Parkstone Baptist Church gathers together each Sunday morning from 10.30am.
We usually meet for about 75 minutes. Most folk stay on for a while longer since we enjoy each other's company, usually with a drink of tea, coffee or water in hand.
Folk tend to start arriving from around 10.15, to greet each other and have a chat together before we begin at 10.30.
What's coming up on Sundays? (Scroll down a bit if you want to jump ahead)
What happens when we gather on Sunday?
We take time to pray at several points during our time together.
These prayers tend to form the 'rhythm' for our gatherings.
We read part of the Bible together and help one another to better understand, learn from and respond to what we've read. Sometimes this will be through a talk or sermon. Sometimes it will be more like a discussion or study. More often than not it will be a mix of both approaches, so that we learn from one another. It's not unusual for folk to pose a question when there is something they want to ask.
Our Sunday morning gatherings usually provide opportunities to share things that we have noticed recently as we trust in Jesus. We recognise that this is a way we can find common expression in our life of faith. We draw encouragement from one another as we share this life together.
We also like to sing together, drawing from a mix of songs and hymns written and composed across a wide span of time. We tend to keep things fairly simple when we sing. Choices and style are informed by what and why we are singing, more than how it might sound. Sometimes we simply read the words of the song together, as a prayer-poem.
We usually try to make our time together as multi-voiced as possible.
Silence is something we try not to worry about. There is never a requirement to say something, but we find we are blessed and encouraged by one another as we do!
Why do we gather together like this?
Now that is a good question! It's our way of putting into practice some of what we read in these sentences from a letter written to one of the earliest churches...
Christ's message in all its richness must live in your hearts. Teach and instruct one another with all wisdom. Sing psalms, hymns, and sacred songs; sing to God with thanksgiving in your hearts.
(Letter to the Colossians 3:16)
During June and July we are thinking about key images from the New Testament that help us understand more about what and who God intends church to be.
Interspersed with that, we have some inputs on models and ways of gathering together as God's people, perhaps with a coastal theme going on!
Sunday 28th July 10.30am - 'We are a royal priesthood'
Sunday 4th August 10.30am - 'Stones', 'temples', 'walls' & 'bridges'
Looking ahead...
Sunday 11th August 10.30am - tune in later for more details
We are likely to gathering away from Loch Road this Sunday - details to follow
Sunday 18th August 10.30am - ExtraOrdinary - the story of a girl with no name
from 2 Kings 5:1-19
Sunday 25th August 10.30am - ExtraOrdinary - the story of the manager and the migrant from Ruth 2:1-16
Sunday 1st September 10.30am - ExtraOrdinary - the story of a perfect storm
from Acts 27
Sunday 8th September 10.30am - led by John Good