Church Life - Articles

Article Title: Vision

Subject category: Devotion

Description: The church's vision.

Worship is the offering of ourselves to God to be followers of Jesus in the world.

Part of our worship includes meeting together to sing praise to our God, consider the teaching of the Bible and encounter the Holy Spirit.

The church has four purposes:

  1. We seek to create an environment where people feel they belong.
  2. We wish people to feel welcome, that they matter and feel at ease and that they are able to participate in the life of the church.

  3. We seek to provide opportunity for growth in faith.
  4. We do this through reading the Bible and seeking to understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in all parts of our lives: home, work and leisure.

  5. We seek to encourage people to discover their gifts.
  6. Each person has unique gifts, passions, skills, personality and experience. We aim to enable people to discover their specific role as a disciple of Jesus.

  7. We seek to be a people who are good news in word and action to our communities.
  8. Jesus's message was one of good news to the poor, healing of the sick, freedom from oppression and a calling of people to follow him.

Subject category: Continual

Description: Springtime emerges out of the darkness of winter

One of the joys of celebrating Easter in the Northern Hemisphere is that it coincides with Spring. After one of the longest winters of recent years, we will be glad to see Spring and trust that when Easter arrives it will be a tad warmer. Springtime lifts the spirit as days are longer, warmer and we see spring flowers and the first signs of leaves on the tree. Life begins again; winter is not the last word.

Easter embodies that message as well. Jesus walks this earth and shows us by his life and action the love of God. He lives a pattern of life, which he passes on to his disciples to imitate. A different way of living is possible, life which walks close to God and sees the world through God’s eyes. It is a life, which is active in its confrontation of those things, which deny and take away life. Jesus seeks to bring healing and wholeness to people.

Unfortunately, there were those who didn’t see it that way. The powers that be in Jesus’ day took great exception to what he said and did. He was perceived to be a religious and political threat and paid the price for it by dying on the cross. As we read the story of the execution of Jesus, we see all the forces of negativity in the world surrounding the cross. We can believe that the powers that be have won, but that is not the end of the story.


Three days later Jesus rises from the dead. His resurrection confirms the truth of who he was and what he taught. It confirms the authenticity of the life that he lived. New life erupts into the world. A new life that can be known by men and women today who decide to believe in the message of Jesus and live it out.

Springtime emerges out of the darkness of winter. New life from Jesus can emerge from the darkness, which ignores God and seeks to please itself. The winter of life without God is not the last word. It can give way to the springtime of God’s presence.


I trust that you will have a happy Easter. Geoff Andrews, Minister, Perry Rise Baptist Church.

Article Title: Prayer and Reflection

Subject category: Reference and Information

Description: Resources for Prayer and Reflection.

Many people find the practice of spending regular time in prayer and reflection helpful. This will include a time of reading a section of the bible, reflecting upon it and prayer. There are number of websites which can help with this. Here are few: