Here are some more party photos from Wednesday:

We played pass the parcel with forfeits. Here, Eileen had to sing ‘Away in a Manger’ whilst wearing a Christmas hat:

Karen had to be superman, underpants and all!

Members of the Salvation Army drew the pirates’ straw!

… whilst Mark got a mankini!

Musical chairs:

One of our church traditions which I really like is the New Year’s Day party. It is good to start the new year together with food, fun and fellowship. These are key ingredients to any family life (I agree with Jan Peterson’s view that eating together is a really important part of fellowship!) and it is a great opportunity to invite other people into church.

Here are some photos from the party:

The food part

The fellowship part

The fun part

I was surprised by how many people did not want their photos taken when we suggested the idea of having photos of the teams on the notice board area. Clearly, there are some shy people out there who feel self-conscious about photos!

But this does raise the more interesting point: why do this? Why have photos of people on this prominent area as you enter the church building? What is the point of this? Is it just to familiarise people with some of the faces they’re likely to encounter in church? Is it to promote the individuals concerned? Why do we do what we do? Are we just aping companies who have photographs of their personnel on display boards?

The reasoning behind the photos is not to glorify any one person but is to acknowledge the inescapable fact that church is ultimately not about buildings but about people. Peter tells us ‘you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ (1 Peter 2:5 TNIV) He goes on to say ‘you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’ (1 Peter 2:9-10 TNIV) We are immensely grateful for the building God has given us and count it a privilege and honour to be able to look after its fabric. But we are even more thrilled that God is working with us as living stones and building us into His house.

We are also very aware that the teams represented in the picture show our church’s commitment to reaching out to the community, to being salt and light in this place of Goldthorpe. We are not interested in simply receiving God’s blessing and hoarding it; we want to overflow into our community, showing an alternative way of living. Paul says to the Philippians, ‘Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.’ (Phil 2:15-16 TNIV) The whole theme of light and darkness – so relevant to our current studies on 1 John – is the theme running through the whole idea of the notice board. Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12 TNIV) and His light shines in the darkness – wherever there is no knowledge of Him, no submission to His Lordship, no understanding of His life, death and resurrection, there is darkness. But we also are the light of the world and have the privilege of serving Christ in our community: serving the poor and needy, the children, the shoppers, the parents with young children, the whole community. We don’t do this in isolation, however; we do this from our church community, through being the family of God. Hence there are no ‘lone ranger’ photographs on the board. We want to work together, for we are all members of Christ’s body.

The Message version of Philippians 2:15-16 says ‘Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night.’ That’s our aim and goal and the notice board is simply a visual representation of that fact.

The idea for new things comes from God. He is the One who plants ideas, creative vision and artistic designs in people’s minds. But there is often a process of practical steps from the conception of an idea to its actual birth and that process often involves people, practical skills and persevering hard work!

Translating my ‘rough sketch’ of a notice board idea into reality took a lot of time, people and effort. The leadership are to be thanked for their support and willingness to be involved in such things. First of all, we contacted the signwriter who has worked on other signs for us and he agreed to make us a sign measuring 8′ by 4′ which had the text of John 1:5 TNIV at the top and the phrase ‘With God In The Community, With God For The Community’ on the bottom of the sign. That then had to be fixed to the wall, which took 3 men considerable time and effort! Garry made a frame for the sign, out of wood which needed to be painted black to match the picture frame. More time and effort!

Stacey spent a considerable amount of time one Sunday evening taking photographs of all the teams (having spent even longer getting all the lights and backdrops ready for this task!) From these, we chose a number of photos to go on the notice board and had prints of these taken and mounts bought.
The cleaning & food distribution team

The Parent & Toddler team

The Music Worship team

The Youth team

The Preaching team

The Coffee Morning team

Then came the saga of the acrylic sheet. Garry felt that a plastic sheet would ‘finish off’ the notice board and protect the photos and picture from dust and damage. Ordering a sheet (8′ x 4′, like the sign) was easy. Getting it delivered was not. The company used TNT as their courier service and we received an email saying this would arrive on a Monday. We had made it clear that the building was only open by prior arrangement and so Dave was to be contacted before delivery was attempted. On the Monday, the driver ran out of time to deliver. On the Tuesday, he phoned my home number, failed to get hold of me, turned up at church, failed to deliver and disappeared again. When Dave contacted the firm on the Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., he was assured that he would be contacted and given an estimated time of arrival. At 9:14 a.m. the firm rang back and told him delivery would be within the next half-hour, so he duly went to church to await its arrival. When it failed to arrive within the hour, he contacted TNT again, to be told that delivery had been attempted at 9:11 a.m…. before he was originally given any ETA! As he remarked wryly, Mark’s previous sermon on time travel seemed more apt than ever! Delivery finally came at 9:58 a.m. on the Thursday (two minutes within the ‘special two hour notice given to account for your inconvenience’), with the details about contacting Dave firmly written all over the package…

Once the sign was in place, the photos (with captions) were arranged in place using the famous ‘Golden Ratio’ (which I still don’t understand.)

