Last Sunday we had our “Carol Service For Woking”, and what a day it was! We held four services across the day, with more than 2,400 people involved, either attending as guests or giving their time to serve in many different ways.
Whilst the younger children enjoyed fun Christmas parties in the front building, those of us in the chapel were treated to some incredible carols and performance pieces, alongside videos, readings and a short talk from yours truly. Somehow the event team even gave us fireworks and indoor snow! I was blown away by it all, and I’m still finding snow piled up in various places…
It would be unfair to single out any individual for comment, because so many people went above and beyond to make the day happen. Personally the thing that stood out to me most was the quality of our musicians and singers who knocked it out of the park time after time. To say I was impressed is a massive understatement. I’m looking forward to next year already!
If you weren’t able to attend or you just want to re-live the fun, you can watch the service for yourself on this link:
I want to say a very big THANK YOU to everyone who was involved, and who gave their time to serve in all the different ways. You are all amazing and I hope you had fun. Here are a few pics from the day too:
Christmas Dates
We have a great programme events still to come across the festive season:
Sunday 22nd December: Family Meetings at 9am & 11am
On Sunday 22nd we’re holding all age meetings, suitable for everyone. This offers us a chance to be together as a whole church family, across all the generations. Each meeting will last around one hour and we’ll have a lot fun.
Our Welcome Team and Brew Crew will be hosting us superbly as always, and our amazing Welcome Tots leaders are providing a small team to run the Tots room for any parents of 0-3s who would prefer to make use of it.
Christmas Day: join us at 10am
On Christmas Day we’ll have one, all age meeting at 10am. It will be about 45 minutes long and suitable for all. Parents: if your children would like to bring/wear a gift they’ve received there may be a chance to share it with everyone, and don’t forget to wear your own Christmas jumper too.
Sunday 29th December: no meetings
We won’t be meeting on Sunday 29th December this year. We hope you enjoy doing something festive and fun with family and friends instead.
Tuesday 31st December: Watch Night Celebration, from 10pm until 2025
We are gathering for our very first Watchnight celebration on New Year’s Eve to thank God for all he’s done in 2024, and to commit the New Year to him. Come and join us to pray, worship and celebrate!
If you’re planning to come to Watchnight it would help us if you would click here to let us know you’re coming.There is absolutely no requirement to do this – you’re free to just turn up, and I know some won’t decide until the last moment. Letting us know is simply about helping us work out a few details in terms of seating and refreshments.
Sunday 5th January 2025
We’ll be back to our usual 9am and 11am meetings on Sunday 5th, with kids and youth work in full swing too. I’ll be preaching an encouraging message to kick off the New Year and I’ll also be sharing important news about a few changes within our Staff Team. Please don’t miss it!
Welcome Church Office Closure
After a very busy year, the church offices close this Friday afternoon, 20th December. We will reopen with a ‘skeleton crew’ on Thursday 2nd January, and be back to full strength on Monday 6th. We’re all looking forward to a good break, and I hope you get one too.
Thanks for reading, and let me wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
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We would love you all to be praying for our church and for our nation in the weeks ahead. Here are a few key items to pray for during this Christmas and New Year season:
We’re running four services on the day, at 11am, 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm. Tickets have been going fast, with over 2,300 people booked to attend so far this year. The 7pm meeting will also be live-streamed.
Please pray that the whole day goes well, that everyone involved in putting the services on would be fit and healthy, and that lots of people would connect to Jesus and come back to join us as a church again in the year ahead.
Alpha
The final night of our latest Alpha Course took place on Wednesday this week. Around 90 people completed the course with us this term, exploring the big questions of life and faith.
Please pray that we will see lots of these people connecting with us over the Christmas and New Year season, and coming back for the ‘Alpha Plus’ course in the New Year. Please also pray for many to find a personal faith in Jesus.
By the way, I want to say a special THANK YOU to all those who made this course possible, especially the kitchen and serving teams who have really gone above and beyond this term.
Church Gate
Although the actual building work has yet to begin on Church Gate, and may not start for a few months yet, lots of work is being done to get everything ready behind the scenes. We’ve had the first price estimate back on the renovation work to be done, and are now finalising what we will actually do, making sure we balance our ambitions against our budget!
The next stage will be to apply for planning permission for some of the changes, to get quotes from builders, and to apply for certain grants. Remember that our goal is to provide dedicated space for our children’s and youth work, alongside some extra social action space, and to open a Community Grocery to serve people in need in our town. We would like to see this work completed and Church Gate open in 2025.
Please pray for the all the items listed above, and especially that we would find favour with some of the grant funders, who have so far made positive noises, and please pray for the whole team working to deliver this project.
Staff Team
I would value your prayers for our staff team this Christmas. It has been a very busy term and we are currently understaffed in some key areas too. I would observe that there has been significant pressure felt by the team at certain points and everyone is tired.
We will be looking at the size and make up of our staff team again in 2025, but it will take a little time to do this well, and will also require more resource. In the mean time, please be praying for the team to be well rested and refreshed for the year ahead, and for God to provide all the finance and staff required to build the church well into the future. Please also pray for the many volunteers who give their time for free, week by week – we love and value all of you so much.
The Assisted Dying Bill
As you probably know, the Assisted Dying Bill was brought before Parliament in November, and was sadly approved. This represents a significant shift in how our society values and approaches the sanctity of life.
At this point it’s restricted to those with a terminal illness who have less than six months to live, but the pressure is already on for access to be widened, just as it’s been widened in every nation where it’s been legalised. In Canada, 1 in 20 deaths is now by this kind of assisted suicide, and in Belgium and the Netherlands it’s now legal to do this to children.
Of course this is not an easy or straightforward issue, and it stirs strong feelings on all sides, but as followers of Christ, our response must be rooted in the teaching of the Bible, and not in emotional stories. We believe in the God-given dignity and worth of every person, from the beginning to the end of life, and hold that life is a sacred gift to be cared for, even in the face of suffering.
Sadly our local MP’s in Woking and Guildford, both voted in favour of the bill. Whilst we would not expect people who don’t follow Jesus to hold a Biblical worldview, we should of course bear this issue in mind (along with the many other issues at stake!) when it’s our turn to vote again.
In the meantime I urge us to pray for all who carry the weight of making such decisions, as there are more stages to go in this bill. I encourage us to pray fervently for our nation, its leaders, and those most directly impacted by this decision. Please pray that our nation will turn away from this slippery slope towards the devaluing of human life.
Of course, we also need to consider how we, as individuals and as a church, can be a tangible source of support and hope to those navigating end-of-life challenges, and we must also show lots of love and grace to those who disagree with the Biblical viewpoint on this issue. Thank you for standing firm in your faith and for being a community that reflects the love of Christ in all circumstances.
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Chris here – Steve has kindly allowed me to take the Christmas reins of his blog this week in order to follow up my talk on Sunday about Jesus as the Word of God. If you didn’t hear the message you can catch up here.
Colossians 3:16 says,“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God”. We want to be a church in which the word of Christ dwells in us richly, and I’m sure many of you individually would want to aim to make 2025 a year where God’s Word takes greater prominence in your life.
However, given that there are so many resources available, it can be difficult to know where to start, or difficult to know where to go next. So I’ve put some recommendations together to resource you in making plans for being in God’s Word more in 2025. This is in no way an exhaustive list, but hopefully a helpful starting place.
“But I’m not much of a reader…”
You’re in good company. Engaging with God’s Word and building your life upon it is not reliant on you being bookish, academic or studious. The Bible was predominantly heard, not read, for much of the church’s history. So if you’re not a big reader, don’t write yourself off, there are loads of resources that can help you, including an increasing number of audiobook versions of the Bible. It’s also important to remember that feeding on God’s Word is not all about the reading, just as eating involves more than just shoving food in your mouth! Memorising, reflecting, discussing with others, and most importantly, applying God’s Word to our lives are key to feeding on “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).
Something for everyone
Whether you’re someone who is new to reading the Bible, or you’ve never had a regular practice of reading the Bible, or you’re a seasoned reader looking for a restart or a fresh challenge, these resources might be a great place to start…
Bible-in-a-Year & other reading plans
A structured programme of reading can be an invaluable help to get going with the Bible. Reading the Bible in one year will take you roughly 10-15 minutes of reading per day, which is manageable for almost everyone. The most famous plan is the Robert Murray M’Cheyne reading plan, developed by the 19th Century Scottish Pastor. You can print the plan and use your own Bible, simples! You’ll read sections from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, which helps when reading through trickier sections of the Bible (hello Leviticus!).
However, if you want a ‘one-stop-shop’ reading plan in a book, you can buy a Bible split up into the reading plan for each day of the year. The One Year Bible makes this very easy to follow, and it comes in various translations – more on that below!
