Family Church Guildford

Ps Charlie looks at what 1 Corinthians 13 can teach us about what loving well really is. If we are loved well, we will also love well - the perfection of God's love is available to us now, through Jesus Christ - once we open our hearts to receive, we can love others out of that.

Ps Charlie shares where we have been as a church, where we are currently and announces the forthcoming addition to our family. Please note the following correction to the spoken information - It was in January 2017 (not 2014) that Ps Charlie became the Congregational Pastoral Pastor & Ps Lisa the Associate Congregational Pastor.

Looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Ps Lisa teaches four foundational points to be applied when thinking about the gifts of the Spirit: 1. The Giver is good 2. Unwrap the gift 3. Give it away 4. Restoration

On Global Sunday we were privileged to have Caleb & Becci join us from Hands at Work as we were challenged to think about the loveless in our community and how our culture can interfere with our heart for God - do we see the poor and vulnerable, and if we do see them, do we act?

We all have a desire to be free, but do we know what we want to be free from? Simply following our desires hasn't led to us being free, in fact we often feel more trapped through having to live with the consequences of our actions. But the gospel news is that we can't bring freedom & happiness to ourselves - only Jesus can do that - He doesn't want us to try harder but come alive to a continuous relationship with our Creator God.

What does it look like to stay in your lane, to be fruitful, full of the Holy Spirit in the season that you're in right now? On Vision Sunday, Ps Charlie reminds us to keep it simple - start walking in the Spirit & then keep in step with the Spirit, as the Spirit causes the fruit of the Spirit to be grown in us regardless of the season we're going through.

Continuing our journey through 1 Corinthians, going through every chapter, even the less comfortable ones! What do we do as a church when someone claims to be living for God but there is repeated unrepentant sin in their lives? We all need to be willing to be discipled - do we have people in our lives who tell us what we don't want to hear, who are looking out for our blind spots, who remind us who we are in Jesus?

Continuing our 1 Corinthians series, Ps Lisa looks at what we can learn from Paul's response to the divisions over leadership in the Corinthian church; encouraging us to set & build our lives on the foundation of God's Word, to make Jesus our first and foremost pursuit & to desire the hidden place in God.

Do we get more revelation straight from the Word of God or via podcasts or social media? In this series on 1 Corinthians the aim is to read the Word together & mature as we meditate on it. Ps Charlie introduces the book reminding us that we are called to live differently as we are set apart for a purpose - if so much of the world is in us, how can we bring about change? The gospel is life and death, we need to get serious about knowing the Word of God & bring it into the centre of our lives.

Seminar Sunday - a kingdom perspective for today's issues - offered the choice of three seminars addressing the topics from a Biblical perspective to equip us in how we live. Ps James looks at a range of viewpoints on the environment through the lens of the interplay between our faith, our values & our actions.

Seminar Sunday - a kingdom perspective for today's issues - offered the choice of three seminars addressing the topics from a Biblical perspective to equip us in how we live. Race is not just an issue in the world, it's in the church & used by the enemy to divide people - Ann-Marie shares what God has been speaking to her about the tensions of race & encourages us to let the Holy Spirit search our hearts to reveal any faulty understandings.

Seminar Sunday - a kingdom perspective for today's issues - offered the choice of three seminars addressing the topics from a Biblical perspective to equip us in how we live. The world changes its narrative on gender but God's Word doesn't change - Ps Charlie speaks on gender according to both truth and grace & puts it into a wider context.

This short message from Ps Charlie at our All-Together service followed a science demonstration illustrating how the addition of Jesus takes away sin. What if we were honest enough to admit, 'I can't hear God today?' or 'I don't want to come to church?' Sometimes we overcomplicate Christianity when it can be as simple as actually connecting with Jesus - He's the only one who can deal with our sin and disconnection & bring us back to the source of all life, love and goodness.

In this final instalment of Restoring Relationships, Ps Lisa looks at Moses' call to fulfil his purpose to be a restorer of relationships and reminds us that God calls all of us to this same purpose. Sometimes we shut the book on the story of our lives believing that it's over in one area, but restoration can take time, our responsibility is to hold on to faith & hope, knowing God is right there with us. Sometimes it looks like God is calling us back to places we thought we'd left behind, we may be going back, but we're going back different because God has done something in our hearts, exchanging control for love, fear for security in Him, rejection for connection.

In this week's message on Restoring Relationships, Ps Charlie takes us back to the creation of man by the trinity of God to show how we were created from relationship for relationship. Which means for us today, every relationship is supposed to happen through love, in the same way that we see it expressed between God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

Using the analogy of a torch that we use to search for significance, purpose, relationships... James Rumble encourages us to lay down the torch & know that God is the light within us, through knowing our Saviour, our identity and our mission.

Continuing 'Restoring Relationships' by looking at the sixth biological sign of life - sensitivity - how external things affect us internally. Our relationship with God was always meant to affect all our other relationships - and the anchor to every relationship with each other is that we are a child of God.

After a few weeks detour, Ps Charlie rejoins the biological signs of life, looking at growth. If our relationships are alive, they should be growing. And growth comes when you're joined to the life source, Jesus - we do the connecting, God brings the growth.

Ps Charlie brings fresh light to our vision sermon series from last year with this Recipe/Restoring Relationships mash-up, focusing on praying together. It's hard to pray when we don't get on with each other, but when we realise that we all have the same heart & purpose, to know & share the goodness of God through Christ Jesus, there's no opportunity for opinions to divide us.

Where we're at in our relationship with God can make a big difference in the lives of people around us - we may be the closest thing to Jesus that people see - so where is Jesus positioned in your life? In this spin off episode of the Restoring Relationships series, Ps Matt takes us back to where our relationship with God began, then reminds us that God's plan to restore our relationship with Him was always Jesus.