the red pill

I promised in church that I'd blog my notes from this morning, as there was a lot of information shared quickly. I commend these to you for further reading. Remember - these words name what God sees in us, what He is calling us into being. I invite you again to ask for more of His Spirit that the eyes of your hearts might be enlightened. I also reproduce below the notes and the spoiler warning the text of the letter I referred to from Three Billboards Outside Epping Missouri. (I used the way Chief Willoughby calls out the better nature he sees possible in Officer Dixon as a way of understanding in part what Paul is doing in Ephesians 1) The notes were to guide me, they are not the message in total - that will be available on the church website next week, and available to  download by clicking here Ephesians Chapter 1 Verse 1 - You are holy, you are faithful 3 - Blessed in heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing in Christ 4 – Chosen to be holy & blameless ...

A member of our music group used this verse from the Message translation in part of the devotions he led last night. I was struck by the wonderful language, and so share it with you here. With thanks to Alan Clark for drawing my eye to the text!

A few people have heard some things have been happening at Tabernacle Baptist Church Wolverhampton, and wanted to hear more. So I have written a brief summary of the exciting things that are happening. Over recent years the church has been in a season of growth. This has meant we’ve needed to rethink the way we do some of our leadership, decision making and structuring life together so that we can still be making sure people receive our well-known warm welcome and hospitality, and also find a way into the life of the church in such a way that they are enabled to grow as disciples of Jesus. A number of years ago we began supporting a local evangelical church that had been struggling, and in 2012 we merged the two churches into one church that meets in two locations. This year, God has been generous to us, and through a significant gift we have been enabled to make some serious headway on mission, vision, and strategy. When the leadership team went away on retreat, we fe...

We're looking for a special individual, couple or team to come and work with us in seeing this wonderful city impacted by the kingdom of God. If what follows appeals to you, then feel free to get in touch for a more full profile, and ways of finding out more. An Opportunity in Wolverhampton Tabernacle Baptist Church is a thriving, ethnically diverse, welcoming church in Wolverhampton. For the last two years we have been supporting, and then merging into our structures, a church in the city centre called the Church at Broad Street. The Church at Broad Street had once been a thriving evangelical church, but has, over many years, dwindled and struggled. The purpose of the recent merger is to release new ways of mission and ministry into that part of the city. The location is a tough one. The neighbours are fast-food restaurants, sex shops, a homeless hostel, a nightclub and a rock venue. Close by is the University, with a guesstimated 5,000 students living in halls ...

This year we're taking inspiration from Psalm 84. We're regularly using this image from Anneke Kaai's remarkable collection of works inspired by psalms. You can buy these as a book, along with the Message translation and the artist's explanation, entitled " The Psalms, an artists impression ". Here's her thinking behind this piece, which we have turned (with the artist's permission) into a postcard to give to the folks here at Tabernacle Baptist Church Wolverhampton. The poet lives far away and longs to travel to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to be close to God.   He thinks of the birds that fly around the Temple grounds, building their nests, even in the Temple pillars. This painting shows the head of one of the pair of copper pillars at the Temple entrance. The pillar was called Boaz (cf. 1 Kings 7:15-22) and had a lily-shaped capital, decorated with a pattern of seven interwoven chains and pomegranate shapes.  A space high up in the cap...

Light shines in the darkness And the darkness cannot overcome it For the shepherds, given the lowliest job. Marginalised, under appreciated, poorly paid, the butt of every joke, light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it For the wise men, those who seek genuine spiritual truth, the new agers, the tarot readers, the searchers, those who look at the world and see the hand of a creator, those who look at the dark skies for signs, light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it For Mary, unsure of her future, like every mother wondering what world her child is born into, what her baby will grow up to become, for every father who fears for his daughter's future, for every parent who has to trust their children, with all their successes and failures, into the hands of an unseen God, light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it For Anna and Simeon, those of old age, who had longed to see something later in their lifeti...

I'm so grateful to Maggi Dawn for flagging up the growing number of churches offering Blue Christmas events. Wolverhampton's third Blue Christmas will happen at on December 18th at 7.30pm

Our local authority has been receiving bids to open a new casino in the city. A planning application has been received from Casino 36 Ltd to turn the former Beaches Nightclub on Temple Street into a casino, directly across the road from All Nations Christian Centre.  I'm  aware that our city centre needs regenerating, but I am concerned that not all regeneration is good for the city. I also think that if we had to have a casino (and the council do seem set on this) then this is in an inappropriate area. If you're in Wolverhampton, then please would you join with me in expressing concern about this? I invite you to write to Licensing Services,  your local councillor, or to Nick Edwards, Assistant Director for Regeneration (details below). We want the best for our city. I'm pretty sure this isn't it! Notes on writing to make your views known 2         When and where to write BY 27 Nov :        ...

Here at Tab we're praying about our closer working relationship with another church in the city. In our March Church Meeting we hope to be coming to some conclusions about the shape of the way forward. Please would you join with us in praying about this. Merging two congregations isn't an easy thing to do, but if it's what God has for us, then we'll glady embrace it! The Leadership Team at Tab is encouraging prayer using the following points as a guide, a starting place.  We're asking folks to pray especially each Tuesday, and join with others as we also fast on 7 th  Feb and 6 th  March. We will also provide one Saturday morning and two evening seminars to discuss the vision Please Pray: For our brothers and sisters at Church @ Broad St. About our own desire to be a church for both Whitmore Reans, and the whole City of Wolverhampton That there’d be a strong Christian presence and voice in the City Centre That we’d have wisdom to make the most of a valuabl...