Starting this coming Sunday evening — 28th February 2010 — is our brand new outreach into the city of Bath.

OUTPOST: Bath is a monthly Sunday evening gathering open to anybody who wants to come and experience God-centred, Christ-exalting worship, and solid, relevant, gospel-centred preaching.

We’re starting at 6pm.  The service will only be an hour.  We’ll be meeting at the Percy Community Centre, New King Street, Bath, BA1 2BN.

There’s no formal provision for kids, but there is a room where younger children can play, if a parent wants to supervise them.

More details can be found here.

As Peter mentioned in his blog post yesterday, just last weekend (5-6 February 2010) we had the great privilege of taking away our LIFE group (the 18-30 singles in our church) for a weekend away — an extended time of worship, teaching and fellowship together.

There was 40+ of us gathered at Hill House Christian Conference Centre, near Bridgwater, Somerset.  The topic for the weekend was “Passionate Orthodoxy” — the idea that we should passionately, enthusiastically pursue knowing the truth of who God is and what he has done for us, build our lives upon those unchanging, proven and established truths, and worship him and enjoy him all our days.

We had three teaching sessions, each with a time of worship, and then a final fourth session of extended worship.  God was gracious and faithful to each of us in attendance.  I believe God freshly challenged all of us with his Word, brought conviction by his Spirit, deepened our understanding and appreciation of his mercy and grace, and imparted fresh faith for our walk with him.

During the weekend we recommended Joshua Harris‘ new book “Dug Down Deep“, a book written and designed to help us ensure we are building our lives on the eternal truths revealed to us in God’s Word.  I’d recommend everyone grab a copy and read it ASAP.

You can read a review by Stephen Altrogge here.

The audio from the three teaching sessions can be found below, and if you click the link below you can see pictures of the weekend, taken by our resident photographer, Christian Lerke.  There’s also a short video Christian made of his view of the weekend (click on the very last image of the gallery).

(Click the following links to listen online or to download and listen off-line: PC users right click and save the file. Mac users ctrl+click and “save as”.)

Session 1: What Is Your Life Built On? (Nathan Smith)

Session 2: What Are You Living For? (Nathan Smith)

Session 3: Don’t Waste your Life: Wise Words for a Younger Generation from An Older Man (Peter Bowley)

CLICK HERE: Life Weekend Away Photos

Today I want to use the opportunity I have to tell you about a couple things going on with our LIFE group (18-30′s singles of the church) that we hope will interest you.

As you’ve heard us announce over the last few Sunday mornings, we are hosting a weekend away for LIFE, which is fast approaching!  On Friday 5th and Saturday 6th February, over 40 of us are heading down to Hill House Christian Centre, in Bridgwater for a couple of days of teaching, worship, fun and fellowship together.  This number includes 9 people from the Spanish church, near Barcelona, that we’ve got a growing relationship with.

There’s nothing like getting away and have some concentrated times of teaching and worship.  I remember significant times growing up when I encountered God in unique and powerful ways, as I got away from the distraction of normal life, and joined with others who had a hunger to know and meet with God.

We’ll be holding four sessions, (1 on Friday night and 3 on Saturday) and we’ll be exploring the idea of pursuing “Passionate Orthodoxy” — that is, purposefully and intentionally pursuing the truth about God and his work for us through the gospel, and responding in a passionate application and outworking of that truth into our lives, so that it makes a difference to us in discernable and eternal ways.  We’re hopeful that the material we cover will be great fuel for our hearts in worship — both with our lives and lips.

We are very excited about this weekend.  We are praying that it will be a significant time in the lives of all those who attend, and that God would meet each of us, powerfully, personally, and specifically.  Please join us in prayer for this weekend!

Secondly, our LIFE group meets every week on a Sunday evening.  Two nights a month are more social events, and two nights per month are geared more towards discipleship.  This coming Sunday — 31st January 2010 — is a night for LIFE discipleship.

The plan for this week is that we are gathering together at the MET (Bristol Metropolitan Academy), in the main hall.  We’re going to be watching a DVD by Louie Giglio. Louie Giglio (pictured right) is a pastor (Passion City Church, Atlanta), speaker and founder of the Passion Movement.

The DVD, called “Indescribable“, is described as follows:

“The heavens are telling the glory of God, and their expanse declares the work of His hands. Night after night they remind us of just how small we are, and how huge God is. Looking out into the far reaches of the universe, we find a seemingly infinite expanse of mystery and wonder, intricately fashioned by a God of unfathomable size and power. Just a glimpse of one of the billions of visible galaxies He has formed resizes us, shrinking us, and the world we call home, to seeming insignificance in an instant. But as tiny as we may seem, the God who knows every star by name also knows yours, and mine. And in the most stunning rescue imaginable, God sent His Son to this spinning planet we call home-the Creator reconnecting us to Himself with life that never ends.

Indescribable takes us on an image-rich journey through the cosmos, allowing us to peer into God’s universe to discover the amazing magnitude of His greatness and grace.

