Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 12/May/2024]

During a recent ‘Connect in Faith’ house group meeting, the internet connections went awry and the songs that had been prepared could not be projected and played.

The following day in church, I met one of the regular attenders, a friend, whose smile is usually so welcoming, you have no choice but to give him a hug, but not that day. He looked quite sad, and the smile was nothing near its usual, brightness. He just said it had been quite a difficult week. (more…)

[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 12/May/2024]

I’ve been thinking about labels – the things we stick on people. The judgments we make about others without bothering to get to really know them. Sometimes it’s just because we’re too lazy to make the effort. Sometimes it’s more serious: we actually self-righteously set ourselves up as judges! (more…)

[This reflection by Brian Alton was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 14/Apr/2024]

At the turn of the year, ITV screened a drama about the injustice suffered by sub-postmasters over many years; accused wrongly of theft and fraud, when in fact a new software programme was at fault. People were bankrupted, sent to prison, lost livelihoods. Campaigns to exonerate those affected had been attempted over many years, with little success. However, the drama turned a shocking story from impersonal words on a page, to the story of real people, and the impact has been huge. Viewers could watch and feel the emotional consequence of this tragic situation. (more…)

[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 24/Mar/2024]

We Are Family!?

We often refer to our church as ‘family’. Last Sunday Reece shared with us from the front how God had responded to the persistent prayers of friends and healed him of a really worrying kidney problem. That kind of thing, as Reece said, should be shared much more often – if we really are ‘family ‘!

I know it’s not easy to facilitate such testimonies in the middle of a packed Sunday service. And maybe most of us already have a small group of fellow Jesus followers who really are family. But, if we’re going to call the larger church ‘family’, perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves whether we can somehow become more intimate – which is the identifying characteristic of true family.

The weekly YOURS bulletin is one way to do that, but it seldom functions as a family forum. And maybe it can’t.

Recently there has been a shift in our Sunday meetings. It seems, to me at least, that there’s more warmth, more deep love for one another.

That’s what Martin was talking about, wasn’t it? It’s more than possible for a large gathering to really be family, and I think the Holy Spirit is doing it!!

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