St Cuthbert's, Wood Green

Church family have had this as an e-mail with links embedded. In case it's helpful to others...

Here are some helpful free resources to explore over the summer – including for kids and for parents.

For any of us:
'Everyday Evanglism' Podcast from London City Mission – Encouraging stories of how the gospel is being shared and believed in London, and practical advice and encouragement to play our part in 'everyday evangelism'.

'Things Unseen' devotional podcast – 5-8 minute rich gospel insights from Scottish pastor and theologian Sinclair Ferguson.

Gentle and lowly podcast – 4-8 minute heart-warming reflections on the gentle humility of Jesus who came to serve and save us, and who is always present with us whose grace is always available to us.

The Co-Mission podcast – a variety of talks and interviews equipping Christians in London to live and speak for Christ. The link is to a talk from the recent Women's Day that some in the church family attended.

The Keswick Convention Podcast – talks from the annual convention in the lake district. A great variety of Bible teaching recorded there. The link is to a discussion of the importance of the resurrection, which links with our recent time in 1 Corinthians 15. :-)

For kids:
Big Picture Story Bible Podcast – This is a great kids' Bible – particularly for under 5s. The pictures are brilliant, and teach Bible themes through picture in a great way. (Look out for the fruit, and for pictures of Eden). Our kids enjoyed going to sleep listening to this when they were younger. It works for car journeys too. There should be a hard copy in the church 'library'.

Biggest Story Ever Podcast & Videos – This is great for primary school aged kids. Again, there's a hard copy in the 'library' box. You can also watch the episodes on youtube.

Faith in Kids Podcast – This isn't someone reading a Bible, it's a podcast with fun bible-based conversations, comedy sketches, and questions to engage kids of all ages (and parents too!). Brilliant for car journeys!

There's also some great stuff to watch online including animated episodes of 'The Wingfeather saga' from Angel studios (which is also on youtube).

For parents in particular:
Faith in Parents Podcast – A podcast designed to encourage and equip Christian parents to keep going relying on the grace of Jesus while they point their kids to him. The podcast looks to engage questions parents have and issues they face with grace, humour, and dollops of Biblical wisdom.
"Raising Confident Kids" book – I've bought some copies of this book for some of us to enjoy over the summer and perhaps talk about together. :-)

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The resurrection brings hope, comfort, peace, challenge, urgency...
Following on from Sunday morning, midweek growth groups will have a chance to keep hearing rom 1 Corinthians 15 to discover how the more we grasp of the resurrection the better it gets.
The attached will hopefully might help some of us who won't be gathering in person to do that on our own or with others. 😀

1 Corinthians 11-14 has had lots to say about what we do when we gather. These chapters have raised questions about how we make the most of our God-given abilities to build each other up when we meet together.
🤔 We probably all have thoughts about how we can do that better.
🙋‍♂️ It would be appropriate to invite prophetic insight – suggestions prompted by God's Spirit for how this part of God's word connects to our life together.
🤔 The attached might help with that.
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This week's growth groups will focus more on prayer, but we'll make time to look back at what we've been reading/hearing recently as well.

Heavenly Father,
Your dominion is an eternal dominion;
your kingdom endures from generation to generation. _(Daniel 4v34)_
Christ is seated at your right hand,
far above every ruler and authority and power and dominion _(Eph 1v21)._
You change times and seasons;
you depose kings and raise up others. _(Daniel 2v21)._
Every earthly authority must one day welcome or give way to your eternal rule, and give you an account of what they have done.

Whatever the results of today’s election, and whatever we think of our political leaders, please help us to bring our emotions and our responses to you.
Please grow our confidence in Jesus’ good rule today as every other day, and help us to love our neighbours well.

We pray for all who have and are given earthly authority, that they would use their power in Jesus-like ways whether they acknowledge him or not.
We ask in particular that Christians may be free to lives of godliness and holiness in the service of our true King. (1 Tim 2v2).

Whatever the outcome today, please would our identity as Christian come from being a citizen of Jesus’ Kingdom.
Please would our hope come from Jesus being on the throne of the universe.
Please would our faith rest on the promise of his kingdom one day coming in full.
And so, please help us to live now as winsome ambassadors of our heavenly King.
Please come soon Lord Jesus.
Amen.

A taster of where part of our time in midweek Growth Groups might be spent this week...

We want to keep blessing the people in our lives and on our doorsteps. Our next Sunday Funday is coming soon.

Looking forward to getting together on Thursday evening for our topical seminar/study.
🔎📖 We'll think about the part our consciences play in our Christian lives and Christian growth.
🎨 We'll play with different coloured pens and a flip chart (no stick people this week!).
👍 We'll prayerfully look to God to renew our minds and hearts so that our consciences help us to love what Jesus loves the way that he loves.
🙌 We'll enjoy what Jesus has done so that imperfect sinful people like us can have a clear conscience before God.

Between us we'll have all kinds of *opportunities to help others hear about Jesus this weekend*. (Including joining with Josiah and others befriending!). Let's be praying for ourselves and one another. 😀🙏

I guess like Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 that might mean:
– setting aside our rights to time, leisure or comfort *like a servant*,
– fitting in with people who aren't like us *like a chameleon*, or
– setting aside good things that are less important for the sake of a future prize *like an athlete in training*.
_"I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible... I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." (1 Cor 9v19,22)_

[Jesus said]: "...the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop." (Luke 8v15).

