In case anyone has been wondering, Igor (the official church mascot) was pleased to be at church yesterday:

Thanks to the church for the beautiful flowers:

We had some lovely family shots throughout the evening:

And then we just had lots of other great photos to enjoy!

One of the things our church does exceptionally well is provide food for buffets! Our thanks to all who provided so generously for the refreshments afterwards.

Thanks to Ruth for making flower arrangements for the community hall:

Thanks to all who helped on car park duty, as greeters, as tea and coffee makers and as stalwart washer-uppers! Your willingness to help with all the practical details was much appreciated. Thanks to Mark, Debbie, Lorraine, Karen, Jade, Alan, Janet and Gillian in particular for their unstinting help.

Thanks to Mark Wapples for standing in as bassist again (Stephen is highly frustrated that he can’t play bass and piano at the same time, so thanks, Mark, for helping out!)

Thanks to Stephen for all his help with the music for the evening, and most especially for standing in for me, but even more for his encouragement and support over many, many months last year during the waiting and the difficult times. I am privileged to have you as a son and cannot thank God enough for you.

Thanks to the rest of the music team at Goldthorpe, who make worshipping God so much easier not only because of their skill but because of their servant hearts and love for God. Thanks also to Gemma who sang at the end of the service when I virtually had no voice left to sing!

Thanks to Dave for his unstinting attention to detail and his willingness to go the extra mile in making this service so special. Many people at the service found it strange to think that two former pastors (in Dave and Mark) are still on the leadership team at church and that there is no sense of awkwardness in working alongside each other. We can only say that God has blessed us enormously in this respect in giving us good relationships, much accumulated wisdom and deep friendships. We believe this comes from God’s grace and people’s humility. Dave and Joan have been a great support and blessing to Garry and myself over the years and we are grateful for their support in ways that make the words ‘thank you’ seem utterly inadequate!

Thanks to Stephen for his willingness to ‘do the boring bits’, as he put it in introducing the meeting and for Karen for making presentations:

Thanks to Stacey for her stalwart work as photographer and videographer. She would like to be a wedding photographer one day, and I have to say, last night felt rather like the photography sessions at a wedding as one by one, people were lined up against ‘the white wall’ (for a good background) and photographed! Since she has to contend with one who apparently blinks or talks every time a photo is taken, her patience and skill are to be commended! At one point during the week we had no tripods for the recording and ended up with four, so thanks also to all who generously loaned theirs for our use!

Thanks to Mark and Diane for their support, encouragement, commitment and faithfulness to God. It’s difficult to find the words to express just how much they contribute to the life of the church, but I’m sure we are all committed to continuing to pray for them to know God’s leading and anointing in everything they do.

Thanks also to everyone at Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church who make it possible to ‘enjoy the call of God’, as Dave put it, through their faith, love, encouragement and support. I have never known a group of people so committed to God and to each other and count it a privilege to serve alongside you. Thanks to all who took time out of their busy schedules to support the church last night, especially those from the Salvation Army in Goldthorpe, Wombwell Pentecostal Church, Grimethorpe Pentecostal Church and Hope House Church, Barnsley. We are part not only of a local church but a global church and we are grateful that God gives us each a part to play in His wonderful salvation story.

The biggest thanks have to be saved for our amazing God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

One of the great blessings of the service last night was the opportunity to meet friends and to enjoy fellowship:
Just before the start of the service:

Enjoying food after the meeting:

Julie with various colleagues from Hope House School, including former pupils, and members of Hope House Church in Barnsley:

With friends and family from other areas:

Both Garry and Julie gave testimonies of how God has led them to this new area of responsibility. One of the great privileges of this service was having so many friends attend who have been instrumental in shaping their ministries over the years. Garry thanked Brian Watson for his faithful witness as a work colleague which led to his accepting Christ:

He spoke of how (many years ago) Brian and an unknown lady in a church in Ripon had both spoken of their belief that God would lead Garry into the pastorate and that although this had seemed an utterly impossible task in those early days of faith, God has worked consistently in his life over many years so that at this point, this no longer seemed an impossible task! He thanked Mark and Diane for their support and friendship and the congregation for their love and encouragement and spoke of the irony of having little formal theological training when he was so used to pursuing training in every aspect of his life, yet how he remained assured that God had given him the training and teaching required to do this work.

