West View Baptist Church, Hartlepool

A family friendly church in the town of Hartlepool

Get in touch if you have anything you’d like us to share.

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Service interrupted.

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.

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An Ark, a lament, a promise and a new beginning

Tim, Roy and Jonny provided the music on Sunday 4 March, Jonny led worship and Tim brought us the message.

Our new song for this week,  Weep with Me, courtesy of the Rend Collective is a lament. We’ve been looking at the highlights of the Old Testament,  and it is surprising how many are actually in the very first book, Genesis. Focussing in on Genesis 6 we hear the story of Noah and his family. It is a long story so Tim only selected some snippets to illustrate but he encouraged us all to go home and read it in full. It’s clear that Noah did everything he was commanded to do. 150  days of flood occurred before the waters started to recede. Noah used birds to try to find dry land and signs of life. The raven explored but found nothing, the first dove explored but found nothing, the second returned with an olive sprig.  Not a bad present for Noah’s 601st birthday.

God’s new covenant serves to remind him and us of his promise. Never again would water be used to wipe out all life. The rainbow is the sign of that promise.

We teach the story of the Ark to our children,  at home and in our Sunday Schools or Young Churches. But as we get older there is a dawning realisation, “Seriously, we’re teaching this to our children,  a tale of the destruction of humankind!”

It doesn’t sit very well with the carved wooden animals, the cuddly ark playset, the jovial bearded Noah character or the cartoon picture that seems to appear on every children’s Bible.

Too often we focus upon the behaviour of humankind,  and the judgement of a wrathful, vengeful  God. What we miss and what we really need to hear, realise and reflect upon is the pain at the heart of God in this situation. This is a God who weeps here.

The story of Noah “borrows” from other earlier stories. The Great Flood from the Epic of Gilgamesh has a flood hero Utnapishtim who is rewarded with immortality.  Many scholars believe that it is clear that the first 11 chapters of Genesis draw upon many older stories drawn from elsewhere. The story is told because the Jewish  writers wanted to tell us more about the relationship between humans and God. The focus here is and should be on the change in the character of God.

It is about covenant and promise. It is about God’s creation not living up  to God’s intent.  We’re invited to penetrate to the heart of God. God is grieved, not angered, as he sees the state of humankind. Can God abandon the world he made so joyously? The turnaround begins and is done through God’s pain and anguish. He feels the pain of his broken world .

In the midst of the story is this one man, Noah, and his family who offer the world hope. They show that faithfulness is possible even in a violent unbelieving world. Resolution of this whole story comes by the change in God’s heart, God speaks from his heart, in the full realisation that even after the flood humankind will not be changed forever. They will repeat the same mistakes. They will be just the same. Rain and flood will not change them forever.  Hope depends upon God’s heart. God promises to stay with man. This marks an irreversible change in God. Such a commitment is costly for God.  A grieved God is set against a resistant and resisting world.  The self abandoning god of Philippians 2. We finish with Chapter 9 of Genesis with God restating the purpose of humankind and his role.

God restates the original Genesis promises.  The rainbow is established as a covenant, a promise, but who is it a reminder for? It is the equivalent of a Post It note for God. “God remembered…” 

This is what gives hope through the Old Testament. The flood story tells us we cannot be forgotten by God. God remembers. Tim urged us to read it again if you have difficulty believing. God’s purpose and plan for creation will not be thwarted by humankind’s inability to live up to the hype.  The reality of chaos is all around us and we are invited to live a life of hope.

God is committed to the world he made. He sent his Son into the world as part of that commitment.

Tim also read the story of Noah by Frederick Buechner. Be thankful God is not forgetful or easily distracted!!

“In one way, then, it gave Noah a nice warm feeling to see the rainbow up there, but in another way it gave him an uneasy twinge. If God needed the rainbow as a reminder, he thought, that could mean that, if someday God didn’t happen to look in the right direction or had something else on his mind, he might forget his promise and the heavy drops would start pattering down on the roof a second time.”

