Church Life - Articles
Article Title: Vision
Subject category: Devotion
Description: The church's vision.
Perry Rise Baptist Church is a worshipping community.
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:
- We seek to create an environment where people feel they belong.
- We seek to provide opportunity for growth in faith.
- We seek to encourage people to discover their gifts.
- We seek to be a people who are good news in word and action to our communities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Article Title: Thought of the month: October 2008
Subject category: Continual
Description: Black History month
October marks Black History month. During this month, we celebrate the contribution to world history of black peoples. So often, this black contribution has been sidelined or written out of history in favour white.
Black peoples of the world have been oppressed for centuries by evil and wrong-headed views of humanity promulgated by white peoples. While we have moved on in many ways, we have to acknowledge that the world has been shaped by these views. The implications and the continuation of these attitudes continue to damage the world in which we live.
Black peoples often fail to receive the respect they deserve as human beings and their contribution to world is often forgotten or neglected. Black history month seeks to address this. It seeks to educate and inform, and give to black peoples a sense of achievement and self-respect, enabling them to be the people that they can be.
We realise that the legacy of the slave trade is still with us. Many of us have benefited from the wealth that was generated and many racist attitudes find there beginnings in this event. We feel implicated and deeply sorry. Just as our sorry for the cross of Jesus releases the forgiveness of God which is on offer to us, so our apology for the slave trade has released forgiveness from those affected. It forms a basis for a new relationship built on deeper understanding and readiness to try and put right some of the things of the past. This is not always easy, but surely worth working at.
At the heart of the gospel is the value that God has placed upon us. John 3:16 says ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only son.’ The coming of Jesus, his dying on the cross and his resurrection are all indications of the value of humanity. We have a value; we are precious in God’s sight. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is one, which tells us we matter, that we can walk in the light of the value that God has placed on us in Christ, whether black or white. It also indicates that we should treat each other in the light of that value
Because the bible says such things about us, we are on the side of anything, which promotes the dignity and value of humanity. Many black Christian leaders, Martin Luther King jnr. and Desmond Tutu among them, have been motivated by that truth.
We celebrate Black History month knowing that it promotes that, which is at the heart of God - the value of men and women that he has created.
Further information
Find out what events are happening in Lewisham as part Black History month at: Lewisham Black History month 2008
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: