“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story – those he redeemed from the hand of the foe” (Psalm 107:2)
Throughout March, we are exploring some of the Bible’s stories about God’s redeeming love. Last year we looked at some of the names of God together – but we didn’t have time to cover them all! This series might be seen as a deep dive into the name YHWH Go'el (“Yahweh/Jehovah Goel”) or “The LORD is my Redeemer”. Come and find out more about our God who can redeem all things!
Sunday 1st March, 10am (live-streamed): “Pride & Prejudice”
How do you think of yourself as a person? How do you present yourself to other people – and to God? This Sunday, Rob Lea recounts for us Jesus’s parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and helps us to think about the implications for us, in the deeds we do and the attitudes we hold.
Sunday 8th March, 10am (live-streamed): “Mercy and Misery”
Saint Augustine used the Latin phrase misericordia et misera (mercy and misery) in describing the scene in which a Pharisee brings before Jesus a woman caught in adultery. This Sunday, we have a very special guest, as Rev. Hayley Young, our Regional Minister Team Leader, joins us to unpack this story of self-righteousness, sin and salvation.
Sunday 15th March, 10am (live-streamed): “God’s Basket Case”
This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and Simon takes us back to the Old Testament, where, in the book of Exodus, we find a mother of remarkable faith. She was called Jochebed, although you won’t find her name in Exodus! Jochebed was the mother of a certain boy named Moses, and today we dig a little deeper into the amazing story of how God redeemed a seemingly hopeless situation for Moses – and his faithful Mum!
Sunday 22nd March, 10am (no live-stream): “Blinded by the Light”
This Sunday in our All-Sorts service, Phil and Kat get us thinking about radical encounters of God and how they can change our lives as we delve into the story of Saul of Tarsus.
Social Action Sunday: Sunday 29th March
Several times of year, when there is a fifth Sunday in a month, we dedicate our time together on Sunday morning to various kinds of social action! This is one of the ways in which we show our care for people locally and globally. This time around, our “SAS” will have a bias towards showing care to young people. We will be making up bags and writing cards to send to our partner church in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to support two specific groups of young people. Our friends at Regent Road Baptist Church (RRBC) have a wonderful programme they called “Girls with Goals” and, inspired by that group, a newer programme called “Boys with Ambition”. Kat will be leading the team on this one!
Meanwhile, others of us will be engaging with young people closer to home! We will be writing cards for the young people at Holly House, which will go with Easter eggs (“The real Easter eggs”) which we have bought for them. We’re also hoping to send a team to Rainforest Walk to do some work there with some of the young people – and to invite them to EBC for the fellowship meal we’ll all be sharing afterwards!
We really hope you will come along – please sign up for the meal afterwards in the lobby of via email (officestaff@ebc-bracknell.org). Eileen will be in touch soon with a sign-up sheet for the various jobs, which will include things like litter-picking and jobs around the church as well!