I hope you’ll agree that yesterday was a fantastic day, gathering together, fellowshipping together, worshipping together and being exhorted and encouraged through God’s Word together.

It was great to see so many new faces and guests, and to be able to meet some of our friends from the church we have a growing relationship with in the town of  Villisar, near Barcelona in Spain.

Pete Greasley, our friend and senior pastor of Christchurch Newport, was with us and preached an excellent, encouraging message entitled: “The Pursuit of Goodness and Mercy” from Psalm 23.  The audio available to listen to or download from here, via our iTunes podcast feed.

For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year!

There’s lots to look forward to at Grace Church in 2010!

And much, much more besides!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

Wondering what to do to celebrate this year?

Looking for some fun for all the family?

Perhaps we have something to interest you!

Download our Full Christmas Guide.

Have a very Happy Christmas!

(p.s. We’re taking a blogging break until 2010!)

Sorry for the break in programming, but thanks for tuning in.

Hopefully a return to normal service next Thursday!

We’ve been thinking about how we can use this blog to serve our church better and we have come up with some ideas, and so from the beginning of November (Lord willing!) it’s going to play out something like this (hopefully!):

On Mondays…

We will be posting our “Sunday Review” which will provide all the necessary details from Sunday’s meeting (the audio for the sermon, weekly bulletin, “Take-It-Home Sheet”, and anything else of interest!).

On Tuesdays…

A new feature sees, “Tim on Tuesdays” hit your computer screen, as our very own Tim Pinkstone brings us a thought for the day (perhaps an update on the student or evangelism work he’s involved and leading us in, tales of being a tall man and more interesting stuff beside!).

On Wednesdays…

Another new weekly feature allows us all in on a little bit of “Bowley Time”.  ”Bowley Time Wednesday” is the day when we hand the blog over to our resident elder statesman so we might benefit from his years of walking with the Lord.  Expect godly wisdom and gospel insights, money-saving tips for seniors and stories of his times hanging out with Noah and Abraham!

On Thursday…

You’re stuck with me, for “Thursday Thoughts from Nat“.  As you would have come to expect, I’ll be bringing the much needed sophistication, rich insights and cultural analysis that Tim and Peter can’t supply, together with the humour they can only aspire to!  Actually, expect… very little, then you wont be disappointed!

On Fridays…

I’m really excited about the prospect of what we have in store for you for Fridays, but you’ll just have to wait and see!

Watch this space!!  And expect this day to be the highlight of the week!

On Saturdays…

We will be posting our “Sunday Preview” that will provide details of the following day’s service – preaching text, who’s leading worship, serving rota details, and any other interesting bits and bobs that will be helpful to know before you set off for church on Sunday morning.

So make sure you are set up to keep up-to-date with the blog!

Once again this year, we want to encourage all you good folks at Grace Church to consider supporting the “Operation Christmas Child” campaign.

It’s a wonderful initiative that involves you digging out a shoebox from under the bed, emptying it of the useless junk you’ve accumulated since you bought those shoes, and instead filling it with gifts for children who live in poverty-stricken parts of our world, so that they might receive a gift this Christmas time.

Please pick up a leaflet from the Info Point this coming Sunday and let’s play our part in blessing children we will probably never meet, in places we will probably never visit, with a gift this Christmas!

Shoebox gifts will be need to be completed and returned  to Grace Church, ready for collection.  Deadline is Sunday 8th November 2009.

For more info on Operation Christmas Child watch this video now!