Moving Forward Together – Annual Church Meeting 2024
If you missed the Moving Forward meeting on Sunday, then have no fear – this is where you can catch up and find how to get stuck in! This year is hugely significant for the long term shape and future of Church at Barking Riverside. On Sunday we held our first Annual Church Meeting to share the situation with anyone invested or interested in this community. We shared the story so far, our current situation, and the challenge we face, before giving a chance for everyone to think what our next steps… Read More
“Your habits will determine your future”
Believe that quote? What about this: This a crunch term for us as a church family discerning together our future. We’re facing big challenges and huge opportunities. To navigate that we need to remind ourselves who we are and why we’re here – what do we want most? We want to see communities thriving with Jesus at the heart. We do that by creating space for Jesus in our daily lives, together, and for other people. That’s because we genuinely believe that Jesus brings life wherever he goes at an individual level and at a… Read More
Shaping our future….together
If you see yourself as part of Church at Barking Riverside, or you simply care about this church community – then this is for you. 2024 is a key year for us. One that is going to shape our future post-2025. And this term is a key one for how we are going to discern and decide together what shape that future may take. Want to know more? Listen up to the message sharing why 2024 is key, how we’ll approach it together, and our heart and belief as we do. My prayer is that this can… Read More
Happy New Year!
2024 is looking like a year of change. But more important than our plans is our posture – are we ready to take the hand of God and walk gladly into the unknown?
#ForeverBlessed
At our staff meetings on a Tuesday, we always kick off with a prayer and then go on to talk about encouragements from the previous weeks before going into business. I know what you’re thinking, there was already a blog about encouragement recently. And you’d be right. There was, just after Easter, because we had a great couple of weeks as a church family. So then, how does this blog differ I hear you ask? Well, this is all about my personal encouragement from the last week. Indulge me this once, as… Read More
Making Room For The Marginalised
It’s the last week of Advent and Christmas is just 4 sleeps away! This week’s devotional scripture is: And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the… Read More
Making Room For Community
We’re in the 3rd week of Advent and as we continue with our devotional we are looking at another verse from Luke: When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she… Read More
Together
By Urbain Yombe Christmas is approaching at full speed, people are thinking about the food we’re going to eat at and recipes are coming out the drawers. What is your favourite Christmas food? Do you know how it is made? Do you know the ingredients used to make it? Mince pies are one of the most popular foods at Christmas. And these ingredients all go into making them delicious: plain flour, lard, butter, milk, salt, sugar, and egg (for the pastry); and mincemeat, tangerines, lemon zest and apple (for the filling). When… Read More
Thriving from the inside out
Need a drink? Last week Sam was talking about how Christian thriving doesn’t start and end with good life circumstances; nice house, family, and car, but by wanting Jesus, finding our life in Him. You could say – thriving from the inside out. And that starts by being thirsty, thirsty for Jesus. Once you know your thirsty, the next thing you do is go get a drink and it’s the same here, we go to Jesus, we come to Him in prayer. This week we’re exploring how when we’ve come to Jesus,… Read More
Let’s make it personal – what about you?
On Sunday night we shared our first vision talk (you can catch up here) and now it’s time to ask: what could this mean for you? We shared how, 2 years ago, we committed to leaving our life as we knew it to move to Barking Riverside and start a new worshipping community here. The first thing we did was to spend time listening, getting to know the area and people here, and asking God: what are you doing here? What do you want to see? What came out of that time… Read More