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Out of the Ashes with Peter Gladwin

Last night we joined friends in Owton Manor Baptist Church to listen to the testimony of Peter Gladwin and his wife Sarah.

Peter was badly burned as a baby. He started his message by simply asking us to think about what a start in life that was. He also urged us to not let people out a label on you.

As young Peter was growing up he kept asking his parents “Mum, Dad what happened to me?” The answer he always got was “We don’t talk about that son.” He later came to realised that evasive answer was probably driven by feelings of guilt. At 10 Peter went off track, stealing drinking, so many petty offences at the age of 13 the judge sent him to prison! Once out of prison he ended up on probation afterwards. At the age of 15 Peter got on a bus with a friend, a group of young people from a different area got on the bus and Peter and his friend were attacked. One guy stabbed his friend with a 10 inch knife. Peter thought his friend was dead. Then the knife attacker came at him. Peter remembers thinking I’m only 15 years old and about to die! He turned away from him as the knife came for him.

Years later John Lennox was preaching on Issaac . John said I bet none of you can imagine what it to be stabbed with a knife. Peter couldn’t help himself. He shouted back ” I do!”. Unlike the Isaac story there was no angel on the bus that night to save Peter. The lad with the knife stabbed Peter in the arm, severed tendons in his right arm. Back in hospital Peter found himself yet again asking himself “Why me?” He couldn’t answer and didn’t know where to turn as he didn’t know god. Because he couldn’t use his arm he lost his job as apprentice cutter. His arm didn’t work for two years. Peter turned to drink and drugs and tried to bury pain. That doesn’t work. Buried pain never stops buried.

He couldn’t keep a job down or a relationship down. Then at the age of 24 he was hit by a car flung 16 feet in air broken skull femur etc. Again he found himself asking “Why me?” He couldn’t get off this treadmill of gloom and doom. Then at 27 his Dad committed suicide. Peter found himsef filled with a void and emptiness that no one could touch, nothing in the world could help and he felt so so broken. One Sunday Peter thought if I jump off North bridge 80 foot down it will be all over. He’s standing on the bridge and realised that he could see his mum’s flat. He goes to see her instead, Mum lets him in. He was distressed, dishevelled and she didn’t know what to say to him. So she reverted to what she knew “Do you want a cup of tea son?” Then mum rang his big sister Annette. She didn’t give him a quick fix or a glib answer.

Annette just said God had a plan for his life and he could have a personal relationship with Jesus. Peter says that at this point it was as if the room filled with mist and he looked in corner and saw a man in a cloak. “Jesus is here” he said to his sister. There and then he surrendered to Jesus and asked for help and to be saved. Sister took him to church for the first time and he went forward to be prayed for. Peter remembers amazing grace played as he walked . His eyes were opened to Jesus, who is alive, and he knew for the first time that God loves him and has a plan for his life. He was so on fire for Jesus. When God reveals himself you can’t get enough of him. Peter cautioned though that we need to test everything as there are a lot of things out there that look like Jesus. He reflected on the fact that those who have sinned much love much.

Over time Peter got the message “I want you to go to bible college”. Peter couldn’t help thinking, this must be a mistake, “I didn’t even go to school.” He told his pastor who pointed out how much money would be needed and said he would pray about it. 6 weeks later a cheque for £8000 come through the post and Peter is off to college. He had to humble himself and ask students for help with even the most basic things. In second year a friend asked him “Have you seen the new girls that have come from Switzerland?” “I’m not interested” he said and then went to see them. He sees Sarah for the first time but the deceiver’s voice is saying “she won’t like you.” Peter believed the lie. Then he met her in the corridor and took her to cinema. He realised he was not going let this girl go. He asked he to be his girlfriend but she said no. The Lord said to Peter do not give up! God’s got a way of perfect timing, his timing not ours. Listen to the Lord and he will open great doors for you . Peter tries to forget her and then he sees Sarah sitting in park looking troubled. He plucks up the courage to ask her what is wrong and she replies “I can’t stop thinking about being asked by you to be your girlfriend.” Outside Peter appears calm. Inside he’s cheering and thanking Jesus. Peter acknowledged that it was difficult for Sarah and her parents. Yet within two years they are married. Sarah’s sister had shown her mum a magazine article about Peter and this helped them.