Following on from yesterday morning, hopefully the attached can help us to think, pray and talk more about 1 Corinthians 9. Great to be praying that God's word goes on bearing fruit in our lives. 🔎📖💭💬🙏👍🙌

This is the day when our Lord Jesus Christ passed from death to life.
Throughout the world Christians celebrate and renew their trust in their awesome God who raises from the dead.
Today we will hear his word and proclaim his life-giving death and resurrection.
We do so trusting that we share in his victory over sin & death, and the forever life with God the Father that his righteous life deserves.
Alleluia. Christ is risen.

Andrew Peterson | His Heart Beats (Audio Video) The audio video for Andrew Peterson's song "His Heart Beats" off of his new album Resurrection Letters: Vol. 1. Stream, Download, or Own the CD here: https:/...

20th March was "St Cuthbert's Day". Hallmark don't do greeting cards, and we don't generally make a big deal of it as a church family. However, the original Cuthbert was a godly guy who took the gospel to people who hadn't heard it in the North East of England. The Bible encourages us to learn from and follow the example of other Christians who are themselves following the example of Jesus (e.g. 1 Thess 1v6-7).
So this year, we did this...

St Cuthberts Day Rap (2024 version) 20th March is "St Cuthbert's Day". Hallmark don't do greeting cards, and we don't generally make a big deal of it as a church family. However, he was a god...

It's a joy to celebrate this good news all the time, as well as in a particular way over Easter...

Good News in 90 Seconds The good news at the heart of the Bible is so profound you can spend a lifetime studying it. You can also hear it in 90 seconds. What do you make of this mes...

Great to be able to support this via Josiah being on a question panel. 😀 In future years, it'd be great to bring a group of guys.

Looking forward to putting Jesus' death and resurrection in it's context this Easter... And to seeing why it is still be good news for us today.

Looking forward to celebrating why Jesus' death and resurrection 2000 years ago can be life-changingly good news today – whoever we are, wherever we are from, whatever we have done.
All welcome to join with the church family as we remember and celebrate together.

As a church, we're not part of the co-mission network. However, it's a joy to partner with co-mission churches local in prayer and in our desire to see churches planted. And we're hugely blessed by the network in the support and training it gives to our paid staff. Great to be praying for these churches. 😀

Lord God,
We celebrate all the women you put in our lives to do us good; who you’ve put around us who inspire, invest and love us through the highs and the lows of our lives.
We pray for each other and recognise that some of our mothers and mother figures have caused us pain. Where we are feeling hurt, pour out your comfort, love and restoration.
We thank you for the mother figures that help us through our struggles and share our tears.
We thank you for the mother figures who laugh with us and share in our joy.
We thank you for the mother figures who journey with us through our lives and don’t give up on us.
We thank you for the mother figures who are teachers, youth workers, parents, grandparents, social workers, carers and friends who bring us life.
We recognise that because of these women we have become who we are today.
We pray that we would be reminded today that it is you who has worked through these people in our lives to show us your love, compassion and discipline.
We pray for children and young people who need mother and father figures to step into their lives, particularly those waiting for an adoptive or foster family.
We ask for you to guide and challenge us to follow your word and love others with devotion, joy, hope, patience and faithfulness.
We thank you that you are our perfect parent, giving us all the opportunity to be your children and to know your incomparable and unfailing love.
Amen.

(This prayer probably owes a debt to prayers from HomeForGood, London City Mission and others besides).

Looking forward to another discussion this Sunday evening. Questions about suffering and the wrong-ness of the world are big for all of us – Christian and non-Christian. It'll be a conversation, so where we go will depend on who is in the room.
But as with previous conversations about truth and freedom, I'm looking forward to seeing how who Jesus is and what he's done can offer answers that satisfy our minds and our hearts.

"We live in a universe where the strongest person is also the kindest person." Encouraging to spend time in Exodus 5 this morning. This might help us to retain and persevere in what we heard so that it bears fruit in our lives...

Although we're not a Co-mission church, Mark is an affiliated pastor. It's great for us as a church family to be connected to and blessed by a network that is concerned to see healthy churches multiplying across London that each and together picture how the gospel is good news for people 'from every time and tongue and nations'. The gospel is good news – whoever we are, wherever we are from, whatever we have done.

Last week we began a series of Sundays hearing from the book of Exodus.
Exodus shows us what God is like so we can know him better. 🤝
It shows us there’s no one like Him, so we enjoy worshipping him more. 🙌
We're encouraging church family – if they have time over the coming week – to read the opening chapters of Exodus. 📖👍😀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iea3Fml--VE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzv1ojOoWyk

Introduction to Exodus: Exodus 1-2 (21st Jan) A brief introduction to the opening of Exodus from our Sunday gathering on 21st January.

There are a range of ways as a church we look to play a part in supporting the homeless and different ministries to help people off the streets. As we head into a week of very low night-tie temperatures, here's a practical resource to be aware of if you meet rough sleepers:

Tell us about someone sleeping rough - StreetLink StreetLink can be used by anyone in England & Wales. Alerts are sent to outreach teams. Call 999 if the person needs emergency help or is under 18.

Looking forward to meeting this afternoon to think about whether the 'Jesus story' is myth, or really good news we can build our lives on. This video is a good taster...

Love Story - The Myth That Really Happened Buy the book: https://www.10ofthose.com/uk/products/22217/love-storyVideo Credits:Written and Directed by Glen ScrivenerIllustrations by Alex Webb-PeploeMusi...

Oggie is a Pastor in Mongolia and at our Round Table he shared the big challenge in Mongolia ⬇

"Genesis reveals the creator God; John shows the way to God is Christ... We should teach this - or people can think Jesus is just one more god to add to the many deities of shamanism."

That's why it is so important that his new book 'In the Beginning'... sets Jesus apart, as the one true God. ✝

Please pray for these books and their distribution! 🙏