Julie was also thrilled to be able to share this evening with people who had been instrumental in bringing her to faith and nurturing her faith through university years and throughout her working life:
Raymond & Jane Obin

Philip & Sharon Pye (leaders at the church in Oxford which Julie attended as a student, Phil preached at Garry and Julie’s wedding and now works in Ilkeston, being a senior leader in Assemblies of God)

She too gave thanks to Mark and Diane, not only for their leadership of the church but for their encouragement and friendship which has helped to develop her ministries, saying that Mark and Diane are shining examples of what God’s light looks like in human form. She then shared how God had led her in 2013 to leave her job as a French teacher, calling her to what was then an unknown destination, a decision that was both difficult for one whose temperament liked familiarity and back-up plans and challenging. She also shared how there is often a time of testing and waiting between hearing God’s call and seeing the fulfilment of His promises. In her case, this meant waiting beyond her expected period of notice at school for God to supply a replacement teacher:
Julie with Florentine:

During those long days of waiting for God to move, the song ‘Mighty Fortress’ by Aaron Shust became very real and whilst unable to sing this herself because of having virtually lost her voice this past week, Stephen sang this song to encourage all who may still be in this waiting ‘in-between’ phrase that there are things God will simply never do because of His character and so we can be confident that He will never forsake us, deceive us, abandon us or reject us but will indeed be a mighty fortress and tower of strength to His people at all times:

‘Mighty Fortress’, Aaron Shust

Dave went on to continue speaking from 1 and 2 Timothy, offering advice from Paul’s letters to Timothy on leadership to Garry and Julie.

1 Tim 3:1-5 TNIV talks about the criteria those in leadership require, namely being ‘above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money’, with the wife being ‘worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.’ (1 Tim 3:11 TNIV). He emphasised the team ministry of preaching, teaching and hospitality demonstrated by Garry and Julie and went on to look at some of the duties they are called to do: first of all, prayer (1 Tim 2:1-2 TNIV), for both those in the flock and for those in charge of the country; secondly, to preach the Word of God faithfully, opposing all false doctrine and using God’s Word to correct, rebuke and encourage (2 Tim 4:2-3 TNIV) and finally to guard what has been entrusted to them, recognising that to be a pastor is not a job, but a calling which must be guarded against the distractions of the world. (1 Tim 6:20 TNIV)

Listening to the formal charge given by Dave on behalf of the church:
‘I now charge you to:
In the power of the Holy Spirit and under the anointing of God, work together and individually to guide and lead the flock entrusted to you.
Uphold the people of God and this church by your earnest prayers.
To preach and to teach the whole Word of God as given to us in Holy Scripture.
To work together with the other leaders, and with the whole of the church, to propagate the Christian gospel with the purpose that all may be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’

Garry and Julie both accepted this charge and the congregation were then invited to stand and respond to their charge: ‘Will you as the people of God in Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church, accept Garry and Julie Turner as your Pastor and Shepherd, and will you promise before God to help, support and encourage them in every way, to regularly pray for them, and accept their guidance and direction?’

After this, the elders prayed for both Garry and Julie and anointed them with oil:

A presentation of flowers was then given to Julie:

Saturday 4th January 2014 was a significant day in the life of our church as we gave thanks for the leadership of Mark and Diane over the past eight and a half years and welcomed Garry and Julie to the pastorate.

First of all we reviewed highlights in these people’s church life through a Power Point charting the work done since the move to St Mark’s.
Celebration service

Dave said that often services like these are viewed as being ‘under new management’, but actually a change in leadership is not new management, for Christ remains the head of the church. Nonetheless, it is significant to recognise all that God has done through leaders and to commission new leaders. He went on to speak from 2 Tim 1:3-7 TNIV, commenting that Mark’s faith had been nurtured by his grandmother and mother and that his vision and wisdom had helped the church to grow both numerically and spiritually over the past eight-and-a-half years.

The move to the new building in 2010 had been the fulfilment of a word spoken to Mark some fifteen years previously, but this had been the right time for this vision to be fulfilled (see Hab 2:3 TNIV) and Mark’s practical skills and confidence in God had led the church to new ventures. Renamed Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church after this move, the church’s work in the community continues to grow, largely in part because of Mark and Diane’s hard work with children and young people and it is with great excitement that we look to see how God leads in future. Mark and Diane will continue to serve on the leadership team of the church and we are very grateful not only for their past work but for their ongoing contribution to church life.

Mark and Diane both shared testimonies. Diane thanked all church members for their love and support and spoke of how God never gives us more than we can bear, even though He often stretches our faith! The refurbishment of the building nearly four years ago turned out to be much more extensive than we had anticipated, but God helped us each step of the way and blessed us enormously. Mark thanked Diane for her unstinting support of his ministries and thanked the church for being a ‘working church’, reminding us once again that God works all things together for good. (Rom 8:28 TNIV)

Prayer and presentations were then made to Mark and Diane: