Whilst we’re not meeting at church, Young Spirits are sharing videos with us as they work through the Bible one book at a time. This week they’re looking at Ezekiel.
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Resources for Sunday 17th May 2020
As the churches are currently closed due to COVID-19, there are lots of resources being made freely available for people to continue to worship from home. We hope that the following will help you at this challenging time.
Livestreams from within our Circuit
Other Resources
- Short vine home service funded by twelvebaskets.
- Service sheet from The Methodist Church.
- Activity sheets from ROOTS.
- Livestream from Wesley’s Chapel (11am).
- Sunday Worship from Swanbank (10:30am).
- Livestream from Methodist Central Hall (11am).
There’s also the Sunday Service on Radio 4 service which begins just after 8am and Songs of Praise is on television.
NEW Livestream service from the Lincoln Circuit
The Methodist Church Lincoln is excited to launch its new live streaming home from Sunday May 17th.
It’s a place where you can come join in the conversation 15 minutes before and after the service in the chat room. There will also be prayer support, where a team of hosts are available to respond to your prayer requests.
A full schedule of services and live streams is also available to view, along with preachers’ notes and online bible access. Our very own Young Spirits team will be on every Sunday afternoon at 4pm, continuing to provide something for families to join together and explore.
Services will still be streaming to the Facebook page, however the new site offers more options for interaction all in one place. The videos will also be available on their YouTube channel, following the service.
You can also sign up on the site should you wish and all is GDPR compliant (click on the 3 horizontal lines in the top left hand corner of the screen to sign up).
Please have a look around before Sunday to familiarise yourselves with the layout. The image at the top of this post shows you the various parts of the livestream website and how to use it.
Friday Connection – 15th May 2020
Welcome to our Ninth Friday Connection – 15th May 2020
Do you feel life is on hold, life is dream-like, or life is just different. While we are not meeting in church our Christian life is not on hold – indeed Christian life is not a dream but full and purposeful, a Christian life can be quite different to the lives of so many who do not know Jesus and the full life that knowing Him means. Though we are living differently from eight or nine weeks ago we need more than ever to stay close to Jesus and each other by whatever means we can as we encourage and charge each other to go forward in whatever situation we find ourselves.
As we look at the readings for the week we are encouraged. The Psalm for the week is so joyful and reassuring so please read it and know our God: Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. Read it all and be glad. Likewise as we look at the Gospel reading we are challenged to go forward with courage.
John 14:15-21 Another Helper
Here we are in week nine carrying on our thoughts from last week – we are walking with Jesus as he continues to support his disciples and encourage them for the work he is going to leave them to do when he returns to be with his heavenly Father. We need to listen carefully for the words are intended for us too.
Jesus in effect says that he will still be around when he goes back to God – an event we remember this coming Thursday – Ascension Day. He will do this by sending his own Spirit, his own breath, his inner life. He uses a special word for this – he calls the Spirit “another helper”. This is a term that is many sided. It doesn’t simply mean someone who comes to lend assistance in our lives – it does mean that as well – the Spirit comes to give us strength and energy to do what we have to do, to live for God and witness to his love in the world – yes, even in times like these. It means two other things: another word that is used is “comforter” – to give an extra strength to meet special needs; yet another word is “advocate” – to help us to speak up for Jesus.
So in the days of this week, and the days that lie ahead, the Spirit of Jesus will be with us at every step in every situation, to be our helper, comforter, and enabler, giving us the words and actions we need.
Don’t forget to make use of the Prayer Journal you have received from this Thursday to Pentecost Sunday on 31 May – we can wait on God as the first disciples waited for their gift of the Spirit – and pray for five people we know to come to know Jesus for themselves.
With our love and prayers
Irene and Terry
The readings for the coming Sunday are:
Psalm 66: 8-20; Acts 17: 22-31; 1 Peter 3: 13-22; John 14: 15-21
Young Spirits Reflection on Jeremiah (Part 2)
Whilst we’re not meeting at church, Young Spirits are sharing videos with us as they work through the Bible one book at a time. This week they’re continuing to look at Jeremiah.
Resources for Sunday 10th May 2020
As the churches are currently closed due to COVID-19, there are lots of resources being made freely available for people to continue to worship from home. We hope that the following will help you at this challenging time.
- Short vine home service funded by twelvebaskets.
- Service sheet from The Methodist Church.
- Activity sheets from ROOTS.
- Livestream from Wesley’s Chapel (11am).
- Sunday Worship from Swanbank (10:30am).
- Livestream from Methodist Central Hall (11am).
- Livestream from Burton Road Methodist Church (10:30am)
Don’t forget that Young Spirits will also be uploading a video onto our Facebook Page each week, if you want to join them in working their way through the Bible one book at a time. There’s also the Sunday Service on Radio 4 service which begins just after 8am and Songs of Praise is on television.
