REVIEW OF THE YEAR - 2003

Mission

Our mission to share the good news with our community is so inter-woven into everything we do that it is quite difficult to talk about it as a separate entity. However, we have also engaged in some very specific activities.

Alpha ran back in the summer with a total of 27 attending. Over the last three years we have run Alpha five times with a total of 55 guests attending and 14 team members. 14 folk have been baptised following Alpha, and nine have come into membership. This is great and highlights the continuing challenge to support and nurture folk as they grow in faith over time.

Three more editions of Vision, our community magazine, have been conceived, written, produced, prayed over and reliably delivered by a host of people. Our website continues to be a key tool in publicity, and has had many thousands of hits over the year.

The Men’s Breakfast in March was a popular and effective way of drawing alongside our friends and neighbours. There have been a whole host of other activities too numerous to mention here. And then there is the …..

…..Earith Project

For some time now it has been an ambition of a number of Earith folk to have a greater Christian witness in the village.  Although it may seem strange, the distance between Earith village and Bluntisham or Willingham is a deterrent to individuals who would like to attend Christian services.

Patrick Cunningham, a member of the Willingham Baptist Church got a group of like minded folk from both churches to put their energy into holding a carol concert in Earith School Hall. This venture had the full support of both Jonathan Daniels, the minister from Willingham, and Nick.  We had been praying for this event for some months and we would like to thank everyone in both churches who prayed, because God richly blessed us that afternoon. 

There were approximately 120 people at the event. There were a substantial number of local people attending who would not normally have bothered to leave the village to attend a church service. The feedback from everyone was most encouraging and it was generally agreed that the carol concert was a success. We are now thinking about holding another service at Easter.  Please keep on praying for God’s work in Earith.

So our church mission prayer requests for the coming year are:

◙        Gratitude to God for marvellous opportunities to share the good news this year and a desire that we will continue to see a harvest in 2004 of seeds sown in previous years

◙        For wisdom to develop the right sort of opportunities in 2004, building on what we already do well

◙        That we will be able to explore new ways of reaching the so-far unreached in our community

VISITING TEAM

Presently in our second year, we are a team of four people but are keen to see the size of the team grow. Once a month, we meet to identify those people that may benefit from being visited by a team member

Our aims are not only to visit sick or elderly people, but to welcome new people to the village and visit any other person that we feel in need of a visit (e.g. recently bereaved). Visits are generally made once a month for a chat and to pray if requested. Spiritual support is offered but more practical support can be extended.

◙ Please contact Margaret Taylor if you know of anyone who may benefit from a visit from us.

Ladies' Fellowship

As our 'name' suggests, we meet on a regular basis of once a week in the vestry, in a warm and friendly atmosphere. We have several 'members' who started attending from outside the church. Some of them came to church in time and, because they know us from the Tuesday meeting, they feel comfortable being among the congregation.

We have a wide and varied programme, which three times a year a few of us 'draw up' and arrange speakers to talk on their job and interests. We have videos of biblical lands. We talk to each other on various subjects, e.g. childhood memories, favourite books, readings and hymns. We have cookery demonstrations, film slides of far away places, garden topics and, in the summer, outings and a garden party in a member's garden. We end the year with a Christmas lunch.

◙ We look forward to another year of God's blessings and welcoming new members to join with us.

YOUTH WORK

It’s been a mixed year for our youth work, but one in which God has challenged us to take a look at how we do things and with his care they are slowly bearing fruit. Here are some of our highlights from 2003:

◙        After taking a five month break youth club restarted on Friday nights. It now runs with help from Ignite and Phil & Lisa. Graham stepped down after all his sterling work. The new youth club, whilst numerically smaller has allowed us to work more along side the young people and build friendships.

◙        Ignite grows from strength to strength. Following Sarah's work, Steph and Dan now organise it with Aggie. More of the teenagers are involved week by week in leading Sunday nights.

◙        The number of teenagers being baptised and growing in their faith has been so encouraging and inspiring.

◙        An excellent week at Holiday Bible Club, with so many teenagers helping at all levels and a week of friendship, fellowship, faith and football at Leading Edge.

