June at St Peter's

We have been told by that this will be a BBQ summer! And so far they were right. June is upon us and with it has come some incredible sunshine and the wafts of charring burgers from West Harrow gardens. In the life of St Peter’s this is a fantastic time for us to enjoy the great community that we live in. Over the coming month we will be continuing our Friday Night Youth Sports in the Car Park from 7pm. We will also be hosting a Sunday Bring and Share picnic in the church garden as well as lots of other impromptu social events. A large team from the church are also going to do the London to Brighton Cycle Ride in support of the British Heart Foundation on June 24th.

During June we are going to enter a new teaching phase on Sunday mornings looking at Gideon in the book of Judges. Having spent May examining the character of church in Thessalonica we hope to look at the character of a godly leader. Gideon is a brilliantly human leader who reflects so many of the traits we all recognise in ourselves. What I love about the account of his life in the book of Judges is the fact that he is willing to be used, real about his fears but ultimately trusting in God’s power. During a period of corruption and idol worship Gideon is a beacon of integrity and honesty.

There are obviously many applications we can make from this teaching series, however my primary hope is that we will all realise that we can be used by God and make a difference in society, no matter how fearful or insignificant we may feel. We have seen and enjoyed the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in our church recently and our prayer must be, “fill us up…and send us out”. Unfortunately the global church has often found it much harder to receive the instruction to be sent out, than to be filled up! This month at St Peter’s we are going to journey with Gideon and take the stepping out challenge!

Every Blessing for the month ahead,
Will

Will Van Der Hart, 01/06/2009