However, my personal preference is for a 5-day reading plan, rather than a 7-day reading plan. I’ve found it helpful to have the weekends to catch up any readings I’ve missed without feeling guilty or worried that I am ‘getting behind’! Five-Day Bible Reading is a free resource that structures this for you, and is one of the most popular plans around.
If you know you can commit to reading for a bit longer, I thoroughly recommend a long-form reading plan. These lead you through the Bible in shorter timeframes, meaning you’ll read for between 30 mins – 1 hour a day. On a 5-day reading plan, 12 chapters a day will get you through the Old Testament in 90 days, and 6 chapters a day will get you through the New Testament in 60 days. The benefit with this approach is that you make rapid progress (which is encouraging!), but also that you read the Bible in bigger narrative units, enjoying the full scope of each book, and enabling you to pick up on the big picture themes of each book. You can find various plans online that take this approach, like this New Testament one here.
Finally, if you fancy reading in your own time at your own speed, but would really like to track your progress through the Bible, this is a great resource to print out and keep inside your Bible cover.
Which Bible translation is the right one?
There is no one translation of the Bible that is ‘right’. The Bible was not written in English, and so we rely on Bible translators to be able to understand God’s Word in our mother tongue. However, translation is not straight forward, as anyone in our church who speaks multiple languages will tell you, especially when it comes to idioms, phrases, sayings, poetry and prophecy!!
So what’s the difference? Mainly it’s in the approach each translation takes and what they are hoping to achieve. Some Bibles aim translate the original text on a word-for-word basis, like the English Standard Version (ESV). These are better if you are doing a close reading of a passage or book, but do tend to be harder to read, as they are aiming for a literal translation rather than a text that reads intuitively.
Other Bibles aim to translate the meaning of the text on a thought-for-thought basis, like the New Living Translation (NLT). These sacrifice some accuracy on the individual words, but are much more fluent to read and are generally easier to understand, because the emphasis is on capturing the meaning of the text.
Right in the middle of these two approaches sits the New International Version (NIV), which is the version we tend to use on a Sunday, as if offers you the best of both worlds. If you don’t know which one to read, just read the NIV!
Everyone loves Eugene Peterson’s ‘The Message’, which I highly recommend, and consider a work of genius by a highly esteemed pastor and artist – but just remember that it’s not a ‘Bible translation’ in the strict sense, as Peterson allows himself a lot of freedom in communicating each text he transliterates.
Devotionals
A different way of engaging with the Bible is to use a devotional, which gives you a Bible verse each day, as well as a short reflection written by a pastor or author, that helps you reflect on the verse. A devotional resource is really a ‘jumping off point’, that helps you get going before the coffee has hit your bloodstream!
Me and Sarah have enjoyed dipping in and out of The Way of Wisdom by Tim & Kathy Keller, which is a highly insightful way to read, discuss and pray through the Wisdom writings. The Kellers also wrote a devotional called My Rock, My Refuge which walks through the Psalms. A classic devotional is My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, as is The Promises of God by Charles Spurgeon, or you could look at Everyday Gospel, by Paul David Tripp, which tracks alongside a Bible-in-a-Year reading plan. The very talented and inspiring Jackie Hill Perry has recently published a 60-day devotional called Upon Waking. I’m sure there are hundreds more that others could recommend, so please don’t be offended that I haven’t mentioned them all!
A devotional is no substitute for reading the Bible yourself (don’t outsource – you can do it!), but it can be a really helpful tool for reflection and applying the Bible to your life. God wants us to live by his Word, and to grow closer to him through his Word, not just become more knowledgeable of his Word.
Bible Studies
If you’re looking go deeper into one book of the Bible (rather than further through the scope of the Bible), you’ll probably want to pick a book and read a more in-depth commentary on it, to help you see beneath the surface. We should not expect the Bible to be simple to understand all the time – it is the most profound book ever written! Many of its riches are buried beyond what first meets the eye and a skilled pastor or author can help you see what you’re not already seeing.
I’ve found these two series of study books enjoyable, readable and helpful in going deeper, as well as applying the Bible to everyday life.
If you’re looking for a different global perspective on the Bible, I would highly recommend Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey, who brings together Middle Eastern interpretation and insights that are eye-opening.
Memorisation, Q&A and AudioBibles
I have found memorising Scripture to be a game-changer for how God’s Word comes alive in me. I first came across the Topical Memory System many years ago, which I inherited from someone, somewhere, in a tatty old version of the book. The idea is simple: you are given 2 verses each week that are connected thematically (e.g. 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 2:20), and you are helped to memorise those verses with tear-out cue cards.
