Today was the first day of the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival at the Dearne Playhouse, and there was a dazzling array of local creativity on display.

There was lots of different artwork to admire:

We had crafts galore:

We had face painting and body art:

Ian McMillan came along to run a creative writing workshop:

Gill Richmond gave a floristry demonstration:

We watched the 3D printer make dinosaurs!

There were performances on stage from local dance schools and RotherHop:

All in all, it was a great day, and tomorrow the fun continues! Come along to the Dearne Playhouse from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. for…

• art & craft exhibitions
• photography displays
• performances on stage from local musicians (including Garry’s ‘Grumpy Old Men’) and Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir, as well as another astonishing dance demonstration from RotherHop
• model aircraft display
• creative karaoke in costume, led by Creative Recovery
• hand massages
• spinning yarn & 3D printing (crafts old and new!)
• a fashion show from our local sewing class
• prize-giving for competition winners (including Gemma, Grace & Stacey!)

The Greedy Pig Snack Bar will be serving burgers and there will be drinks on sale at the Playhouse. All in all, a great Saturday’s entertainment, all on the doorstop and all free of charge! Come along and discover more about the many varied ways to be creative.

We are getting ready for the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival (1 & 2 September, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.) down at the Dearne Playhouse! It’s sure to be a great time of creativity, enjoying the wide range of talent on view from our local community.

Art, photography, sewing, craft, cross-stitch, tapestry, face painting, spinning, 3D printing, live performances on stage, model aircraft & karaoke outdoors… free entry, burgers for lunch… what’s not to like?! Come along to find out more!

We had another great day at Houghton Road Centre, despite a dull start because of drizzle. The sun came out and we had great fun with crafts and crazy golf. Twiggs came to clear the planters of weeds with help from their friends, and Solar Frames also came along to recruit workers!

There are a few community events this week which are worth attending!

Today is the last Family Fun Day at Houghton Road Centre, run by ‘Churches Together’. This will run from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. and is an opportunity for toddlers and children to play minigolf, do craft activities, play in a soft play area and have a free lunch. All are welcome and there is no charge. Adults are more than welcome too!

The Dearne Community Arts’ Festival is on this Friday and Saturday (1st & 2nd September), running from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day, at the Dearne Playhouse (situated just behind Goldthorpe Medical Centre.) This community event which champions creativity and celebrates community boasts a packed programme, roughly divided into 3 sections:

1. exhibitions (inside and outside the building)
2. performances on stage (involving dance schools, music groups, a fashion show, Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir and much more)
3. workshops and demonstrations (featuring a range of crafts and skills, including spinning yarn, 3D printing, floristry demonstration, hand massages and a creative writing workshop on Friday with the Barnsley bard, Ian McMillan at 2 p.m. – photo courtesy of www.turningimages.co.uk)

Entry is free, so please do come along at some point over the two days and let others know about this great community event!

We are bombarded by words every day, and advertising in particular seeks to impress particular products on our consciousness through words and jingles (often known as ‘sticky music’ because of its simple melodies which stick in our minds – apparently we spend about 58 minutes a week humming or singing catchy commercial tunes, and it takes almost 17 minutes for us to stop humming or singing these tunes!)

The most popular commercial in the UK was apparently the advert for ‘Cornetto‘ ice-creams which put new words to a very famous aria!

Advertising is very successful in affecting what we think about; as Christians, we need to ensure that we are careful what we listen to and that we choose what we listen to and what we say and sing carefully, because words affect our thinking, and our thinking affects our behaviour.

Luke 8:48 speaks about God’s word as seed and the different effect this has, depending on the kind of soil the seed is received into. God’s word is powerful and cleansing (Eph 5:25-26, Heb  1:3); His words have authority (Luke 4:32) and shed light on our lives (Ps 119:130). When Jesus spoke, things happened! – demons were cast out, people were healed and the wind and waves were stilled. God’s word has the power to change us and liberate us; His words are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible or gold refined seven times. (Ps 12:6) Nonetheless, His words can be ineffective if they are not received, listened to and acted upon (see Matt 7:24-27).

For us to be changed by God’s word, we need to receive it and meditate upon it, speaking and singing it to ourselves and to others. (Eph 5:15, 19-20) We have to pay careful attention to the words we speak and hear; we must learn to be perceptive and to let God’s word, His message, dwell among us richly, welcoming it in to our lives as we welcome friends and family gladly into our homes (Col 3:16). As God’s word washes us, we will grow!

Roger spoke on Sunday morning about how we can know when God is talking to us. We often speak of God as One who reveals Himself to us and speaks to us, but it can be notoriously difficult at times to discern between our voice, God’s voice and the enemy’s voice. How can we tell when God is speaking? What does it sound like?

God speaks in many different ways. Primarily, He speaks to us through His word, often seeming to highlight something for us (‘it jumps out of the page.’) We may have read a particular passage repeatedly, but all of a sudden, God underlines it for us! We should always seek confirmation from His word, because God will never contradict this.

God may speak in other ways: through the words of people (after all, He even used a donkey once!), through circumstances, through pictures and visions, through dreams, through the words of prophecy. He speaks to us through impressions and, occasionally (though rarely) through audible voices. What matters is that we are receptive to God’s voice and learn to listen carefully. God’s words will always build us up, whereas the enemy seeks to lie, deceive and distort. Hearing is the first step, but this must then be married to obedience. (Jn 2:5)

Quite often, people say in response to this question, ‘You just know’, which doesn’t seem much help to those who don’t know! But there is a sense in which we acknowledge the truth of this: God’s voice often leaves us squirming or with a deep conviction we cannot shake off. If God is speaking to you today, test that word (remember Gideon’s fleece?) and then obey. Our hearing and obedience arise from our relationship with God. We don’t have to be afraid; we do have to step out in faith and do what He says.