Peter ended up working for a drug and alcohol service . Then the Lord told him over and over to apply for probation service. Revelations says the doors I open cannot be shut. Peter thought this was a waste of time, he’d been on probation himself and they would not want him. When it came to the bit about criminal convictions he ticked the box to indicate Yes. The box for details was too small for Peter to list what he had done but the Lord said to him just put “Would like to discuss further if selected for interview”
Interview day came and he shared his background and what he was up to now with the panel. He was convinced that they would not want him but to his surprise they said he was just the man they are looking for.

In prison visiting he met a glum prisoner. When he quizzed him he found out that he’s got 12 months for non disclosure of criminal background. This seemed a bit severe until he revealed the job was at Barclays Bank. None of us are perfect. We’ve all ticked the wrong box at times. Tick the yes to Jesus box. The works could not heal me but Jesus can! Be aware that Jesus can speak back. God speaks today. Will we all make time for God to speak to us. God loves you.

Peter got promoted. Got job in crown court for probation service. A real Joseph moment from prison to palace.

Peter did 2.5 years in crown court . Best money ever then Holy Spirit said don’t get comfortable this is only temporary. Never know what God has planned. God said hand in your notice and follow me. Peter took 7 months but handed notice in and went to work with Sarah. Sarah had opened little cafe as Christian witness. This was then they had a valley time, Sarah got cancer and they faced a long battle until she was eventually declared cancer free. Throughout they decided as a couple that regardless God would reign over whatever happened. God was faithful, Sarah was cured, Peter’s book was published out of ashes and their ministry was born. Will you come when God calls?

Their calling has led them to South Korea, Cambodia, India, Australia and many other places. God opened up the world. Peter had never been out of Halifax before becoming a Christian . Out of the Ashes is now going to be a musical.

Peter asked us to reflect on being at peace with your past, content with your present and prepared for an exciting future. Cry out to god , how do you want to use me?

God has no grandchildren, no favourites.

Peter shared an experience of time he visited a women’s prison. He got a 10 page letter from someone who wasn’t at the service, but one of the other prisoners threw a copy of book into cell.

8 weeks later at a really low point she read book and said it saved her life. She was feeling suicidal.
Peter stressed the need for us to take God off the shelf. Let God walk in front of you. Life will grow in excitement, experiences and challenge. Aim at things for God. If your heart is burning for Jesus you’re in for an exciting life. He closed by saying he’d been on fire once nearly killed me, second time in church he was set alight for Jesus.

At the end of the session people asked him to expand on when his sister Annette came to Christ. Annette has been working in a butchers when a man from a small roadside church had come in asking to put up a poster about the church’s activities. She agreed and the man went to leave the shop. Then he paused, turned and told her that she would be born again in Jesus. Needless to say she thought he was two pork pies short of a picnic. Then a fortnight later she sees the man walking into his church, follows him in and gives her life to Jesus. 12 weeks later she helps Peter after he comes down from the bridge.

Peter’s mum came to Christ as well and he was finally able to have that conversation about how he got burned. Peter finally learned that his mum had gone next door to the neighbours, that she had forgotten to put the fire guard up and a hot coal set the rug on fire. He learned that Annette had tried to rescue him, couldn’t and in going to get help, leaving the house had pulled the door shut, stopping people from being able to get in to rescue him in time for him not to be injured. A burden was lifted from them all once they were able to talk about what happened.

Best summed up as Annette may have closed the door that affected his earlier life but she also threw open the door that changed his later life.

