REVIEW OF THE YEAR - 2009

Welcome to our church’s Annual Review for 2009. This has been a year of challenge, struggle and, at the end of it all, huge achievement

I recently received from the Baptist Union a belated acknowledgement of a report I wrote at the end of my Sabbatical. The comment from the person who had read it said this: ‘How are you doing with your BHAG?’ In the report I had written about our BHAG – our Big Hairy Audacious Goal! This was nothing less than to raise the six figure sum needed for us to refurbish the hall for church and community use.

And do you know what? We did it. 2009 was the year we reached not only that provisional goal, but more than that: the builders moved in and we finished the work. Writing now in early 2010 I can say that, under God, we can be genuinely proud of what we as a church achieved in completing this work. I think the result is outstanding. I will not forget the feeling of elation as members of the congregation went into the new hall for the first time after the service on Christmas Day 2009, and the wide eyes of wonder as we looked around the new facilities. These will be of huge value to us and to the community we serve for years to come.

We give thanks to God for the way he equipped us with people with just the right experience and expertise at the right time – I’m thinking in particular of the Renewal Project Steering Group members who have been thanked in public, but here is my opportunity to thank them in print; for the skilled workers who did the building work (we won’t forget Tony and Mark the builders in a hurry); and for all those who gave and fundraised in creative ways – and we trust will continue to do so! We give thanks to God, and we also give each other a big pat on the back, as this has been a whole-church effort, inspired by the Holy Spirit. It’s been intensely hard work, it’s been a great challenge as regards giving, fundraising, and indeed decision making through the project. But it’s been worth it.

Now as we look ahead to 2010 and beyond, this feels like a moment to take stock and review what we’re doing and where we’re going as a church. The hall and its facilities afford us great opportunities, particularly for greater community involvement. There are of course many things in place already, and more in the pipeline, not least the proposed Money Advice Centre which we hope to launch in the coming months. But it seems right to step back and ask again: who is God calling us to be now, and what is he calling us to do? In the coming months we will undertake to ask these vital questions of each other, and there will be opportunities for everyone in the church and congregation to contribute as we think, pray and seek God’s will for this new ‘season’ of our church’s life.

Prayer will be a key aspect to this. Prayer is vital to a living, effective church where there is not just activity but effective activity for God’s Kingdom. In 2010 we need to find ways of being disciplined about coming to God in prayer. In addition to our individual prayer lives and prayer on Sunday mornings, built into the programme are the monthly ‘Prayer, Praise and Communion’ services on Sunday evenings. On Tuesdays there is also Early Morning Prayer at 6.45am for half an hour in the Mary Gowler Room. We need to make the most of these opportunities, as well as more occasional ones such as House of Prayer, Sacred Space and things like the Women’s World Day of Prayer. If as a church and as individuals we are genuinely to contribute to God’s work in the world, it will be because we are in touch with God’s heart for the world. We cannot neglect this. How can you act on it?

On your behalf I’d like especially to thank my colleagues on the Leadership Team – that is the Deacons who work so hard, often behind the scenes, and Miriam Webb our dedicated Church Administrator, who has prepared this report and who does so much to keep this church up and running.

These are exciting times. As you read what follows I trust you’ll be encouraged by what has happened in the past year and that, armed with this food for thought, you’ll prayerfully consider how we can take this work on into 2010 and beyond.

WORSHIP is honouring God, in all we do, all the time and through accessible, energising and transforming services.

Nick Hudson writes…

We know that worship is a whole life calling, not just for Sundays. For the purposes of this report, however, we’re focusing mainly on the contributions that are made by people in the congregation to Sunday worship.

2009 has been a rich year for us in this regard. A key strength of ours is the large number of people who in big and small ways contribute to our Sunday services. On a typical Sunday this runs into the several dozens. Along with the more visible folk who sing and play instruments, or the Welcome Team who make visitors and regulars welcome as they arrive, there is a host of more behind the scenes people: Alison Hutchins and her team of people who read the scriptures to us each week; Katy Horrocks and the volunteers who provide flowers; Sheena Glanville and the efficient people who prepare Communion and wash up the cups afterwards. There are always vacancies on these teams if you think you could help them.

Two more teams, I think, deserve special mention. Firstly the Coffee Team, who had to endure very difficult conditions throughout the Renewal Project. They showed a tremendous servant attitude as they patiently rose to the challenge of ensuring we continued to offer tea, coffee and biscuits after services, which we felt was important. Again, would you like to join this team and spread the load?

And finally the Service Planning team. I’m amazed at how often visitors say to me: ‘I loved the way the whole service followed the same theme and everything contributed to the whole. It reinforced the message.’ This is down to the service planners, who meet every few weeks and brainstorm ways of getting the message of the Scriptures across in helpful, creative and imaginative ways.

Mention should also be made of those gifted people who have led worship, given children’s talks, prepared all age services or preached during the past year. Your time and effort in preparation is much appreciated. We have also been blessed by those home groups who have led evening times of praise and prayer, and those who have led the very helpful Sunday evening seminars on a variety of subjects.

‘And in Christ you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.’ Ephesians 2:22

James Stygall, on behalf of the music team, writes…

This year we have welcomed Julie Taylor, Ali Townsend and Rob Gore to our team of regular singers - they have brought great enthusiasm and skill to our team and it's great to have them! Do join us as we pray for Julia, who we miss so much - that God would give her his peace and complete healing.

During 2009 we had a number of extended Sunday meetings for the first time - we met to eat(!), pray, worship in song, read the bible, discuss issues and learn new songs. They were very valuable times and hopefully they will continue in 2010. Our team is full of very busy people who don't often get the time to meet together or rehearse as much as we would like, so please pray for us that we will make best use of the time that we have, and use our talents to glorify God in music.

Peter Lusmore, on behalf of the technical team,  writes...

This year has been another busy one for the technical team and has found us having opportunities to do more than just support the Church services on Sunday mornings.

In March and April, Steve Tall was part of the technical team supporting the nationwide tour of  the Christian evangelistic musical ‘The Rock’ which entailed driving van loads of “kit” to venues as far afield as Walsall to Worthing.

June saw four of the team loading up a van and setting off for Ipswich to provide sound and vision support for the Eastern Baptist Assembly meeting. In July Holiday Bible Club was held at St Helens School  this meant two services at the school as well as full technical support for the week. This required careful planning and set-up of the equipment, supervised by Gordon Pickard and Steve. We are truly blessed by the range of God given skills possessed by the team and the way they just "get things done" and rise to any challenges we are given. It has been a pleasure to   welcome Richard Tighe onto the team and he is rapidly coming up to speed with the church computers!

Looking forward to 2010 we will be finalising the new sound system installed in the John Wheatley Hall which will provide much greater flexibility for activities. No doubt there will be new challenges this year and we look forward to whatever they may be.

FELLOWSHIP is building a united, inclusive, loving community where everyone can find a place to belong

Ann Wassall, deacon for fellowship,  writes...

I have found this report really hard to write as there has been so much sadness and illness within the Fellowship this year.  In January  our dear sister Margaret Manning died, followed in May  by Nancy Scott.  Reg Cooper passed away in October and then our dear old friend Biddy Wigg's funeral was held in November.  All of these individuals played their part in our Church and are missed by all those who knew them.  I am also aware that many of our Fellowship have lost dear friends and relatives that we do not know.  The pain of grieving has been very acute this past year and I continue to pray that our Lord will comfort all those who are grieving at this time.

As we are all aware there have also been a number of our congregation who have been very ill. Members of the congregations families have also given us concern  because of serious illness's.  We need to continue to pray for all those who are sick and struggling at this time for God hears our prayers and answers them.  Unemployment and the threat of the loss of work also hangs over many.  Please pray for each other and remember that smiling faces on Sunday hide a multitude of problems.

We need to be United In Christ and demonstrate his love to each other on a daily basis.  I pray that we will continue to have Christ at the centre of all we do.

Pat Norman, on behalf of the Ladies Fellowship, writes...

 All of us had a great time at our meetings during 2009, although the year was tinged with some sadness at the passing of two of our friends, Nancy Scott and Biddy Wigg.  In addition, Rogifel, the little boy we were sponsoring thorough the Rehoboth Childrens Homes in the Phillippines, left the home in December 2008 and our sponsorship ceased in March.  All of us were very upset by the news, but he could not be persuaded to return. So it was decided to continue with our charity work, and during the year we invited a number of charities to visit us. In July, two people from Mercy Ships came to talk to us followed in November by E.A.C.H. (East Anglian Childrens’ Hospice) from Milton in Cambs.  We have plans for others to come during 2010.  It was such a joy to be able to hear about their activities and to bless their work with monetary gifts.

We enjoyed outings, thanks to John Holmes for providing the transport, great bible study/talks, film shows, thanks to Gordon for sorting out the “techie” stuff, Christmas Lunch and a Panto.  Not enough space to record everything, but just to say that we Praise and Thank God for our Fellowship, always acknowledging that He is the Centre.

Church Administration

Gillian Sugden, church treasurer, writes...

Giving to General Funds in 2009 was noticeably lower than the amount budgeted at the start of the year, although thankfully not as low as seemed possible part way through the year. The worrying drop was in gift-aided giving directly through the bank, which also reduces the amount of tax reclaimed. Some of this decrease was undoubtedly due to priority being given to the Renewal Fund rather than General Funds, or indeed to BMS and Home Mission, both of which totals were down on 2008.

Although we ended the year with receipts and payments more or less balancing, in 2010 our expenses will be considerably higher due mainly to the increased running costs of the new building.  We hope that our income from hiring out the new rooms will cover some of this increase, but now that the building work is finished and our commitment is mainly to repay the loan we need to prayerfully consider the distribution of our giving.

Renewal Project  - progress and finances

Rob Gore, as deacon for fabric and  treasurer for the Renewal Project, writes...

You don’t need me to tell you that 2009 was another good year for the Renewal Project.  This time last year, we still didn’t know for certain that the project would actually start this year, but we hoped it would. Well I think that it has surpassed our hopes and delivered wonderfully refurbished space and lots of versatile new space too.

Giving continued during the year and with, slight delays in the start plus the ongoing fundraising, we now look like we will be able to cope with a loan £15,000 less than we thought we would need at the outset – this is great work by everyone.

We start 2010  with a relatively healthy bank balance at the moment at £78k, although we’ve got about £69k of cheques in the pipeline and we’ve already drawn down loans of £95,874.  We anticipate requiring a loan of £135k when all work is complete, which is less than where we expected it would be, and this is entirely due to the fundraising efforts during the year.

If this prediction is correct, our loan repayments would be £1,300 per month compared to the ave. £1,450 we receive in regular receipts each month, although this is boosted further by the £7k we expect to received in Gift Aid each year and any other ongoing fundraising activities, which will continue.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the fantastic work of the many talented people involved in the Renewal Project Steering Group, who have managed the project.  It has helped those of us closely involved with the project appreciate just how much God provides – he really has given us the people with the right skills and drive to see the project completed on time and expected to be on budget too.  

MINISTRY is enabling people to use their gifts to serve God, by serving each other, our community and those in need

John Holmes, deacon responsible for finding a place to serve and administration writes...

2009 has been both a difficult and, at the same time, exhilarating year.  During the latter half of the year, the Sunday School Hall was out of commission as a result of the building works relating to the Renewal Project.  This created a considerable work load for many.

One consequence was that Little Fishes moved to the Old School building, other groups met in the Vestry or the Church, and the Beacon Café closed altogether for the duration.  Whilst we were very grateful to be able to use the old school, it proved to be a little cool with the start of winter.  At least, it made the move back into the new facility in the New Year much more appealing.