Friday Connection – 8th May 2020
Welcome to our Eighth Friday Connection – 8th May 2020
Dear Friends,
Can you believe that this coming Sunday will be the fifth Sunday after Easter, that day when we celebrated with great joy the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour? Easter day, the day when sin and death were defeated by Christ’s death and resurrection and gives us assurance and confidence that whatever happens, Jesus walks with us and God will protect us. Psalm 31, verses 1-5 tells how King David put his trust in God, how he acknowledged God as his rock and fortress in whom he put his trust. Surely when we accept and believe in God this is our experience too.
Our Gospel reading for this Sunday is John 14, verses 1-14, and gives us the words that Jesus used when talking to his friends about his own life, and his own approaching death. In trying to prepare them for his leaving them and returning to God, he offers them some of the best known words in the New Testament: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life! Nobody comes to the Father except through me.”
When we feel we have lost our way in life, in Jesus we find the road back to God, to Jesus, and to ourselves. When we hear so many words in the world, all claiming to contain the truth, in Jesus we find that genuine teaching that makes sense of anything and everything that happens to us. When we have been hearing of so many lives lost in recent weeks, perhaps someone close to us, in Jesus we hear the promise that He gives us a life that begins in this existence, but goes on all for all time, and beyond time. Jesus has come in to our world to open up the path that leads us to God, and we only find it through Him.
These are words that we all need to hear, and take in, and seek to pray and live by each day. There is a beautiful song, from the Bible Society that says it so well:
Do not be worried and upset, believe I God, believe also in Me,
There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I’m going to prepare a place,
prepare a place for you.
I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me,
I am the way, the truth and the life, and I’m going to prepare a place,
prepare a place for you.
After I go and prepare a place you, I will come back and take you to Myself,
so that you may come and be where I am, and I’m going to prepare a place,
prepare a place for you.
I am the way, the truth and the life….
© Bible Society 1980
With our love and prayers, Terry and Irene
If you would like to look at any or all of the readings for this coming Sunday they are:
Acts 7:55 to end; Psalm 31: 1-5; 1 Peter 2.2-10; John 14. 1-14
Young Spirits Reflection on Jeremiah
Whilst we’re not meeting at church, Young Spirits are sharing videos with us as they work through the Bible one book at a time. This week they’re looking at Jeremiah.
Resources for Sunday 3rd May 2020
As the churches are currently closed due to COVID-19, there are lots of resources being made freely available for people to continue to worship from home. We hope that the following will help you at this challenging time.
- Short vine home service funded by twelvebaskets.
- Service sheet from The Methodist Church.
- Activity sheets from ROOTS.
- Livestream from Wesley’s Chapel (11am).
- Sunday Worship from Swanbank (10:30am).
- Livestream from Methodist Central Hall (11am).
- Livestream from Burton Road Methodist Church (10:30am)
Don’t forget that Young Spirits will also be uploading a video onto our Facebook Page each week, if you want to join them in working their way through the Bible one book at a time. There’s also the Sunday Service on Radio 4 service which begins just after 8am and Songs of Praise is on television.
Friday Connection – 1st May 2020
Welcome to our Seventh Friday Connection – 1st May 2020
Dear Friends we hope you are all well and feeling at peace in this strange time. Perhaps you have been able to do jobs that have been waiting for a while; maybe you have found a new hobby or craft; you may have been able to think and meditate on your life as a Christian and read your Bible more and dig deeper into God’s word to us.
When we lived and worked in Derbyshire in the 1970’s we had a very bad late fall of snow, just after the sheep had all had their lambs – there were drifts four feet deep in the whole valley that was Edale. For almost 48 hours without stopping only for food and a short rest, the shepherds in the valley kept searching and digging until every one of their sheep and lambs had been accounted for. The most distressing sight was a pile of lambs in a farm yard, all had perished but the most poignant sight was the efforts of those shepherds tirelessly searching until ALL had been found.
Project that into one of the readings for today – John 10 verses 1-10, the parable of the Good Shepherd. Jesus never stops searching and finding those folk who have lost their way in life – often through their own misguided efforts and ideas. And when we are feeling lost, in times of questioning and sometimes doubt or fear, Jesus always calls us back to himself, to receive the love, life and assurance that only he can give: “I have come that you will have life in all its fullness.”
The picture of God as our shepherd is written throughout the whole of the Bible. One of the other readings for Sunday is Psalm 23 which we probably all know by heart and which brings strength and comfort to many. It is so wonderful to know that Jesus wants us to have that fullness of life and that Gods unquestioning love for us is shown in so many verses. Although it is not one of the week’s readings Isaiah 43 tells us ‘I have called you by name, you are mine, do not be afraid. You are precious to me and I love you’. If a shepherd cares for his sheep with great care and devotion, how much more does Jesus love and care for each of us. Also in Isaiah 40 verse 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart…
What wonderful readings for the week, full of peace, encouragement and love.
And I will trust in You alone, And I will trust in You alone,
For your endless mercy follows me,
Your goodness will lead me home.
© Stuart Townend (click on the link to hear the song).
These are the four readings for the week if you would like to study them all:
Acts 2:42-47 • Psalm 23 •1 Peter 2:19-25 • John 10:1-10
With our love and prayers Terry and Irene