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Following Jesus, finances, faces old and new

Ian led our service today with Roy, Mark, Amanda and Jonny assisting with worship. Matty shared some thoughts with us in relation to managing money. The phrase that best captures what he was sharing was to not buy things you don’t need with money you don’t have. He reminded people of the need to give back to Lord a percentage of what you earn, drawing principle that you reap what you sow. If you sow plenty you will have a rich harvest.

It was our privilege today to be joined by Timmy and Kassidy who shared an insight into the work of Youth With A Mission. He highlighted their work across the world and the ways in which both the founder of YWAM and the founder of WYAM Perth heard God’s voice on the way forward. Be warned, God will even speak to you in the shower.

 

 

Timmy shared with us his thoughts on the 3 keys to following Jesus

  • Hearing God’s Voice
  • Obedience
  • Fear of the Lord

 

In thinking about Hearing God’s Voice it is important to recognise and remember that God speaks in many ways. The Bible shows God using a burning bush to talk to Moses, talking through prophets like Isaiah and Jerimiah, through the still small voice speaking to David in the cave or through his angels like Gabriel speaking to Mary and Joseph. Timmy posed us the question as to how we can hear His voice. Reading the Bible and setting aside time dedicated to Him that allows Him to speak. Timmy stated that God’s voice should be familiar to us, as familiar as our own parents, our family or friends who, when calling us, don’t need to introduce themselves.

Timmy moved on to speak about Obedience, he asked us all if we were aligning ourselves with God and with the things we should be obeying. He highlighted that Jesus was obedient to his father and he only spoke of the the things the Father commanded him to. This is highlighted in John 12 v49.

Obedience builds trust. It involves obeying the law, obeying parents and obeying the Lord. Failure to do all of these brings consequences. Disobeying parents brings a grounding or a loss of trust and already earned freedoms. Disobeying the law brings fines and other penalties. How much worse will the penalty be for disobeying the Lord.Finally Timmy also talked about Fearing the Lord. In proverbs the Fear of the Lord is well spelt out.

  • 1:7 set out the beginning of knowledge,
  • 2:1-6 we understand the fear of the Lord when we seek knowledge
  • 8:13 sees the hatred of evil,
  • 9:10 the beginning of wisdom,
  • 14:27 the fountain of life and
  • 16:6 the turning away from evil.

Timmy also explained what this should mean about Fearing of the Lord. It means we should revere and honour God, trust in Him, seek Him out, see in Him the very beginning of wisdom and knowledge and hate evil and sin.

Day to day it is hard to follow Jesus, not because he is difficult to understand but because the world we live in doesn’t want us following Him. The world follows social media, money, each other and whoever is the hero of the day or hour.

Sadly people don’t seem to realise Jesus was a revolutionary, a reactionary, he went against the grain against the established norms of the society he lived in. We’re going to need to do the same.

To follow Jesus we need to:

  • Listen to God.
  • Spend time with God,
  • Be obedient to God and
  • Fear the Lord.

This is not about attending church on a Sunday. This is about living like Jesus. It’s a relationship. It is not about what Jesus can do for use but following his example and how he lived.

Kassidy took us on a tour of the work of YWAM around the world sharing an insight into the peope she met and worked with alongside Timmy in Kolkata, Uganda Manila and other places around the world, often having to improvise and change plans when God had other ideas for what they would face and do.

She talked about the plans they have for future missions and teaching experiences and the hopes for raising funds to take these forward.

It was also our pleasure to have our newest “family” members in church, Jasper James from our Sunday church family and Lilly Mae from our Friday Filling Station family visiting the church in their first week of life. What is brilliant is that the border between our two families is getting more and more indistinct as time goes on.

Our church was filled with children this Sunday which made it all the more significant to pray for those children and adults struggling with pressing and serious physical and mental health concerns.

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Would you Adam and Eve it? (and two new arrivals)

Today’s worship team were Tim, Jonny, Amanda and Roy. Throughout today’s service we prayed for our friends around the world, for Ian and Andrea and their families and colleagues struggling with illness, and the need for them to rebuild the team. We prayed for people of our church serving overseas, for the work of Elspeth and Interplast in Kumi.