We have a number of hopes and prayers for 2004:

◙        Ever deepening of faith for those in Ignite, with more opportunities to develop gifts.

◙        More helpers for youth club on Friday night

◙        A keyboard player for Ignite

◙        Even more teenagers at Leading Edge

LEADERSHIP TEAM

This has been a time of growth; presenting us with both opportunities and challenges. We had some 'team' changes: John Holmes stepped down, Malcolm joined. If you look at the range of activities covered elsewhere in

this report you will see how much the leadership has oversight of on behalf of the fellowship. Consequently, monthly meetings can be marathon affairs since there is so much to talk and pray about! In addition to some real spiritual growth, our membership has increased in the year from 73 to 84. There have been 13 new members and 2 folk have left us. On average, around 120 people now attend worship on Sunday mornings. We had an amazing 16 baptisms in 2003! Our new church directory lists 196 adults and children, a net increase of 28 from 168 this time last year.

Looking back over the year together, we identified some of the highlights for us:

◙ Everyone was thrilled that so many had been given the courage to be baptised;

◙ The 40 Days Of Purpose book was embraced by the majority of the fellowship and the church has been blessed as a result;

◙ Holiday Bible Club with its overall attendance of 119 children and with masses of helpers and leaders was a real answer to prayer;

◙ Leading Edge was also recognised as a time of spiritual growth for old and young alike;

◙ We give thanks for the Dedication services that have been held;

◙ We continue to praise the Lord for the unity within the church, especially as we agreed to extending our buildings to cope with the growth in numbers;

◙ We also thank Sarah Smith for her gap-year work for us, for instance in leading group of older teenagers, 'Ignite'.

We sometimes struggle to keep up with the names and faces of the new people coming to Sunday services so please forgive us if we get your name wrong! It is so great to have each and every new person with us. It was a difficult decision to close the Youth Club for several months last year. This gave the leaders time to assess the purpose and format of the club.

As leaders we are conscious of time constraints we would welcome your prayers, as the workload increases in a growing church. We value and appreciate every single contribution made by so many.

◙ We look forward to a year of spiritual growth within the fellowship and would love to explore reaching twenty-somethings more effectively.

◙ There is an enormous challenge ahead of us to raise money so that essential building work can take place.

We pray that we will continue to develop a world-wide perspective on what God is doing’

WORLD MISSION

During the year, we have been giving some thought to how we can be more in touch with what God is doing around the world. Nick now includes a monthly ‘five minute mission focus’ on Sundays and we have also had a specific focus on Signpost International and BMS World Mission. There are plans afoot to re-shape our support for world mission during 2004 and as a church we pray for various folk who will be visiting projects abroad (there may be others)

◙ Judy West, visiting Thailand in January and February

◙ The sports mission team of around ten people visiting Albania in June

◙ John Smith, visiting Uganda in September

SUNDAY SCHOOL

The Sparklers group have loads of fun acting out bible stories, reinforcing them with songs, games and crafts to take home. It can be noisy as there are sometimes 18 of us. Saying goodbye to Simi was sad, but Jess took her place helped by Lorna, Heather, Lauren, Elizabeth and Grace. On alternate Sundays, Alex & Ann teach us and we do drama with them. We still need more helpers. Being on stage and singing 'Mr Cow' at the carol service was scary, but we loved doing it.

All Stars & Trailblazers have been off to Histon Baptist Church to join with XLGen8 singing action songs, sketches & puppetry. It's great being part of a huge crowd learning about Jesus. We also experienced a large group at our own 'Seaside Rock' holiday bible club. It was fantastic again this year and all our friends joined in the fun with us. We want to thank all the grownups who worked so hard to organise the week. The Ignite group led our summer programme using the Viz a Viz ALF guide and on the last Sunday twelve of us made a commitment to follow Jesus.

We sent a final letter to Maiko as he is eighteen and saying we will continue to pray for him and his family. Mr & Mrs Frost came from Signpost International to talk to us about sponsoring a child in the Philippines.

◙ Thank you for praying that God will continue to bless us.