We will be watching the DVD and then having a time of worship, in response to the greatness and glory of God that we’ve seen.

However, we don’t want to just limit this event to the LIFE group.  We want to invite you all to come and join us for the evening!  We will be gathering at 8pm, watching and worshipping, and be done by 10pm.

ALL ARE WELCOME (but there is no childcare for the evening). So come out and marvel at the indescribable greatness of our God!

We will also be hosting another evening like this in March, when we watch a second DVD: “How Great is Our God.“

We are back blogging again this week, and for today I want to speak to those of you who are parents, or have a desire to be a parent in the future.

As we’ve said before, the start of a new year is a good time to sit down and take stock of your life and family, and assess your priorities, time, resources, and plans, etc to make sure the year ahead is purposeful, and (by God’s grace) fruitful.

As a parent, I’m always on the look out (and grateful) for resources that can help me with regard to my children and my parenting.  And at the beginning of a new year I want to point you towards some materials that can help you as parents, sit down, take stock of your lives, families and children, and freshly instruct and/or remind you of the amazing privilege, and awesome responsibility of raising children for God.

The materials come from our good friends at Covenant Life Church, and there’s something for everyone as there are messages and materials for parents with children ranging in ages from 0-22 years old!

I suggest taking a listen together with your spouse and then discussing some areas for growth, change and application of biblical truth into this vital area of parenting.  I hope, and pray this material serves you and blesses your family in 2010!

(NB: Click on the links to listen on-line. To download: PC users right click and save file; Mac users ctrl+click and save file.)

The Parenting Years I: 0-5 year olds (Brian Chesmore)

Part 1: Biblical Principles of Parenting
Part 2: Training & Discipline
Part 3: Questions & Answer Session

The Parenting Years II: 6-10year olds (Kenneth Maresco)

Part 1: Biblical Principles for Parenting
Part 2: Shepherding Towards Conversion
Part 3: Shepherding Your Child’s Heart

The Parenting Years III: 11-14 years olds (Greg Somerville)

Part 1: Changing Bodies & Minds
Part 2: Emerging Convictions in a Changing World
Part 3: Changing Relationships
Part 4: Panel Discussion

The Parenting Years IV: 15-18 year olds (Kenneth Maresco)

Part 1: God’s Role and Our Role
Part 2: A Teen’s Relationship with God
Part 3: The Importance of Relationships in a Teen’s Life
Part 4: Questions & Answer Session

The Parenting Years V: 19-22 year olds (Bob Kauflin)

Part 1: Goals & Guidelines
Part 2: Rules & Relationships
Part 3: College, Careers & Beyond
Part 4: Questions & Answer Session

Some days I have my own brilliant ideas for my blog posts (just think of last week’s extravaganza!).

Some days I read some one else’s brilliant post on their blog, and a) I wish I had their insight; and b) I think it’s brilliant enough to turn your attention to.

Today is one of those days that falls into the second category.

One of my favourite blogs to read is The Blazing Center written by my friends, Mark and Stephen Altrogge.  This Father-Son duo are infamous(!) for there song writing skills, and both serve Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania.

Stephen’s latest blog post is a fantastic, thought-provoking and personally challenging post, especially as we think about all we are doing as a church to reach out during this Christmas period.  Enjoy, chew on, and by God’s grace, be refined!

The First Mega Church Ever! By Stephen Altrogge.

Wanted: Perfect church. A small, tight-knit community of believers. Close friendships a must.

Sometimes we talk about the early New Testament church as if it were a small, quaint country church with about one hundred intimate relationships, and killer pot providence (not luck) dinners. And that’s exactly what it was. For about a month.

Then Pentecost happened (Acts 2) and everything went crazy. The Spirit fell. People talked in foreign languages. Tongues of fire danced over people’s heads. And 3,000 people were added to the church in one day. In one day the church went from intimate small group to giant mega church.

Suddenly things weren’t so intimate. Everybody couldn’t be friends with everybody. The leaders were less accessible. The worship service didn’t have the close, sing around the campfire, feel. Everyone was required to sacrifice and serve in new ways.

But that’s what happens when the gospel is being preached. Sinners are saved. The church grows. New friendships are formed, new small groups are formed, new services are added to accommodate all the people that God is saving. If the gospel is preached, people will be added to the church. For people to be added to the church, sacrifice is required.

It takes sacrifice to welcome people with messy lives into the church. It takes sacrifice to reach out to people you don’t know. It takes sacrifice to figure out who is going to be in what small group. It takes sacrifice to see a church grow from small to big. But it’s glorious sacrifice. Sinners are being saved. God’s kingdom is going forth. People are being pulled from darkness into the kingdom of God. Lives are being rearranged and transformed.

To be a part of this sacrifice is to be a part of something beautiful.

If the gospel is going to spread, and the church is going to grow, sacrifice and serving must happen. Sacrifice and serving are hard, but the result is beautiful.

+photo by atomicjeep