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Ian led today’s service, ably supported by Jonny, who turned up at the wheel, getting a quick lesson off time. We had some fun worship songs today including one of our current favourites, My Lighthouse. Judith brought us the word today but sadly I missed it as I was called out to assist Mark in dealing with the fact that someone had tried to set our gent’s toilets alight.

Fortunately the cardboard and lighter used hadn’t set anything else alight and there was no  damage to church and no injuries. Incidents like this do highlight the need for us to all be vigilant. Hopefully I’ll be able to gather some thoughts from others from Judith’s sermon from today. Meanwhile I thought it might help to share some thoughts around today’s incident. Attempted arson is no laughing matter and we did report what happened to the police. We will be fitting some internal CCTV cameras to try to prevent any repeat of this.

It did however lead me to ponder on the reasons behind it. I’m currently reading Mend the Gap by Jason Gardener which looks at the practical difficulties of bridging the proverbial generation gap.  Church by it’s very nature is committed to family values and trying to build and keep a sense of unity amongst diverse congregations.

Mend the Gap poses the question “Why do young people commit crime?” and one young person replied “Kids commit crime because there’s no sense of community any more!” The challenge for the church is of course how we deal with this.  We now live in a time where old community traditions and values appear to have been eroded without anything to put in its place. I agreed with Jason Gardener that churches should not be backward looking. What they should be doing is acting as a community in their own right with their own traditions and values. Ministering to young people is fraught with problems. Look at the New Testament and seek out the youth ministry received by Jesus. You’ll find it in Luke’s evidence driven gospel. It states Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and Man. That’s a tall order for anyone involved in trying to bridge the generation gap.

It’s even more challenging at the point in time we find ourselves at. Communities are established through their shared stories and generationally our stories are now coming from very difference sources.  Word of mouth and written records are replaced by social media channels. How many of us know what the latest Youtuber is saying, who’s got the most popular vlog? Young people now,  more than ever,  are relying on peer advice derived from these social media channels.  Church I think needs to be part of a young person’s idea of family. Mend the Gap leads to the conclusion that church needs to be intergenerational, young and old together with sons and daughters prophesying,  young seeing visons and old dreaming dreams.

Young people buy into the myth of rebelling against adult society. Hopefully today’s incident was just that. We will continue here at West View Baptist Church to build our caring worshipping community reaching out through Filling Station and our other missional work. All of us have to be church youth workers and try and offer friendship, family and new traditions.

We’ve had a busy couple of days. On Sunday we held our Nativity in the church. We used the material from the Bible Society entitled The Greatest Journey. The materials available meant we had a scripted power point presentation and some books to give out to the kids. We built our stable and manger inside the church and some of our younger members (eventually) dressed up and took part. All the adults and kids took part in the actions that accompanied the story and a great time was had by all. The cakes, cuppas and more cakes were an added bonus.

On Monday a small band of singers, Stella, Matty, Brenda, John, Lynn, Esther and Terry with Tim on the flute sang and played for the two care homes nearest our church. In West View Lodge we sang half a dozen carols to a small audience of staff and residents. We then went on to Sheraton Court and did five short sessions of carols across the three floors of the home. It was a real privilege to be able to sing for the residents and staff and they really seemed to appreciate the singing and the friendship we brought to them. I think all our volunteers were out of voice and breath by the end. Huge thanks to the staff and residents for the welcome we received.

Today we celebrated the life of Elizabeth Patten,  a founder member of West View Baptist Church. Elizabeth and her husband Bob leave behind an amazing legacy in the form of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who still visit West View Baptist Church regularly. It was often said apparently of Elizabeth and Bob that the only thing they had in common was their love of Jesus Christ. Well, what a thing to have in common.  They were in at the birth of West View Baptist Church. When they married they had their wedding at the Headland Baptist Church and their reception at West View Baptist Church because West View was that new they weren’t authorised to do weddings.

Their children, Esther, Ruth, Malcolm and Raymond shared some amazing memories. They told of the latter part of her life where she had been saying to the care staff “Water by, water by”. This confused them because they knew that she had plenty to drink, plenty of water. Esther eventually figured out that her mum was referring to the sung version of Psalm 23, and the verse that ends “..the quiet waters by.” Once the care staff knew this they even printed off a version and kept it prominent in Elizabeth’s room and read it to her when she was agitated.  The fantastic words of the Psalm set to music provided the rod and staff of comfort to Elizabeth.

One of Elizabeth’s friends from school proved that teachers jokes did not improve regardless of what era they were from. Elizabeth’s maiden name was Bean,  her father was a master draughtsman and her grandfather a freeman of York. When Elizabeth was at school, one of her teachers had the job of monitoring who had had their daily milk and how much. He would run through the list until he came to Elizabeth’s entry, read out “Bean, 2”  and then chortle and say “Elizabeth, Where have you been to?” The joke does not improve with age or retelling I’m afraid.

Elizabeth’s son Malcolm read her eulogy and painted a fantastic picture of Elizabeth and Bob’s house, filled with a welcome for children and young people. This welcome extended to many disadvantaged young people who  came to stay for respite and holidays,  to extended family from around the country, church visitors and missionaries and to friends of friends. Visitors to the church often found themselves at the Patten home,  a house of many rooms although when the Raeburn was the only source of heat in the house, the kitchen diner was the place everyone gathered for chat and fun.

Malcolm also described the family memories of holidays around the UK with Elizabeth having every last penny sorted in order to be able to afford the holiday in the first place. Even the food was all bagged up  and labelled for specific days. All of Elizabeth and Bob’s children remember the holidays as the best of times.  Malcolm also reflected on the fact that although the trip often started with the family car the return leg was often made on the back of a recovery vehicle. Travelling for his mum’s funeral Malcolm unexpectedly found himself in the same situation, travelling in the back of a recovery wagon for the first time since he was a child. He pondered on whether or not this was a canny ploy to save money, weighing up in his current situation the cost of fuel saved against the costs of recovery.

Elizabeth Patten 31 October 1931 to 21 November 2017

“Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help  thee to press on and to forget the toil of the way. This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country :this world of woe is but the stepping stone to a world of bliss” Charles Spurgeon.

We will not be having our usual Sunday Morning service on the 17th. Instead we will be again hosting our unique Live Nativity. Last year our special guests were some Shetland ponies. This year we  are hoping to welcome two donkeys.  We will be taking a collection as part of the Nativity as our Christmas gift to Hartlepool Hospice. Please do feel free to join us. And if you want to dress up as a Nativity character such as shepherd, wise man etc do feel free to join. The donkey roles have been taken though.