MUSIC AND TECHNICAL TEAM

In 2003, the team changed. We have gained many new members who have blessed us with their gifts, and which they have used to enhance the worship.

One of the goals we achieved this year was to get everyone together for a meal, allowing for a time of fellowship, getting to know one another better (including families and partners) and then share a time of discussion.

This also helped us agree on some of our values:

◙ To God be the Glory (Psalm 150) – playing in church is about praise! Not just our own but the church’s.

◙ We want to be the best we can be – therefore we have a commitment to practice and rehearsal.

◙ We are the lead worshippers – we need to engage with God on a personal level too.

◙ We are servants of the whole church.

◙ We are a team: “The greatest of these is love”! The best worship teams know and love God and one another deeply. Leading the worship is our act of loving service to the whole church.

Our prayer requests for the coming year are:

◙ That we remain a united team working to the glory of God.

◙ For more new members, that we may be a team that grows and changes as God directs us.

◙ For the partners and families of those involved that they continue to support us and that they too will deepen their relationship with God.

FINANCE

We have had another good year of giving, both for our own funds and for other causes. 11% of our total income has been raised for organisations outside the local church. We increased our giving to both Home Mission and BMS World Mission giving to £2228 and £2246 respectively. We didn’t quite make our targets of £2500, but we didn't miss by much. When we add in the £280 raised by the birthday scheme, we increased our total giving to BMS by 40%. Ignite also raised £1044 for World Vision with their sponsored famine, and we also gave donations to the Bible Society, the James Horsley Fund, and Childline.

Our Building Fund has grown by more than 50% - we now have nearly £18000. And that’s without the 2003 Gift Day, which was deferred to February 2004.

God is good and we ended the year a few hundred pounds better off in our general church funds. Over the year there was an extra £20 per week in the Sunday cash offering whilst regular gift-aided giving remained the same. Our regular giving for church funds has therefore increased slightly.

◙ This final point needs our consideration and prayers are our costs continue to increase!

FOOTBALL

The enthusiasm to run around in the cold and wet continued in 2003 so, due to excessive keenness, the football is now twice a month! The net (ha ha) result being the men are getting fitter or so they claim and the profits in the Black Bull have doubled on Monday nights.

Combined with the regular sessions there were one or two special event. The Ignite team played the youth team from the Eden project in Manchester, and at a 5-a-side competition at Bar Hill the oldies took great delight in beating the younger A team. At Leading Edge the tournament was more difficult and, despite some very good football in the excessive heat, we didn’t make the final – but there’s always this year! What has become clear is the impact of sport on personal development and on fellowship.

Our aim for the coming year is:

◙ to continue to grow using our sporting skills as part of our outward mission

◙ That the trip to Albania in June will be a great testimony to our commitment.

HOMEGROUPS

It is difficult in a growing church to build meaningful relationships with people – Sunday services can be busy and the chances for good conversation limited! Hence we are all encouraged to belong to a smaller group or ‘homegroup’ for the purpose of building strong friendships, serving one another and encouraging each other in prayer, bible study and personal witness. We have had six homegroups meeting weekly or fortnightly, in Earith, St Ives, three evening groups in Bluntisham, and one daytime group. In 2003 we have seen clear benefits through meeting in this way – stronger friendships, prayers answered, understanding gained, and people encouraged to serve God in various ways. Highlights were studying The Purpose Driven Life book, themes from John’s Gospel, and the Searching Issues series. Our goals and prayers for 2004 are:

◙ That our meetings would be not only fun, but a place for real spiritual growth.

◙ For wisdom in incorporating new people into new and existing homegroups.

LITTLE FISHES

We have had another rewarding year at Little Fishes. Highlights include the Teddy Bears Picnic, regularly seeing new faces on Tuesday mornings and, of course, the Christmas Party, which was featured on the front page of the Christmas edition of the local paper! In the autumn the committee trialled the Parentalk parenting course, which we hope to offer to other parents later this year. It is great to see the friendships that both children and parents have made continue as the children begin playgroup and school, and a number of “Fishes families” have joined us on Sundays which is great!

◙ Please pray for those friendships to strengthen and for the plans for the Parentalk course.