Once memorised, you can then spend time reflecting on the verses, and gradually over the weeks you build up your own internal library of Bible verses. Here’s the irony: I’ve never got very far into the weekly plan! Maybe 2025 will be my year?! However, what I can confidently say is that all of the verses that I memorised years ago I can still remember now, and they are still benefitting my walk with God. Once you’ve really learnt a verse, you’ve got it for life. There are other versions of this book, and other books about the science of memorisation, but if you want to keep it simple, stick a verse on your fridge/bathroom mirror/child’s forehead, and try to memorise it through the week!
Alternatively… There is a different kind of memorisation approach that the church has used historically to teach Bible beliefs, (rather than Bible verses), called ‘catechesis’, an odd word which simply means ‘question and answer’ teaching. A ‘catechesis’ is a set of 50-150 questions and answers that cover the key teachings of the Bible as a whole. Here’s an example from the very famous Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Q:What is man’s chief end in life?
A:Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever
You learn the question, and the answer, and then reflect/discuss the content.
Because these catechisms come from a different era, their language can be an obstacle for a lot of people, but there has been a renaissance of this memorisation approach recently and this year I’ve dipped into the New City Catechism Devotional, which is highly accessible and superbly put together, with a Q&A for each day, and some devotional writings, ancient and modern, alongside. Lovely stuff!
Finally there are an increasing number of superbly produced audiobook versions of the Bible. The ESV online platform is truly impressive, offering not just one audiobook, but your choice of a range of different readers, including Michael Reeves, Ray Ortland, Kristyn Getty and Jackie Hill Perry. It’s like the old days of sat nav where you could choose your voice! David Suchet has done a version of the NIV on audio, which comes as both a whole bible, or in the Bible-in-a-Year format. You can access this on Audible, Spotify, Apple Music or buy it hard copy online.
Mobile-Bible or Phoning it in?
On Sunday I was a bit disparaging of Bible resources that are available on your smart phone! I’m aware that for some people they really enjoy and rely on excellent resources that they access on their phone. The YouVersion Bible App is completely free and has been downloaded by a bazillion people, and has all kinds of reading plans to help you make progress. Personally, I use the Logos Bible App, because it syncs well with other digital study resources that I use.
However, my pastoral concern about smart phone resources is a fairly obvious one. Smart Phones are distraction centres and highly addictive, and our society is gradually waking up to this reality, especially in managing young people’s use and access. Wisdom therefore should tell us that if we want to spend more quality time with God in his Word, we will put the phone out of reach and pick up a hard copy Bible that will not notify us of anything else that is going on in the world!
Research has shown that to stop your brain thinking about your phone it needs to be put away, in a drawer or a bag. It’s insights like this that make me highly skeptical of a Bible reading plan that relies on me using my phone a lot. I just don’t trust myself! That’s not to set any kind of rule for anyone else – perhaps you’re a commuter and you find using your phone the best way to remember your reading for the day – crack on I say! But let’s be wise and remember our aim is not simply convenience or ticking a box, it’s communing with the Living God!
Reading with Kids
Lastly, I just wanted to add a section here for those who are raising children and might want to think about doing something new as a family, or 1-on-1 with a child.
Kids Bibles come in different forms. Some are Bibles i.e. they are fully translated versions of the whole Bible. Others are Storybooks, where they tell the stories of the Bible in contemporary English that is child-friendly. Both of these approaches are excellent resource for young readers.
For a Kids Bible, I would highly recommend the NIrV version, where the ‘r’ stands for ‘readers’. It’s the NIV translation, but rendered in such a way for young readers or those for whom English is a second language. It’s highly readable for children, and comes in various forms. You can buy the plain text like this, or a far more exciting illustrated version like this.
For a Storybook Bible, I love the Jesus Storybook Bible, which is also available on audiobook, read by the marvellous David Suchet – a ‘classic’ in my house, find it on Spotify, Audible etc. Then there’s Kevin DeYoung & Don Clark’s The Biggest Story which is stunningly written and illustrated, and I’ve heard people enjoy the Action Storybook Bible which is laid out like a comic strip.
For memorisation and Q&A, there is the Topical Memory System for Kids, and there is also a New City Catechism for Kids, which comes in a tiny little book and is about £2! These would definitely require more parental involvement, but that can be a great source of fun and a challenge to do together.
May God bless you as you read his Word in 2025, and remember that God really wants to speak to you – you don’t need to twist his arm! God has spoken to us through Jesus, let’s be eager to listen to him this year.
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