Tim brought today’s message. He reminded us that a couple of weeks ago we started at the beginning,  right at the first words of the Bible in Genesis 1. We’re slowly picking out some of the key Old Testament events. Today we’re looking at Genesis 3,

In Genesis 2 we read about the total freedom that man and women were given. They only had one single restriction. ” Don’t eat of” So what happens now. Eve is enticed by the serpent and Adam eats with her. The idea of sin is introduced here. The whole of the Bible if you think about is about getting back to then, that time of closeness and innocence, It’s about our rescue. Sin is a difficult thing to preach on. What we think of as naughty and often reprimand children for is not necessarily a sin. Tim continued his adverts theme by asking us to remember the naughty but nice advert. Enjoying cream or chocolate cake is not a sin but greed is. Remember the incredible world that is spoilt by sin. Tim explained that he sees this as picture language demonstrating who we are. The question of Adam and Eve existing doesn’t matter. What it is showing is the nature of our humanity and of our sin. Does the serpent get bad press here? Sin colours our world and affects the brokenness of the world. Did God really say that? This was the serpent’s question.,. He focuses on the one single thing that they they have not been given (yet). The serpent  makes no mention of anything that has already been given. Tim drew our attention to the fact that Eve adds to God’s word, temptations begin to assert themselves, “It’s only a piece of paper, the boss will not mind”, “I know it say don’t deceive , but it is only a white lie”. “I know it is wrong to commit adultery but I love her!”
Second thing is that the serpent misrepresents God here! Is God really jealously guarding that tree? Some ask why put the tree in the garden in the first place . Tim asks us to consider the view that the tree is not allowed simply because it’s not time yet. Adam and Eve may not have been denied it permanently. Adam and Eve couldn’t handle that yet. We all know that is not alright for a five year old to drive a car. We don’t really know if this was the case but we could think about the tree as a “not yet” gift from God. Remember the tempting of Jesus in the wilderness. Satan offers him the world. There is nothing wrong with the offer, after all Satan is only offering what Jesus will have anyway  but the offer involved not taking the time needed to do what had to be done.

Adam and Eve were tempted. They took it too soon. They were not ready for it. This temptation affects us all, is independence such a good thing or do independence  and freedom become confused. Romans 8 reminds us that our freedom stems from God. The world likes to label God as a bully and encourages us to rely on ourselves and make bad choices.

Eve and Adam go from happy to guilt ridden shame and the loss of the close relationship with God. They’re now filled with stress, blame and anxiety . Where was Adam anyway? We’re often reluctant to see Adam here . Classic paintings often put him down in a corner out of the way. This is a misrepresentation. Verse 6 says he was right there with Eve. The plural is used from Verse 1 . They are both there . The woman speaks because the serpent addressed her. They are both tarnished by this bad decision. Pictured here is the whole state of humanity in our world. One belief is that death enters the world here. The loss of access to the garden means they lose access to eternal life. God isn’t laying down gender roles, this is God showing the inevitable consequence of not following his instructions. Not just about child birth , but the pressures of conception.

Benjamin West: The expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

They’re on their own now , they are blocked from the garden yet they will become dependent on God. Other dependencies are revealed. The story ends with the eviction from the garden. There seems no way back. Biggest problem with the fall is the loss of access to God. God was walking in the garden with them and they lost that. The road back to Eden is a long one and  the cost paid by God is an inconceivable cost. His Son is the cost to smashing open the gate to Eden. No sin is too great, for the cost has been paid. Jesus paid. Only in Jesus can we grow up. When you find Jesus do you not also find equality, are not those human barriers overcome? Choose wisely choose freedom, through Jesus your sin is forgiven and Eden is restored.

We also heard the fantastic news of two births to families from the church and filling station.  Welcome to Jasper James and Lilly Mae.  Apologies if I’ve spelt the names wrong.