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Why not give an invitation to the Alpha course? Send your loved ones, friends, and neighbours on an adventure they won’t forget. For ten weeks enjoy a free meal once a week, including nice company, the opportunity to build new friendships, and getting an answer to life’s biggest questions. Come on a journey and explore life, faith, and meaning with Alpha.

Alpha is launching on Monday 21 January 2019, 6.30pm at St Barnabas Church. Please let us know by Thursday 17 January 2019 if you’ like to come.

Thank you to all of you who already said they’d like to get involved in the Alpha host team. We still need people who could give the catering team a hand (setting up tables, cooking, serving, washing up), someone who could play an instrument, and discussion group leaders. I’ll arrange another information session for all the volunteers in January.

St B’s monthly morning praise service at 10.30am has been well received and people enjoy the new style of worship, which is due to Phil’s God-given talent. Special thanks go to Phil and Angela for their enthusiasm to help St B’s. However, to make it really work we need a committed children’s worker who could come once a month to lead the kids’ club. If you have a heart for Jesus and a passion to share the Good News with the little ones, come and have a word with me.

At this point I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you, St Saviour’s family, for your continued prayers and support for St Barnabas. A special ‘thank you’ goes to Peter Barry who, although worshipping in a different church, comes and helps with the sound. A big ‘thank you’ to Caz and Nathan who, although juggling several balls at St S, commit to help at St B’s every month. Thank you also to Tom and Dan, our Moorlands students, who also come along to serve. Thanks too to Pete Alcock for setting up the new AV system; and Richard Allen for his help to get the laptop running. I’m also grateful for all those who preached and led services over the last year – Mel McPherson, Jason Harris, Laura and Chris Watts, and Sandra Tauson, and not forgetting a big ‘thank you’ to Andy, our ‘flying’ vicar, who is enthusiastic about trying out new things and, through that, encourages me in my ministry at St Barnabas.

As this calendar year comes to an end and the new church year has already started, let’s pray for a new awakening and curiosity for our Lord Jesus Christ in our united benefice. May we have the opportunities over the coming Christmas services to show to the world that Christians are a joyful bunch of people who reflect Christ’s beauty and hope for the future.

Merry Christmas!

Daniela Eisentraeger, lay minister

‘My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9

The season of Advent is here and, with Christmas just around the corner, we thank God for His amazing grace that has supported and guided us here at St Saviour’s through this last year. Through His grace we have seen –

G – Generosity – generosity of spirit in our church family, and the giving of time, talents and money.

R – Relationships – we are a family here, with supportive love of each other. We work together as individuals and within various groups. We give thanks for the warm welcome visitors receive and that we are known in our community as a church that cares.

A – Answered prayers – so many of our prayers for healing and for all sorts of challenges faced by our congregations have been answered in God’s unique way. We give thanks for all of these.

C – Community – we reach out and will continue to reach out into our local, national, and international communities. The whole world needs us!

E – Excitement – in our fundraising, responses to our outreach events, and seeing God’s power working through us! Who knows (apart from God) what is in store for us next?

So let’s hold on to the wonderful message of Advent ‘The best is yet to come’. We pray that this will be an encouragement to us all. We know that God is with us. As we prepare for Christmas, and also to welcome visitors to all our special events and services, may we all continue to know God’s grace, peace, and joy, and most of all His love in this place and in our hearts. Thank you for all that you do.

Bev Collum-Mills and Christine Moyes, churchwardens

I’ve been at St Saviour’s for nearly eight months now and in some ways it still feels like I have just started, and in other ways like I’ve been here for a long time. Starting in the office was such a smooth transition, and this was mostly down to Kerry’s incredible organisational skills. She left everything so well documented that it made life very easy for me. It’s taken a while to get to grips with all that the role entails; from the monthly rota, to booking weddings and baptisms, to knowing when to order literature and when to order tea and coffee, answering calls, and doing lots of little bits. It’s difficult to explain the breadth of the role, but safe to say, it keeps me busy and the day goes by quickly.

I’m amazed at the incredible love and support I have received from all at St Saviour’s – Andy and the fab staff team, the volunteers who run the Link, the churchwardens, and all those who pass through the office. I really value that. In fact I feel so blessed to attend one church and work at another. It means I get to see so much more of what God is doing in the community and it has really deepened my gratitude for God’s universal church and the role I can play in that. Before starting to work here, I had no idea about how much goes on behind the scenes to ensure the church and its activities run smoothly.

You should all be very proud of what St Saviour’s has done and is doing in the community, and also proud of all the incredible hard work that so many of you do – a lot of which goes unnoticed. God says that the harvest is plentiful, that we just need to pray for the workers. We could all be that answer to prayer. No effort is too small.

Tanja Patten, Office administrator

I find it amazing how things go in cycles. Recently we realised that our young people don’t bring their Bibles to church because there are ones provided and we have the Bible reading on the screen for the congregation. So we have started a point system in our Sunday morning group. They get a point for bringing their own Bible and for remembering a memory verse. This is not a new idea as I remember a point system when I was young, but it is something to encourage the young people to get into God’s word.