The Renewal Project meant a lot of hard work for the Steering Group as they worked with Haymills, the building contractors. This proved to be very successful, with Haymills cooperating in a number of ways so that we achieved real value for money. All are agreed that the work has been to the highest standards.

We look forward to 2010 and making full use of our extended facilities. Little Fishes and The Beacon Café see many people attend who would otherwise not do so, please continue to pray for both these areas of ministry and mission.

We have always sought to put our building “at the heart of the communities”. This may mean the fellowship getting involved in ways we cannot even envisage at the present time.  Everybody must be prepared to play their part, making use of their God-given gifts, either in new ventures or the existing work of the church.  As always, I finish with a plea for new volunteers—please see me if you would like to serve but are not sure where you are needed.

Rob Gore,  deacon for fabric and fittings, writes...

Well what a year 2009 was for our beautiful church buildings!  As Deacon for Fabric it has been a real privilege and a pleasure to be involved in helping to create the next era for our fabric resources, despite it also taking up a lot of time.

But; the Renewal Project isn’t everything that has happened around the church.  The gardens around the main church building have been “adopted” by various groups who continue to keep them looking great and the Grass Cutting rota continues to save us thousands of pounds each year, as did everyone’s hard work on improving the Manse Drive, path and external paintwork as well as other cosmetic work completed in the chapel during last year.

Put simply – 2009 was a great year for our Fabric! However, we need to start all over again this Spring and we will have regular work days, for which your continued support is needed and appreciated.  Thank you all for all your hard work and perseverance but please don't stop now!

DISCIPLESHIP is teaching and equipping people of all ages to become lifelong followers of Jesus

Deacon for growing into maturity, Dan Horrex writes...

Home groups are an important part of many people’s weekly calendar. These groups have five aims:

1. Worship: Learning to worship and pray together
2. Pastoral Care: learning to love and support one another - learning to be real with one another
3. Discipleship: learning from the Bible, and from each other about how to follow Jesus, (we often learn more in a small, interactive study, where there is the opportunity to question and discuss, than we do from a sermon)
4. Ministry/Service: learning how to serve and help one another, and others
5. Mission: supporting one another in our witness and outreach

There are 8 Home groups which regularly meet, some have been doing so for many years, others for less than a year. They are based in St Ives, Earith, Colne and Bluntisham. Part of my role is to resource Home Group leaders with study materials so we have a growing library of both printed and audio/DVD resources.

Another of my responsibilities is to help people find a Home Group. On the church’s website under activities tab is Home Groups. This gives an overview of the different groups. Likewise there will be a Home Group notice board in the new Hall.

As well as Home Groups there are Accountability Groups. Several of these groups are running, if you interested in attending Home Group or accountability group please don’t hesitate to contact me.

To grow into maturity we need to meet, study and pray with other Christians but we need to read our bible regularly, something we all struggle with—if you interested in having some bible notes to help with this please contact either Pat Norman or myself. We will be happy to help you.

Aggie Durkin, deacon for children and youth,  writes...

The past year has been a challenge as Sunday School relocated for the duration of the Building Project.  This relied on the hospitality of some members who opened up their homes for us every week and the patience of teachers, parents and children alike as we worked out the practicalities - may I offer my thanks to everyone involved.

Jaffa has continued to give an opportunity for the 8's to 12's to learn about Jesus A Friend For All (in case you wondered about the name) and saw the BMS action team join us for one of the sessions.

Looking to the year ahead, Sunday School are excited to be back home and are busy planning for the year ahead. Plans are coming together for a youthwork program to build on the successes of Jaffa for those at secondary school. There will also be the need to review our Safe to Grow policies this year as the Baptist Union updates their child protection guidelines.

Please pray for the children and youth in our care, for the work of Jaffa and Sunday School, and the many, many people who volunteer their time to lead or help in this work and without whom it could not happen.

