity as the people of God, chosen and loved by Him.

Both Peter and Paul (see Eph 2:1-10) remind us that there is a vast difference between how we used to live and our status now as God’s children. Our identity does not lie in our achievements (see Deut 7:7-9) but in God’s mercy and kindness. Peter calls us a chosen people (see Eph 1:11), a holy nation (called to reflect God’s holiness), a royal priesthood (fulfilling the priestly role of mediator between God and humanity which in the Old Testament was fulfilled by the Levitical priesthood) and God’s special possession, as precious as a bejewelled crown. (Zech 9:16)

We must learn to live in this God-given identity which we have received through the generosity, mercy, kindness, grace and love of God and to believe we are who God says we are, rather than being squeezed into the world’s mould or being shaped by our past, our feelings or our culture. We have great worth and value and purpose, being called now to declare God’s praises to a world still in darkness.

 

Praying For Others

Aug 25, 2024

Garry spoke this morning from Romans 15:30-32. Paul asks people to pray for him, urging them to support him through prayer. Paul realised that his effectiveness was linked to his dependence on God (see 2 Cor 1:8-11) and that he needed God’s help, which is another name for the Holy Spirit or Advocate (John 14:16). Other people and their prayers can be a tremendous benefit to us.
Paul realised that unity in Christ mattered enormously (see Rom 12:4-5) Others help us in our God-given tasks as they pray for us. God’s love in us generates love for others, which means we want to help others. Phil 2 reminds us that we need to serve others in love. Prayer for others is as important as prayer for ourselves. We can be involved in the situations all around us and see what amazing things God does in response to our prayers.

Musings of an ex-Exams Officer

Aug 23, 2024

Once upon a time (the traditional start to a fairy story as well as an expression of time which somehow still roots a story in history) I worked as an Exams Officer in a school, a job I loved. I loved the order of the role. I loved the satisfaction of having a list of activities I could tick off when completed. I loved the serenity of this world and the sense of regulation, captured in my trusty yellow ICE booklet (‘Instructions for the Conduct of Examinations.’) I loved the peace and quiet of the exam room when invigilating, a place where silence and industry reigned.
But with hindsight I see that my ordered, peaceful world, my little personal fiefdom of control, was really quite surreal and largely unimportant in the wider view of life. Life is about far more than examination codes and numbers or grades on certificates to encapsulate achievement. It’s impossible to capture learning in this way and quite harmful to regulate achievement to a piece of paper.
The system, which helps us to label and categorise people against an arbitrary ‘norm’ (which in itself changed each year as ‘grade boundaries’ were determined by awarding bodies so that there was very little statistical uniformity, despite outward appearances), is sadly lacking in terms of really knowing or understanding the capability of individuals. I used to teach French GCSE and became frustrated with a system that rewarded work over fluency and accuracy. I don’t pretend to have solutions to this system, but became convinced that learning and passing exams were not at all synonymous.
Now I have left the exam room and work in a messy, unmeasurable world, which often leaves me frustrated and unsure of myself (how can I assess my efficiency and worth if I can’t tick all those boxes?!) How do you measure competence in the spiritual realm? The desire to measure-by-numbers is ingrained in me (X people attended this event, Y people were baptised this year), but this is still not the way to live. Maturity, faith and love are the new goals, but these look very different in different people.
Paul tells the Corinthians that competence does not come from ourselves, but from God. (2 Cor 3:5) Now clearly we all have certain skills and can claim competence in different fields. But when it comes to spiritual matters, there’s a different yardstick involved, for we deal now with matters of the Spirit, where the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:6)
‘The letter kills.’ So my ticklists, charts, ‘outcomes’ and ‘evaluation sheets’ don’t really help in this world.
‘The Spirit gives life.’ Instead, I have to rely on God for lasting ‘results’ and must learn to judge by different standards and see through different eyes.
It’s not easy. Trained for years to be able to measure knowledge and skills through written or practical examinations, now I operate in a much messier, less easily defined world. Yet somehow I feel this is the real world and the other is not quite as idyllic as I want to believe.
Perhaps this is why I spend so much time banging the drum about creativity and working with the arts. There, skills are needed, but so is what I term ‘the divine spark’. That can’t be taught or easily measured. It can simply be recognised, nurtured, loved, admired and respected.
So today, I embrace messiness and creativity and stand firm against any notion that achievement can be recorded simply by an exam result. We are more than a number.

People Problems

Aug 22, 2024

If we are honest, living peaceably among other people is probably the hardest thing we ever have to do. Poverty, unemployment, education and health are all important factors in life, but one of the biggest sources of anxiety and conflict in our lives comes from our relationships with other people. 2 Samuel 3 shows us this is an age-old problem and one which we desperately need to fathom if we are to avoid the disastrous consequences we see there.

In that chapter, we see David as king of Judah and Ish-Bosheth nominal king over the rest of Israel, with Abner (chief commander) actually the one pulling the strings. We see Ish-Bosheth and Abner fall out over an accusation made, the result being that Abner withdraws his support of Ish-Bosheth and effectively defects to David’s side. Personal affront clearly trumped loyalty in his case, a reminder that the breakdown of relationships often comes when we are offended and unwilling to forgive and make amends. David’s commander, Joab, away when this peace treaty is negotiated, is furious when he finds out. He has not forgotten that Abner was the one who killed his brother, Asahel, and he does not believe Abner could ever change his spots. Unbeknown to David, he meets with Abner and murders him in cold blood.

Rivalry, revenge, a lack of remorse and a complete lack of forgiveness are the base human emotions dominating this chapter, and David (the ‘anointed king’) looks on helplessly, feeling that these ‘sons of Zeruiah are too strong for me!’ (2 Sam 3:39) He makes it plain that Abner’s death has not been authorised by him and laments the death of a courageous soldier, even as he has lamented the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, but once again, we see how personal pride and selfishness often lead to disastrous consequences.

Sin has spoiled our relationships and we struggle now to get on with others, often letting greed, selfishness, a refusal to forgive and pride dominate our lives. All the New Testament writers stress the need to love one another as the outworking of our faith in God, and all stress how grace, mercy and forgiveness – freely offered to us by God – need to be seen in our relationships with others. Only as we let go of our need to control, manipulate and bear grudges can we hope to fulfil Paul’s instruction: ‘If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.’ (Rom 12:18) This should be our aim, made possible by the power of God’s Holy Spirit living in us.