A poignant Easter

We have just had a couple of good Easter meetings at the Lighthouse. What made them good was sharing with other believers. On Good Friday a group from Bow Baptist Church turned up for our meditation and added an extra dimension. We pondered that Jewish saying which grew out of Abraham’s experience of nearly sacrificing Isaac “On the Lord’s mountain He will provide.”

On Easter Sunday the English and Portuguese speaking churches combined for a big celebration with a meal after. Pastor Joao lead the communion in the style of his fellowship and I preached on 1 Corinthians 15 looking at Jesus as the prototype of the resurrection to come. If you are interested in catching either talk they are on the Lighthouse Website.

What made for extra poignancy was that we had to say goodbye to Mark Dobell, my accomplice in the Eldership, and Elaine and the family.  It is hard to say just how valuable they have been to our church over the last dozen years.  It is not just that they served so willingly but the spirit in which they served which has made them a treasure from God.

How do you replace people like that?  You don’t.  You wait to see what new pattern of gifts and abilities God gives the church and work with the talents you do have rather than the ones you don’t have.  The really stupid course of action would be to assemble a job description covering all Mark and Elaine did and then try to squeeze someone into the mould you have made.

The Easter Sabbath - on Theology Review

I have started a team blog for Pastors and other people interested in theology for churches (as if there were any other kind!).

I have post this item - click here to see it - because I think the Sabbath Rest of Jesus on Easter Saturday deserves more thought than it is usually given.

Some of my more scriptural musings are likely to end up there so feel free to check it or subscribe to the feed.

Ooops…..

I have just noticed that the “Hot News” on the Lighthouse Web Site was seriously out of date. I have been updating but for some reason the upload to the web server had not happened. Sorry to all who prefer their news at least half-warm.

It is all working now though. The “Sack the Webmaster” campaign is under way.

Lighthouse Web Calendar is up

This open note is for any friends and participants of the Lighthouse.  As well as updating the news and online sermons weekly, I have now added a live calendar so that people can see what is happening.  Just go to the main page and choose the calendar from the list on the right.

Alternatively CLICK HERE to go straight to the new page.