HOPES & DREAMS
The "New Musical for a New Millenium" which is taking place at 36 venues around the country comes to Lincoln on 9th March at 7.30pm at the New Life Christian Fellowship in Newland.
If you wish to see this performance please get your tickets quickly, as 500 have already been sold!
(apparently 2 or 3 coaches are coming from Nottingham as their performance on 28th February are sold out!)
Tickets are £7 or £5 concessions and Jean Ball has a few left at the time of writing.
SELF DENIAL
Envelops are being distributed this month - please contribute if you can - Your giving to the Methodist Church Fun for World Mission supports mission partners and grants to partner churches in different countries.
YOUR GIVING SUPPORTS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
ALPHA A Personal View - by Ian Goult
When I saw the Alpha course advertised in Foss Focus, I felt compelled to join.
I had seen articles in the newspapers and Church Times and was impressed by reports of its simplicity, power and success.
In essence, Alpha is "a practical introduction to Christianity" over 15 weeks.
The course is based on "Questions of Life" by Nicky Gumbel.
The Tuesday evening sessions began about 7.15pm with participants meeting over a cup of tea or coffee.
This gave us all the opportunity to meet the others in the group informally.
The video session was 1/2 - 3/4 hour long, each subject self contained and delivered by Nicky Gumbel who is an Anglican Minister.
The subjects included "Who is Jesus?", "Why did Jesus die?" and "how does God guide us?"
After the video we split up into smaller groups for discussion of the subject of the video.
After a shy start, I think we were all able to share deep spiritual thoughts with each other.
These discussions lasted about 45 minutes and closed with a prayer.
We then all came together for a short time to chat and say goodnight.
In the middle of the series (talks 9, 10 & 11) most of us spent one whole Saturday at Gainsborough Methodist Church discussing aspects of The Holy Spirit.
We had a lovely day and our discussion became very deep and spiritual.
My first impression was that this was "Sunday School for the older generation", and in many ways it was. However, the increase in our spiritual awareness and the ability to share very personal spiritual feelings with friends, to my mind is the essence of Alpha's power. Adding to this was the fact that the average attendance was 17 from about 20 starting the course says much for this type of meeting and its need. I'm sure there are very few night classes in the country with this level of attendance.
I was sorry when we reached the end of the last session, but we had discussed this beforehand. The necessity of continuing the process of study, discussion and prayer with friends was uppermost In our thoughts. The process is to continue with study of "The Sermon on the Mount" at Eric and Jean's on Thursday evenings and continuing with Bible study at Wendy's on Tuesday evenings.
I would like to thank Rosemary, Wendy, Jan, Eric, Jean Andrew & Janet for their efforts in running this particular Alpha Course. My thanks also must go to my friends who made it such a moving experience, but most of all to God who made it happen.
Ian Goult