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GOOD NEWS & Fresh Expressions

Marske 'Carols in the Cafe'

For the third year running Marske Methodist Church hosted 'Carols in the Cafe' on the morning of Christmas Eve, and once again it proved very popular with around sixty people attending. Ages ranged from one year old to one hundred years old!
Refreshments were served including mince pies as we tried to raise the roof singing our favourite carols. Our minister, Rev Arthur Harbottle led the event, and for the first time some of our friends were introduced to the use of modern technology in the church, as we watched an item from YouTube, and some beautiful sand art to the song 'Do you hear what I hear'.
This was a truly memorable occasion, and only one of the many we have hosted this Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Churches Together in England Presidents Covenant and Churches Together in England 2012 leafet

Our Presidents recently signed a Personal Covenant, which you can see and read here. Please pass this news on to your contacts as an encouragement for all churches seeking to work together.

We have a leaflet for 2012 about our work which you can see 

here. Please distribute this to your network as an update of the work we seek to do in partnership.

Harvest at Witton Gilbert's Allotments:

Harvest festival for the chapels of Langley Park, Sacriston & Witton Gilbert took some of the congregation out to Witton's allotments this year.

The question of what to do with a bumper crop of fruit & vegetables encouraged growers to give the excess to others. So members of the junior church set too to gather the harvest in.

There was a short service where the opportunity was taken to say some prayers for the allotments & the people who work them as sadly some of the allotment holders were the victims of vandals earlier this year.

Then the harvest was taken back to Witton Gilbert chapel where yet more members of the congregations were waiting & the harvest was blessed.

Teesside Street Angels

Read about the work of the Street Angels teams in Stockton, Hartlepool & Middlesbrough on page 5 of the Street Angels Newsletter

Click to download the Newsletter as a PDF

More Stories needed.

We need more stories of the work your church is engaged in that will encourage and challenge others. We would like to build up pages of GOOD NEWS Stories. Please let Bob Robinson, District Administrator have your story. bob.dmdadmin@gmail.com

  

To encourage and develop more mission minded disciples I am offering to lead the six session Mission Shaped Intro Course in your circuit.

Six weeks to rediscover mission and re-imagine church.

New world, new church? Our world and our lives have changed radically in the last twenty years, but has the church adapted to this change?

Do we need a changed church for a changing world? Are new forms of church really possible? If so, how can they be developed?

Recently refreshed and redesigned, mission shaped intro explores the ‘why’ of creating fresh expressions of church rather than the ‘how’.

The six-week course takes you on a journey looking at the ever-changing nature of our social communities and explores why the church needs to rethink its approach to those communities in meaningful and relevant ways.

The 90-minute sessions are delivered through presentation, movie clips and stories with active group participation. It is ideal for those who are starting from scratch as well as those who have attended a vision day or who are maybe thinking about joining the mission shaped ministry course.

The Mission Shaped Ministry Course runs from September to June.

Contact: Helen Symonds, 07828 802692 or helen.symonds@freshexpressions.org.uk
www.missionshapedministry.org/northeast11

Messy Church seems to be a growing area for the church. We’d love to hear more about how your group is running and any stories you have. Again please let Bob Robinson know.

For more Messy Church information

Young people 'textify'

'Textify' is the name given to a new initiative by Hope Revolution - the young people's arm of Hope. Hope is a national initiative to mobilise people in 'word and deed' mission' across the UK.
'Word and deed' mission means radical living, serving the community and sharing the Gospel. It is all based on the principles of how Jesus shared the good news with the various people he met. Over the next three years all kinds of initiatives will encourage people to do that with the people they know. See the 'Hope' website here.
As part of that build up, thousands of young Christians are being encouraged to 'text their testimony' in September as a way of sharing their faith.The initiative follows up many of the youth festivals held in the summer holiday, and encourages the young people to text when they are back at school and college.
All this is far better explained by the dedicated website: www.hope-revolution.com. have a look, and encourage young people to 'textify'!