Bible Sunday

Join us this Sunday at St Paul's when we shall be marking Bible Sunday.

As Christians we believe that the Bible is God's word to us. We give thanks to God for the gift of the Bible and the many treasures it contains. Did you know that the Bible contains a whole variety of different literature including family sagas, war, history, gory detail, story, songs, romance, sex, teaching and miracles?

We will also be remembering those who do not have a copy of the Bible freely available to them in the own native language and pray for the work of organisations, such as the Bible Society, who undertake translation work.

Do you have a Bible somewhere? Why not find it, dust it off and try reading some of it. There are lots of Bible reading guides to help you and there is so much to discover.

New Youth Group!

On Friday 14th October a new Youth Group was launched. Lead by our Youth Intern, Elly, the first meeting was held last night. Not knowing what response we would get from our advertising it in the local schools we were delighted when 16 young people aged 11-14 showed up.

The evening had a happy, relaxed atmosphere with a variety of activities to choose from including table tennis and a graffiti wall as well as a tuck shop.

We hope that many will want to return and will tell their friends all about it. We hope also to be able to add to the equipment and offer an attractive place for the young people to be on a Friday evening. You would be welcome to come along and join us!

Don't deny

On Sunday we continued our sermon series on 'The Cross of Christ'. This week our focus was on the part of the story where Jesus is taken off for trial. It was during this time that Peter, one of his closest disciples, was asked three times if he knew Jesus and all three times he denied that he knew Him. Jesus had predicted this would happen just after Peter pledges his loyalty to Jesus in front of all the disciples. As soon as Peter denied Jesus for the third time a cock crowed.

We were encouraged to think of who are best friend is and what we would be willing to do for them. Even though Peter made a bad choice, took the easy way out and let his friend down Jesus made the biggest choice and chose the cross for Peter and for each one of us.

After His resurrection one of the first things Jesus did was to forgive Peter and give him the chance to express his love for Jesus. Peter then goes onto become one of the first leaders of the early church, preaching a sermon that brings 3,000 people to faith!

In our prayers we said sorry to God for the times we had denied Him and let Him down. We asked for strength and courage to be bold and strong to speak up for God. We also prayed for those who are persecuted for their faith that God would strengthen and encourage them as they daily risk their lives to live out what they believe.

Pioneer Minister

At a special service held today in Leicester Cathedral a number of people were licensed by the Bishop for different tasks. Among them was David Boyce, a member of St Paul's. David is a physics lecturer at Lutterworth College. As a Christian David felt called to set up a chaplaincy in this large college to provide spiritual support to students and staff.
David was licensed as a lay pioneer minister. This means that he has done some training and has the Bishop's full support in this exciting venture. David's aim is to bring a Christian presence into his working environment. He will lead assemblies, prayer meetings and be available to chat and offer support.
At a service in September David shared with us the exciting journey God has taken him on to bring him to this point. As a church we prayed for David and his family as they move into this new phase.

Fresh Expressions Of Church.

Like all churches, Saint Paul’s faces the question: "how do we share the love of Christ with the two-thirds of the population who never go near a church?" On Saturday 1 November 2011, Leicester Diocese organised a conference on "fresh expressions" in conjunction with the Methodist and United Reformed Churches.

It met at Saint Martin's House, the new diocesan headquarters, next to the cathedral which has been impressively refurbished. The conference was led by Dave Male, who was previously a Minister in this diocese, and has had experience of an alternative way of being church.

There are many ways in which Christians can organise activities which start in the community and by which people may be introduced to Christ in nonthreatening ways. Different workshops gave examples of some of these, with the chance to discuss the opportunities and problems experienced. However, these activities should always lead on to discipling people in the Christian faith, although this is a journey that may take many years.

“Thinking outside the box" was challenging but also fascinating. May we do more of it!

Link to Fresh Expressions
Link to Leicester Diocese's report of the conference.