I have an NIV Bible just like St Saviour’s has, but I much prefer using my own. It is hard to explain, but you just know the feel of your own Bible and get used to where everything is. It is also important to remember memory verses. In Jesus’ time, by the age of 12, Jewish children were expected to know the scriptures. The devil likes to twist the scriptures to catch us out, as we see in Genesis with Adam and Eve, and in the gospels with Jesus. The difference is that Jesus knew the scriptures, so he knew the devil was twisting God’s word and could counter him. We want our young people to know God’s word and to do that they need to read it – not just on a Sunday morning, but each day – and to learn it, so they can’t be caught out.

We also asked our young people at Core whether they thought they had heard from God before. A few said no they hadn’t, which made me wonder what people thought when asked that question. Are we expecting an audible voice, or visions, or dreams? The sad thing is we don’t always realise that whenever we open our Bibles, we hear from God because we are told that ‘All scripture is God breathed’ (2 Timothy 3:16). For us it is like receiving a bunch of texts from a loved one, but then telling people that we never hear from them because we are expecting phone calls.

We want to be praying for our young people, to be opening God’s word and listening to what he has to say. Not only that, but also that they would understand it and put it into practice. If we want to hear from God in different ways, we need to be expecting to hear from him in the most obvious way he has given us.

Nathan Bendell, Youth Minister

PS You may not realise this but we have lovely young people. They are very welcoming and supportive of one another. They are enthusiastic to learn and love to have a laugh with the leaders. It is so easy to build great relationships with our young people. Caz and I love leading the groups, but we can’t be everywhere at once. I would like to start by thanking, from the bottom of my heart, the volunteers we do have. We appreciate it so much as do the young people. That said, you are probably bored of reading about the fact that we need more volunteers, but sadly that is a fact.

If you are interested in finding out about the groups, come along and get involved. You may think that you wouldn’t be any good, but sometimes just being there to listen to them and advise them is really helpful. Or maybe on a Wednesday evening you can be on tuck shop, which is a great way of getting to know individuals. Another way of getting involved could be by prayer-walking with Caz and myself as we drop off new leaflets to houses in the parish to let others know about the groups that we run. Come and chat with me or Caz if you can help in any way.

‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: […] a time to keep and a time to throw away …’ Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 and 6

When I think back to the early days of Ignite and the uncertainty, privilege, and responsibility that Karen and I felt in being entrusted to produce it, it is thrilling to see how much God has blessed and used it over these last few years. We have a lot to be thankful for – the written contributions and kind support that you have given us, the wonderful software and printing services* that have allowed us to produce it to such a high standard, and the amazing opportunity to tell our community something of what goes on at St Saviour’s and to give a glimpse of what it means to follow Jesus.

But now, over three years and 20 issues on, are we in a new season? Is this a time to keep or a time to throw away? As many of you will have realised, we are reviewing the future of Ignite and, to that end, we produced a survey in July about possible ways forward. Very many thanks to those of you who returned our questionnaire. It was good of you to take the time to let us have your thoughts. The response rate was low, but the views expressed were very humbling and helpful. Thank you so much.

Overall, the survey results showed that the magazine is popular, well respected, and valued, with many positive comments. However, it is also evident that getting people to write for Ignite will continue to be a challenge, making the way forward unclear.

Perhaps the most important question of all was not on the survey, but is certainly one we are seeking an answer to in prayer! What does God want? One thing is for sure – there is no doubt that our focus needs to be Jesus. Please join us in praying about the magazine’s future, be open to what God wants, and do let us know if you have any further thoughts about this. We are confident that God will show us!

‘… let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.’ Hebrews 12, verses 1-2

Clare Shearing, Co-editor

[* Very many thanks to Jason Harris and all at IMS.]

This year we launched an appeal for Fabric Funds. We need to replace our church doors and redecorate the church, so we will be holding various fundraising events over the next few months (a gift day has already happened), which we hope will be well supported by you and fun!! Find out more in Ignite 20, and keep a look out for further details during the year.

This time last year we were pondering on some questions that Justin Welby had set out in his book Dethroning Mammon. I have reproduced them here for those of you that missed them the first time round. See how you fare!

• Looking at your life, what gives you most joy and happiness?
• Where else in the Bible or in your life has God responded to a need or a request with over-generosity?
• What might God be calling you to value more?
• What might God be calling you to value less?
• What is your most valuable possession?
• Are there any circumstances under which you could imagine giving it away?

When you have pondered these difficult questions and arrived at your answers, and given that during September we have been looking at the ‘Generosity of God’, perhaps you feel that you would like to discuss your giving to the church/finances/time/talents. Please feel free to come and have a chat to me.

‘Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’ 2 Corinthians 9 verse 7

God bless you in your giving

Pat Smart, Treasurer