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November 2008

Dear friends,

‘PRAYER IS LIKE A TELEPHONE’

As I prepared the calendar for November, I thought ‘There’s an awful lot of prayer in there’! And there is, especially the first weekend, when we’ve got prayer at the vicarage on the Saturday, prayer for healing during the 10am service and prayer for the re-ordering appeal after the service. And, on the Sunday evening, a prayer service in the Cathedral with Bishop Stephen. Hallelujah! No-one could ever have accused us of overdoing prayer at St. John’s (can you overdo prayer?), so it is wonderful to see it creeping more and more onto the agenda.

I am reminded of the children’s song we sometimes sing in Toddler Services – ‘Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus, prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to God, pick it up and use it every day’ All of us use the telephone constantly today – especially the younger generation who are almost permanently glued to their mobiles! Are we as constant in our praying? Do we ‘pick it up and use it every day’? Or indeed lots of times during the day?

The great thing about prayer is that you can pray anytime and anywhere. God is always with us, wherever we are, and longs for us to turn to him and talk with him (talking and listening!), whether on our own or with others. Of course it is good to have special times and places to remind us to pray and give us a discipline of prayer, but praying should never be restricted to those times and places.

Prayer is the most natural thing in the world. It’s talking with our heavenly Father who made us and loves us and knows everything going on in our hearts. We can tell him anything – just as it is and just as we are. We don’t have to use special words or phrases, just pour out our hearts to him.

It’s a great encouragement to me that more and more of us are learning the joy of being able to pray out loud in our own words in a group. There is such strength in prayer shared together like this – a conference call with God! Keep learning – and, if you haven’t given it a try, pluck up your courage and do so. It’s well worth the effort. If it’s any help, I can remember as a young man struggling to join in open prayer for the first time – even breaking out into a sweat over it - but I’m really glad I did so!

May this month indeed be a month of prayer – but may every month also be one!

With love

Material for the December issue to the Editor, Tina Dixon, please by Sunday 16th November (43 Walker Avenue WF2 0HH or tinaoflaherty@blueyonder.co.uk) Internet users may view this magazine at the Church Website: http://www.wakefield-stjohns.org.uk

CALENDAR FOR NOVEMBER

1 Sat 9.30am Prayer at the Vicarage

10am – 12 noon Parish Coffee Morning

2 ALL SAINTS SUNDAY – DIOCESAN DAY OF PRAYER

8am Holy Communion

10am Parish Communion with baptism & prayer for healing and prayer for the Re-ordering Appeal after the service.

6.30pm Prayer Service with Bishop Stephen in Wakefield Cathedral

4 Tues 7.30pm Open meeting with Bishop Stephen at All Saints’ Catholic College, Bradley Road, Huddersfield to share his vision for the Diocese.

5 Weds 10am Holy Communion followed by coffee & lunches

6 Thurs 9.30am Toddler Service

7.30pm Family Service planning for November 9th Family Service

9 REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

8am Holy Communion

10am Family Service of Remembrance, Thanksgiving & Prayer for Peace

7.30pm Vine Tree group

11 Tues 7.30pm Parochial Church Council meeting

12 Weds 10am Holy Communion followed by coffee & lunches

7.30pm Discipleship Group at the Vicarage

16 SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT

8am Holy Communion

10am Parish Communion

7.30pm Vine Tree group

18 Tues 2pm Official opening of St. John’s School extension

19 Weds 10am Holy Communion followed by coffee & lunches

7.30pm Deanery Synod meeting in St. John’s Church

23 CHRIST THE KING

8am Holy Communion

10am Parish Communion

7.30pm Vine Tree group

25 Tues 2pm Toddler Service in Church

7.30pm Julian Meeting in St John’s Church

26 Weds 10am Holy Communion followed by coffee & lunches

30 ADVENT SUNDAY

8am Holy Communion

10am Family Communion

7.30pm Vine Tree group

FROM THE REGISTERS

BAPTISMS:

19th October Louise Firth

CONFIRMATION:

5th October Daniel Rushton

               Mathew Dunn

               Laure Kershaw

WEDDINGS:

18th October Ian Hewland & Helen Hurst

ROCK SOLID CLUB for 11-14s Fortnightly on Mondays 7.30pm Parish Centre

ST JOHN'S PRE-SCHOOL (2 to 5 years) Monday to Friday, 9.15am-11.40am, 12.30pm-2.55pm, Parish Centre

ST JOHN'S GUILD 2nd Monday 7.30pm, Parish Centre

PARENT AND TODDLER GROUP Mondays and Thursdays 9.15-11.45am, Parish Centre

CHOIR PRACTICE Fortnightly on Thursdays in Church 7.30pm

25th WAKEFIELD SCOUT GROUP:-

Scouts Friday 7.30pm-9.15pm

Cub Scouts (1) Tuesday 6.00pm-7.30pm

Cub Scouts (2) Friday 6.00-7.30pm

Beaver Scouts Thursday 6.00pm-7.00pm

2nd Wakefield Brownies Thursday 6.00-7.00pm (in Upper Hall, Parish Centre)

Christmas Card Tree

The Christmas Card Tree will again be in the reception room during December, for anyone who wishes to hang a single card to all their friends at St John’s. All donations this year will be for the re-odering of the Church.

J Ogden

Tel 377060

St John’s School

Belgravia Road, Wakefield WF1 3JP

PTA Christmas Fair

on Thursday 4th December, 2008

Everyone is very welcome to join us at school any time between 5.00 and 6.30pm for our Christmas Fair. Santa will be there and there will be lots of stalls, games and food for everyone to enjoy. Funds raised are in aid of the school building extension. There will be a cake stall so donations of home baking would be much appreciated. We very much appreciate your support. I hope you can come.

Mrs L Hanson (Headteacher)

 

 

ST JOHN'S GUILD 

As the magazine goes to print we are looking forward to the Annual Dinner. This year we have chosen a new venue, Brasserie 99. At the November 10th meeting, our own Mary MacQueen will be the speaker, telling more about her career and profession. Mary entertained us two years ago when she told of her varied life since she came to this country from Canada at the age of ten. This time I think she may also have a story about Haselden Hall in Northgate, (now long gone) one of the houses mentioned by Mr and Mrs Hirst.

Looking ahead - 8th December meeting will be the Carol Service in church at 7.30pm.

M.H.

St John’s School

Our school recently received a grant of £500 through Yorkshire Water’s A Million Green Fingers Campaign. Yorkshire Water employees volunteered to come into school on 15th and 16th September, 2008 to give our Environmental garden a make-over. A group of parents also helped out over the two days to improve the gardens at the back of school. The Environmental Garden was quite overgrown. Our aim was to make it more accessible and usable for groups of children, as an educational resource to aid children’s learning about habitats and the environment. The pond was emptied of water, silt and lots of frogs! Over-grown shrubs were cut back and a large conifer removed. New, wider bark paths were laid and repairs were made to existing fencing, which was rotten. All the branches and twigs which were removed were shredded and put back onto the garden. The pond was re-filled and it was the children’s break-time when the frogs were released back into the garden. They were leaping everywhere (I meant the frogs) it was very exciting!

A small garden adjacent to the Environmental Garden, which contained old, woody rose bushes (now well past their prime) also benefited from a make-over. This garden was transformed into our new Peaceful Garden. The Yorkshire Water and parent volunteers cleared the garden, put in a weed resistant layer and then covered the garden with wood chips. Trellising was added around the perimeter of the garden and plants were planted. Two wooden benches were provided through the One Million Green Fingers grant and the school purchased a beautiful iron-work gazebo. The gazebo incorporates two benches facing each other and so with the wooden benches there is sufficient seating for twelve children in the garden at any one time. It is a beautiful space for children to sit and reflect and enjoy the beauty and tranquillity of the garden.

Mrs Mawson, who had been instrumental in organising the garden make-over, opened the Peaceful Garden on Monday 29th September, 2008 at 2.15pm in the afternoon. Children counted down to zero, then Mrs Mawson cut a red ribbon to open the garden to cheers of delight from the children.

Mrs L Hanson (Headteacher)

Christmas

Coffee Morning

at

St John’s School, Belgravia Road

on

Saturday,

6th December, 2008

10.00am to 12.00 noon

Cakes, raffle, tombola,bric a brac, books, plants, Christmas gifts, silent auction, hoop-la stall. Any suggestions for our stalls will be most welcome.

Tickets £1 – including cake/mince pie, - children under 15 Free entry. Prize for winning entrance ticket,

There will be boxes in the church reception room for your contributions for items for sale. Tombola and raffle prizes, from Sunday 26th October. More information from Joan and George Mitchell (Tel 257088)

Master Plaster – Your friendly local plasterer for all your plastering needs: re-skims, dry lining, rendering, boarding out, patching and making good. We also cover over Artex. All work is Fully Guaranteed. A quality job at affordable prices. No job too big or too small. For a free no obligation quote, please call (01924 380266/07984603622)

 

                                  Applying for Admission to St John’s CE (VA) J & I School

Is Your Child Due to Start School in September 2009? – Children born between 1st September, 2004 and 31st August 2005 are due to start school at St John’s in September, 2009. All parents wishing to apply for a place in our Church School, or indeed in any other Local Authority School in Wakefield, will need to complete a Wakefield Common Application Form (WCAF), which you will receive from the local authority. If you have not yet received this form please contact the School Admissions Team, Room 62, County Hall, Wakefield, WF1 2QL, telephone 01924 305616. Parents are asked to express up to three school preferences in rank order of preference on the WCAF. A Supplementary Information Form (SIF) which asks about Church Commitment is available from St John’s School (tel. 01924 303715). This form should be completed if you want your application to be considered using the Christian Commitment Oversubscription Criteria of the School’s Admissions Policy. The SIF is needed to determine priority for admissions for St John’s School where there are more applications than places available. Please request a Supplementary Information Form and Prospectus from the school office if you haven’t already received these. The Admissions Policy and procedure is fully explained in the School Prospectus. The SIF should be forwarded to the school (Belgravia Road, Wakefield WF1 3JP) or directly to the Local Education Authority, attached to the Wakefield Common Application Form.

Children are admitted to the Reception Class at the beginning of the school year (i.e. September) in which their fifth birthday falls. Places are offered on either a full-time or a part-time basis dependent on the child’s date of birth:

Date of Fifth Birthday Term of part-time Admission Term of full-time Admission

1st September to 31st March N/A Autumn (September)

1st April to 31st August Autumn (September) Spring (January)

The closing date for applications for Reception Class for September 2009 is 14th November, 2008. The planned admission limit to Reception Class in St John’s School for the year commencing September 2009 will be a maximum of 30. If you have any queries about making an application or would like to look round school you are welcome to telephone school to make an appointment with Mrs Hanson (Headteacher). Would you please pass this information on to friends and neighbours who may have children of this age group. Thank you.

AUTHENTIC CHURCH

This is an extract from a sermon preached by Roy Summers, a minister at a church in Worcester where my very good friend Carolyn worships. The church is accustomed to recording the preacher’s sermons on CD. Carolyn sent me a copy – she must have thought it was relevant to me. I was so convinced that this message was for my own church fellowship that I transcribed the CD as I listened to it. The sermon was not written down or read out but spoken to the congregation, so the style is quite informal. Roy refers to a St John’s Church toward the end of this extract – I leave it with you to discern whether this is coincidence or God-incidence.

It would be best if you read 1Thessalonians chapter 1 before you read the sermon below.

Authentic church – faith that works: 1 Thessalonians chapter 1

An authentic church preaches and believes the gospel. In 1 Thess:5, Paul says, "When we came to you, our gospel came too." When Paul came to a new town, he did not announce a miracle campaign: he announced the gospel. Miracles may well have happened, and did, but the very heart of Paul’s ministry was a message. It was the gospel. If you want a summary of Paul’s gospel, read Romans. Another summary is in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. It went something like this:

God is the great creator of all things. You and I were created to have fellowship and enjoyment in God. But we’ve walked away from him. And we’ve gone our own way, and we’ve become sinners in our thoughts, our attitudes, our words, our deeds. We’ve turned away from God to idols. God is angry with our turning away. He’s a just God so he must be. We deserve his judgement. But God is rich in mercy, and he’s so rich in mercy that he sent his son so that you and I might be restored to him – in friendship with him again and with the hope of eternal life. He’s done that through Jesus, his death, his resurrection, his rising form the dead. And one day he’s going to return. And God calls everyone of us to repent and believe this message.

I hope that’s a fair summary – a rough summary of the gospel.

Paul preached the gospel when he arrived at Thessalonica – including the bits that are hard and unpopular. Just look at the end of verse 10. Paul talks about the Thessalonians waiting for God’s son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, "Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath". Paul’s talking about hell there. He’s not shy to include in his gospel that if you and I do not turn from our sin, we will suffer wrath. Jesus has come to rescue us from the coming day of wrath. An authentic church is a church where the gospel is preached, but not only preached – and believed.

"Our gospel came to you not only with words but also with power and the Holy Spirit and deep conviction." (1 Thess1:5). Paul says that when the gospel was preached it was not only a message that was understood; it was a message that was actually believed. That is the work of the Holy Spirit who in his power comes and brings deep conviction. So that Paul could say that "in spite of severe suffering, you welcome the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess1:6). You see, Paul could preach, but he couldn’t bring conviction. You and I can share the gospel with our friends but we cannot convert them. That is the work of God alone. And Paul says that an authentic church is a church where not only is the gospel preached, shared, believed, but it’s one where it comes with conviction. We believe passionately about what the gospel teaches.

Paul says that the mark of an authentic church is not only that the gospel comes with words, but it comes with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction so that even though the Thessalonians were being persecuted, they welcomed the message with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray that God will add his divine work to our human work. We’re co-partners with him. We’re called to work, but unless he is at work among us, accomplishing only what he can do, all our human labours are in vain.

Here’s the second mark of an authentic Christian: their life has been changed by the gospel. You know, really, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 is all about that. Paul’s heart is filled with thanksgiving for all the incredible changes he has seen in these, I must say it, baby Christians. They’re probably only a year old! And yet he has seen dramatic changes. They not only believe the gospel, but it has transformed their lives:

verse 3 – "Your work produced by faith." Now whenever we read work and faith in the New Testament together, we should read something like this: Paul is saying, "your faith produced work." What work? We know from the book of James that it’s deeds – a changed life, so many changes that I can’t number them just now. But if you have true and living faith, it results in lots of changes in your life. Deeds. Works. It isn’t just a general change. The Thessalonians had a living faith and it resulted in works: labour prompted by love. God had put love in their hearts and it prompted them to do works. If God puts love in your heart for someone, then you act, don’t you? And Paul has seen God’s love in the Thessalonians’ hearts, and it’s resulted in labour – they’ve begun to serve other people. Not because they have to. Not because they want thanks from others. But God has put love in their hearts and Paul sees labour coming out of their love.

What’s another change? Endurance inspired by hope (1 Thess 1:3). There are all sorts of problems that come upon us when we become Christians, aren’t there? When you become a Christian, there are a lot of problems on your road. Do you know that? That’s normal. The Thessalonians are inspired to endure hardship by the hope that one day Jesus is going to return. They are going home! And that helps them to put up with all the difficulties of life, of which there are so many. Especially if you are a Christian.

What are the changes that have happened in these peoples’ lives? Look at 1 Thess: 1:5-6. "You know we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord." The second mark of a real Christian is that their lives are changed and they become imitators of Jesus. Their lives and their characters become more Christ-like. How did the Thessalonians become more Christ-like? Well, part of it was that they saw something of Jesus in Paul. They followed Jesus by looking at Paul. If you are a young Christian, how do you grow and become like Christ. One of the ways that you copy Christ is that you see Christ in older brothers and sisters. You see how your older Christian brother or sister is living and you see that they are like Christ and you say "I want to be like Christ." The Thessalonians didn’t remain "Joe Bloggs." They became more like Jesus. Their characters were refined. It’s the mark of someone who’s really born again. Over the years, you see the way they used to have, say, a fierce temper begins to disappear. Where they were very judgemental, they become forgiving. Where they were hard-hearted, they become soft-hearted. Their characters are changed. They become like Jesus. It’s the mark of a true Christian. It happens all our lives. You might have been a Christian twenty years but this should still be happening. We should be able to say, "Well, last year, this… But this year God has changed me. He’s taken this out of my life. He’s put this into my life….."

If you’re not a Christian, probably this world means everything to you. All your hopes are in this world. But for a Christian, all our hopes are in the world to come. This may be a valley of tears, but our hope is in the future – in heaven. Paul saw this dramatic change in the Christians in Thessalonica. Whereas before, all their hope was in their careers and their money and their retirement and in their pension, that was their whole world – and now Paul sees them waiting for the real world to come. What a change! Their whole perspective on eternity and time and this world had altered.

The second hallmark of true Christianity, then, is that our life changes. And I want to ask you, has that happened? Maybe most of us can say "Thank God! God has really changed my life. I used to be this and now I’m this….I’m not where I want to be and I’m not where one day I will be, but God has changed me, and is changing me and will change me!" What a lovely thing! Thank God if that’s the case. Thank God if you can see him changing you. Sometimes it’s through suffering and pain. But don’t be deceived: if there are no changes in your life, if you cannot point to any printable, write-downable ways in which your attitudes and your priorities and your passions have changed in your life, then you are deceiving yourself if you think you are a Christian.

The third mark of an authentic Christian and an authentic church, is that it shares the gospel with the world. "The Lord’s message rang out from you…… your faith in God has become known everywhere" (1 Thess 1:8). The mark of an authentic Church or an authentic Christian is that they cannot keep the message of the gospel to themselves, but they passionately want to share it with the whole of the world. That’s the mark of an authentic church. A church that doesn’t evangelise – you’ve got to put a big question mark over it! Not interested in the lost people in St John’s, or in their vicinity? Question mark! Are we really born again? Are we really converted? Thank God we know we have passions among us to bring the good news of Jesus with others.

• Are you a true Christian – do you believe the gospel – hallmark number one.
• Has your life been changed by the gospel, and is being changed by the gospel – hallmark number two. Every single day we should be repenting, turning, changing, transforming by the grace of God.
• Are we sharing the gospel with others – hall mark number three. You may not be an evangelist. We may not have the gift of evangelism, but we are all called to be witnesses, to be a light in our neighbourhood and to our families. So that other people see there is a difference, that you are different. You have changed and are changing.

We can become true believers today if we recognise we haven’t yet made a true commitment. God is full of grace and we can turn to him and become his true authentic followers for our good and his glory.

This extract from a sermon by Roy Summers was contributed by Jayne Lane

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