Joy Holmes, Sunday School co-ordinator, writes...

We have a great deal to thank God for, our programme for the year including Mothering Sunday ,Easter services, Father's day, Holiday bible club, a Light party, young peoples weekends away and the family carol service, have all come to pass because of lots of prayer and commitment by the Sunday school teachers and helpers under very difficult circumstances.

The carol service had very few rehearsals and only one in the Church .The children just rose to the challenge and it was one of our best services. We had God's protection as we crossed the High Street to the old school week by week for 4 months. The teenagers travelled to  Cameron's kitchen and the babies and toddlers to the Horrex's lounge, friends willing to share their homes with us.

Then, wow !! What a buzz of excitement there was on our first Sunday with our new rooms, with white boards, and our own storage cupboard. The children and teachers were so grateful to have their own warm space. Now each group has a room to call their own and feel comfortable asking their friends along. What a great opportunity our new rooms have opened up to us.

We have many children but to meet this need we must have people willing to either become a leader or helper so that we can comply with our Church's safe to grow policy. If you feel called to this ministry then please speak to me. God gives us these children eager to learn and without your help we can not build God's future Church. Pray that we can meet all God's challenges and that our work with the children will be fruitful and many of them will come to know Jesus as their own Lord and Saviour.  

MISSION is representing God locally, nationally and globally, by participating in His mission through praying, giving and going

Local Mission and Evangelism

Nick Hudson writes...

‘A Baptist Church IS an evangelistic church. You can’t have a Baptist church that is not evangelistic.’  

So said Revd Dr Nigel Wright, principal of Spurgeon’s College at the Baptist Assembly in 2009.

Evangelism is in our Baptist DNA, and we showed that this year by persisting with the task of sharing our faith in Christ and inviting people to consider the claims of Jesus Christ, despite our busyness with the Renewal Project.

We didn’t run an Alpha Course in 2009, for the first time in many years. Instead we trialled a shorter evangelistic course that proved very valuable: Journeys was billed as a ‘pre-Alpha’ type course – starting further back in terms of an understanding of Christian things. This is increasingly common amongst people outside the church. Journeys, a DVD based discussion course, considered basic questions such as ‘Is there a spiritual side to life? If there’s a God, what’s he like? Does this faith business actually make any difference?’ We advertised hard, but were amazed at the take-up of this course. On the first night we had prepared for up to 10 people, and nearly twenty turned up. These high attendances continued through the 6 sessions. Discussion was intense, and many went away having carefully considered questions of faith in a new way.

We repeated our involvement with Back to Church Sunday in 2009. Once again, congregation members took up the challenge to invite friends and family. As a result there were several guests on the day, some of whom have continued to worship with us. Mention should be made, however, of the fact that many people boldly invited others, but they said no, or couldn’t attend. The response is out of our hands, but well done to those who tried.

Another regular outreach has been that through the Football Ministry, loyally and persistently run by Russell Banks and Graham Harris. They have made and maintained good links with a number of men of various ages who do not currently attend church or know the Lord. Please pray for them in this long term ministry.

Some of the men from the football, and other of our ‘fringe’ contacts were invited to an excellent evening in February, with Carl Beech of Christian Vision for Men. Billed as More Curry, Vicar?, the evening felt like a big success. There was a great turnout in the hall, Carl spoke with passion and conviction, and the food was outstanding! Afterwards discussions continued in the pub until the early hours. Many of those present that evening were challenged and encouraged.

Along with these events and courses (and we shouldn’t forget the Community Rounders event hosted by the White Swan) is the daily witness of each member of church and congregation as we go about our daily lives among family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues. With words and actions we show that our Baptist DNA is to be evangelistic, pointing people to Jesus.

Holiday Bible Club

Holiday Bible Club 2009 was a real ‘Showstopper’! Dan and Katy presented our week of musical madness in the new venue of St Helen’s School, due to the building work at church, with Nick, Mark Taylor and Jackie Daniels leading our rotation of exciting and varied activities. Each day we focused on a different ‘Must Know Bible’ story, taking in The Creation, David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lions Den, The Christmas Story and Easter on our showstopping journey.  One of the highlights of the week was the crash-mat slide game which was so popular with the children (and quite a few adults too) that they asked to play it again at the end of the week.

Welcoming in the region of 110 children each day, our enthusiastic band of over 60 Volunteers were able to share the good news of Jesus and give the children the chance to explore their own questions in small groups. We give thanks to God for the wonderful opportunities given to us during the week to witness to both children and adults and for providing the wonderful volunteers who worked so hard, in their many and varied roles to make Showstoppers 2009 such a great success. We would also like to express grateful thanks to the staff at St Helen’s School for the generous use of their premises.

Malcolm Lee, deacon for World Mission,  writes...

Despite the distraction of our major project, World Mission continued to play a significant role in our church life. Travel was on the agenda as we sent a team to Albania and then a travelling team from BMS came to stay with us for a week in June.  Other activities that went on quietly in the background were the continuing support from Graham and Judy West for the Karen people in Burma, for Anne Wiles our link missionary in N Africa and Gary Anderson in Tirana plus one of our home groups started to support a Dalit schoolboy called Jack who is 7 and lives in Kalaiyarkovil  Southern India which was prompted from our work with Stop the Traffik in the previous year . The Dalit were also the focus of our giving at Christmas as their plight is one which is so often overlooked.

The visit to Tirana was the usual mix of working with the Way of Hope Church and football together with supporting the Saturday Miracle Club for the children and then helping at the GDQ School to clean up at the end of term while knocking the odd wall down to make a larger classroom.   We came back battered and bruised but full of life and love that comes from such an experience. The Way of Hope still has its challenges and needs our continued prayer support as does Gary Anderson who decided he liked Albania so much he decided to stay on for another year.  Needless to say we are planning another trip for 2010.

The BMS Action Team who came to stay with us in June was at the end of a year working in mission, spending several months in Brazil and then touring churches in the UK to relate their experiences.

This was a great time for all of us and it was easy to forget how young they were as they proved to be great ambassadors for BMS, themselves and for Jesus.   It was so encouraging to hear the stories and how they developed their own skills during this time. I am sure we all now have a better understanding and taste for Brazilian food especially Feijoada.  We pray they will continue to inspire other people as they continue on their journeys.

Anne Wiles is still based in N. Africa and working in a special needs unit that is now being recognised and accepted by the community.  Her co workers are called Patience, Lucky and Faith and are all keen to know about her Christianity which gives her another sense of purpose. The organisation Anne works with has seen several changes of staff recently which is quite disruptive although it is settling down now so she values our support and prayers even if we cannot give practical assistance as for the Way of Hope Church.   The aim for this year is for Anne to visit us on her next home trip to give us a personal update on her work and life as a Christian in a difficult country.

Also this year, after many years of service Betty Pomfret retired from administering the BMS birthday scheme over which time the scheme has raised several thousands of pounds.  Many thanks to Betty for her dedication over this time and I would encourage all of us to sign up if not already in the scheme. Please See Natalie Sutton who has taken on his role from Betty.

Home Mission

I think we all appreciate the work and importance of Home Mission which we continued to support despite the other financial challenges we face.  We were limited in activities in 2009 however this year more activities are planned to keep the visibility of this very important organisation before us.

Home Mission plays a vital role in the growth of the “local church” and it will always be an area we wish to develop.

I would like to thank you all again for your continued support of BMS and Home Mission in 2009.

Taking it further…

We trust that reading through this Review has inspired you to pray about and to act upon what you’ve read. Why not keep this review somewhere you’ll regularly see it, and use it over the coming weeks and months to pray regularly for the aspects of our church’s life outlined here?

Further, if you want to know more, or would like to volunteer for a particular church ministry, why not contact the Deacon responsible for the area concerned?

Every blessing to you as you serve Christ with us in 2010