Warm welcome at Heaton Baptist Church, Bradford

Heaton Baptist Church, Bradford, has been celebrating its 186th Anniversary today.  The church is about to receive into membership a lady aged 100 and I guess that must be a unique experience. The photo on the right shows the church secretary welcoming one of the older ladies on Sunday morning.

It was my privilege to bring God's word on this special occasion.  I reflected on how easily we allow clutter into our lives, and that if this is not checked the situation gets increasingly out of hand.  I began with Pam Ayres' poem on the Heap of Stuff attack.  We then reflected on various passages of scripture that emphasise the importance of simplicity such as, David and Goliath, the rich man and the eye of the needle issue, running the race as in Hebrews 12 where we need to lay aside unnecessary weight, 1Cor. 1:18- 2:5 with Paul's emphasis on a simple message, and the story of a frustrated Martha so intent on doing the host thing well.  I closed with a super song entitled "Out of this world and into your presence".  We then broke bread to start the next year in the life of the church.

It was good to have Doreen with me for the weekend (seen left as members share recent personal experiences with her).  Tony and Sue Newnham's church is warm and welcoming and it was marvelous to see Doreen so included.  Far too often the guest speaker's other half gets ignored in my experience.

We were grateful for safe travelling to and from Yorkshire this weekend. we returned tired but happy.