Then came the task of drilling holes into the plastic (sorry, the cast acrylic sheet):

The protective covers had to be removed:

And finally… (with apologies for the reflection from the fluorescent lights!)

Interior design has never been my strong point. I don’t really think of myself as an ‘artistic’ person in the sense of pictures, spatial awareness or the ability to convey meaning through visual stimuli. My strong point is words. I see and think in words. I adore words.

But over the past four years as we have been involved in the purchase and renovation and refurbishment of St Mark’s as it changed into Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church, I have found visual things coming to the fore. Mark’s idea when we first looked round the building was to have a ‘photo gallery’ in the corridor, charting the progress of the restoration work. That took a lot of time and effort and you can read about that here.

I was very familiar with working with other people’s ideas and translating them into reality; that’s part of an administrator’s job all the time. I was quite unprepared to be struck by the need for photographs of Goldthorpe when we embarked on our prayer walks last January so that we had a visual record of what we were doing in the church building.As I shared that vision with the leadership of the church, they were very supportive and so the visual record in the main hall was created.

Then came a more unexpected idea because it was not quite as ‘concrete’ as the previous ones. I wanted a visual record of the people in the church and the ministries they serve. This would take the form of a ‘notice board’ (except instead of notices, it would have photos of people.) Originally, I envisaged the photos simply being hung on the walls, rather like the photos which were already there.

But that idea soon blossomed. During a brief stay in Derbyshire in November, we wandered into an art exhibition, mainly to get out of the rain. There, we were captivated by a picture of light shining forth. The artist was there and she was overjoyed to find someone interested in her art. I asked her what had inspired the painting and she said it came out of a period when a friend of hers was in darkness and she was doing her best to help her and that was represented by light shining forth. For me, the painting perfectly represented John 1:5 TNIV – ‘The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’

We bought the painting and as I considered where we would put it, another verse came to mind: ‘You are the light of the world.’ (Matt 5:14-16 TNIV) Suddenly I saw the two things connected: this painting representing Christ’s light shining in our world, even when our world seems very dark, and the team ministries our church is involved in being ministries of light, as we are His light, called to reflect His light into our communities. As Garry put it, we are here ‘with God in the community, with God for the community.’

That is the back story of the notice board. I find it mildly ironic that I, who love words above everything, should have become so fond of visual aids. I am also well aware that for most people, what they see in a church building may seem rather random and unplanned. When reading Eugene Peterson’s ‘The Pastor’, I learned of his church’s transition from a basement building to a new build church. The chapter ‘Bezalel’ tells the tale of a God-inspired architect and a people who wanted everything that could be seen and touched in their new building to reflect the spiritual truths they were assimilating as a congregation. I smiled when I read that chapter, for I think that is often how it is. What we see is not random or unplanned. There is often a story behind it. This is the story behind the new notice board.

Don’t forget the New Year’s Day party on Wednesday, starting at 4 p.m. This is always a great time of food, fun and fellowship (and silly party games) and all are welcome. It’s a great opportunity to bring along friends and family who don’t normally come to church as there are lots of people here in a very informal atmosphere. Mark is renowned for coming up with silly games which involve everyone, so come along and start the New Year in style!

On Saturday (4th January), the coffee morning will be on from 10 a.m. until 12 noon as usual. After that, the church will be open for prayer until 4 p.m. as we seek God for direction, guidance and blessing in this new year. After that, we will be setting up for the special celebration service which starts at 6 p.m. Come along to say thank you to Mark and Diane for their faithful and anointed leadership over the past eight and a half years and to officially welcome and recognise Garry and Julie in their new roles of leadership. Refreshments will be served after the meeting.

Sunday meetings will be at the usual times of 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. throughout January, with the family service being held on 5th January in the evening.

Midweek meetings resume the following week, with youth meetings on Monday evenings and Mums ‘n’ Toddlers on Friday mornings. The prayer meeting/ Bible study will be on Thursday evenings, starting at 7:30 p.m. (starting 9th January.)

I don’t know the author of this prayer for the New Year, but thought it would be good to start 2014 with such a prayer:
What shall I ask for the coming year?
What shall my watchword be?
What shouldst thou do for me, dear Lord?
What can I do for thee?

Lord, I ask for a year of hope
Looking for thee to come
And hastening on that year of years
That brings us home to you.