Leaders Weekend Away

Last weekend, the leaders had their annual weekend away - last year Nottingham, this year London - next year...

The men attended a Spring Harvest conference "Walk this way" focusing on how people learn and assimilate information in Kings College on Saturday. Gareth was particularly challenged about the role of preaching in the spiritual growth of individuals and how to encourage each church member to take responsibility for their own growth.

While they enjoyed their conference, they were 'miffed' at not being allowed to attend Melissa's Willowcreek "Gifted to Lead" conference with Nancy Beach. After several phone-calls they finally relented and gave into the fact that they were not going to be able to pose as women for the day. Melissa calls Nancy Beach her mentor from a-far and was particularly challenged by idea of encouraging other women to accept their God given calling to lead. She left thanking God that Thriving Life Church is open to the leading of God in the whole arena of women in leadership.

London was buzzing what with Chinese New Year and the Sri Lanken protest to which our male leaders threw their support!!!

A station closures and tube stops later, we all met up on the South Bank and enjoyed dinner overlooking Tower Bridge. Dave just about avoided frostbite in the taking of this picture (who goes to London in January without a coat?)

We headed back to the hotel to feedback from our conferences and engage in some exercises from Bill Hybels book "Courageous Leadership".

Sunday morning we were up bright and early again. We headed to Hillsong Church London which meets in the Dominion Theatre right in the heart of the West End. Apart from being amazed at the set up of the theatre itself, the size of the sound desk ( which would certainly get Jonny Clarke out of bed earlier) we were inspired by the worship and challenged deeply by the message from Sy Rogers. It was wonderful to see the Holy Spirit at work and people committing their lives to Christ.

By Sunday afternoon, sciffs of snow were staring to appear and we headed for the airport but by that stage it was all getting at bit much for some of us! The steps at Russell Square Tube station were more exercise than we had all had in a month! (Melissa in her eagerness ignored the sign, "Warning - only use stairs in emergencies" - the Cardiac ambulance was on standby at the top).

Thanks to Gary Haire for giving us a week off and to all TLC who were praying for us. It was an inspiring weekend.

Membership

TLC started of the new year with a bang! On Saturday 17th January the leaders held membership interviews following the classes in December. Some said that managing to survive the 3 hour class was proof enough that they wanted to be a member without having to be interviewed as well!

The leaders left the building on Saturday night feeling inspired after hearing so many stories of what God is doing in people's lives and what wonderful and whacky ideas He's laying on your hearts for future ministries in the church. It looks like we're in for another thrilling year!

Wednesday night meetings are getting very exciting with the introduction of the 'year planner'. Mervyn exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like it before - its great!" The jury is still out as to whether he was talking about the actual planner or Gareth and Jim choosing what colour of sticker to put where!

Christmas Dinner

You may think that Friday 21st November is a little early for a Christmas Dinner, but the Christmas Spirit was definately evident as Thriving Life Church joined together last Friday for our first Annual Christmas dinner!

'Top Nosh' did a superb job catering for 80 people, whilst Keith and Darren kept everyone entertained after. It was great to have the full range of 'Thrivers' from the oldest (no names) to the youngest (our newest Thriver - Amelie Brown not yet a week old)!

First Baptism Service

On Sunday 12th October 2008 we celebrated our first baptism service as a church. Five people publically declared their faith and intention to live for God. Some had been Christians for a few years, others only weeks but each person testified to God's forgiveness and their desire to serve him.

The church celebrated with heaven as they came up out of the water. The atmosphere of celebration and joy was added to by the fact that so many of their friends and family came along to support and watch them on this important day in their faith journey. Enjoy watching the videos!

Global Leadership Summit

20 Thrivers took time out from work and family activities last weekend to attend the Willowcreek Global Leadership Summit hosted by Ballynahinch Baptist Church this year. It was a real thrill for the elders, that so many from the church were willing to use their valued holidays to attend this event and boy was it worth it!

Every session brought new challenges and it was wonderful that we were able to sit together between sessions and try to apply it to our church situation.

Bill Hybels' inspirational opening and closing sessions once again affirmed the truth that the local church really is the hope of the world. Craig Groeschel fascinating session on 'it' left us all asking the same question and praying the same prayer on Sunday morning, " Lord give us 'it'!"

During Catherine Rohr's fantastic interview, we felt inspired by her life choices and the courage of her decisions. We smiled with admiration at the row of 'graduates' who testified to the difference her 'Prison Entrepreneurship Program' made to them and as one recently released convict spoke with passion and pride, our heart-strings were pulled as we once again caught the vision of what the local church can and should be doing for people.

Everyone who attended was blessed and inspired, but now the hard work begins, of putting those challenges into practice and learning from the leadership axioms we heard over the weekend.

Anyone up for a trip to Chicago next August?

For more information on:

Global Leadership Summit go to: www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2008/

Prison Entrepreneurship Program go to: www.prisonentrepreneurship.org/

Toddlers Social Scrapbooking

On Friday night, Toddlers held their first ever evening social - a chance for all the mummies, grannies and childminders to let their hair down without the children. We had asked Bangor's "Hobby-dashery" to come and demonstrate scrap-booking.

We spent several hours cutting, gluing, sticking and chatting and to top it all, we enjoyed a lovely supper together. It was a great night looking through each other's photos and enjoying the chocolate! Though of course there was some rivalry as to whose page was the best. Some of the mums went home won over to scrap-booking!

A special thanks to Marian and Ana from the "Hobby-dashery" who put so much hard work into bringing half of the shop with them! We appreciated all of their effort!

As Toddlers is off during the last week of October, the next social evening will be 28th November 2008. Put it in your diaries now!

Opening Service

Sunday 7th September 2008 marked the opening of our new facility on the Movilla Road in Newtownards. It was a special day for the church and we were delighted that so many of our friends, family, neighbours and work colleagues decided to join us and check out Thriving Life Church.

It was exactly a year to the day from our mobile was burnt down by vandals on the grounds of the Scout Hall and when we opened the service with the song Blessed be Your name and in particular the lines "You give and take away" - they held special signifcance for some of us. It is amazing to look back over the past year and watch how God has gently (and not so gently) led us to this point.

The building looked fantastic and many people commented on how great the grounds looked, but more than this, it was the smiles of our "Welcome Team" that really impressed our visitors.

As Gareth and the Leaders dedicated the building for the purposes of God, Cheryl and Marion sung a duet casting the vision for the future of our church "Let us build a house where love can reign and all may enter in".

The worship team led people before God's throne, the drama team raised the issue of dedication and Gareth challenged us about what and who we are dedicated.

Our fellowship has had an intensive summer, many of us have been working all day and well into the night to get the building ready for today, but the 'really' hard work continues as we try to turn our God -given vision of "turning spiritually lost people into passionate committed followers of Christ" into reality.