What a great privilege it was to speak at our five Carol Services over this weekend - to present Christ and celebrate this Red Letter Day! We were able to accommodate nearly 1800 people through the five meetings - next year, with the new site as well... who knows how many we will reach!
Thanks to all who invited friends, delivered flyers, sang, played an instrument, acted, catered, greeted, dealt with PA or lighting, oversaw the car parking, cleaned, organised, decorated or served in any other way which made the whole weekend such a great success!
And can I wish each one of you a really Happy Christmas and a great 2010. God bless each of you richly in the coming year!
meetings to come: Friday 25th December - Christmas Day meeting 10am - 11am (please note!) Sunday 27th December - 2 meetings only: 9.30am & 11.30am (no 5.30 meeting) Thursday 31st December - ‘Watchnight' prayer event at King's - 9pm until late Sunday 3rd January - 9.30am, 11.30am & 5.30pm Sunday 17th January - Vision Sunday - 9.30am, 11.30am & 5.30pm
Did you hear that the Caring Christmas Tree project made the national press, with a mention by Lucy Mangan in an article in the weekend Guardian? To have a look, click on this link... http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/12/lucy-mangan-christmas-decorations What a great job Simon Allen has done in profiling the Jericho Road Project through this initiative! Around 270 trees were sold this year - a good foundation for next Christmas!!
Our plans are now well advanced for this weekend's Carol Services. These are always fantastic events! Bring your friends and family and share in the celebration with great music and a great message - Jesus born for us all!
Throughout our Christmas services at King's we will be taking up an offering to support our mercy ministries as well as sending a gift to our Newfrontiers churches in Kenya, who are experiencing prolonged draught and all the challenges associated with lack of rain. Edward Buria, a respected Newfrontiers leader in Kenya, tells us that people are dying already as a result of the famine. This is a life or death situation for so many - our generosity here can make a difference there...
Christmas Carol Services:Saturday 19th December - 5pm & 7.30pm Sunday 20th December - 2.30pm, 5pm & 7.30pm BSL interpretation will be provided on Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 7.30pm The Kings' children will be performing a song at the Saturday 5pm service and at the 2.30pm service on Sunday. Parking is available at the Rathfern School on Rathfern Rd
NB - No morning meetings on Sunday 20th December!
Other meetings: Friday 25th December - Christmas Day meeting 10am - 11am (please note!) Sunday 27th December - 2 meetings only: 9.30am & 11.30am (no 5.30 meeting) Thursday 31st December - ‘Watchnight' prayer event at King's - 9pm until late Sunday 3rd January - 9.30am, 11.30am & 5.30pm Sunday 17th January - Vision Sunday - 9.30am, 11.30am & 5.30pm
Together @ Butlins weekend (Friday 22nd Jan to Sunday 24th) - something to look forward to in the New Year! Booking forms are available in reception and at the Information Desk on Sunday.
The coming week for me includes attending a nativity play, Sam's 10th birthday, a trip to Quasar (some serious fun with a laser gun!) and final preparation for our five Carol services!
Important dates for the rest of the month and beyond...
Christmas Carol Services: Saturday 19th December - 5pm & 7.30pm Sunday 20th December - 2.30pm, 5pm & 7.30pm Tickets and flyers are available at the table by the Information Desk BSL interpretation will be provided on Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 7.30pm The Kings' children will be performing a song at the Saturday 5pm service and at the 2.30pm service on Sunday. Parking is available at the Rathfern School on Rathfern Rd
NB - No morning meetings on Sunday 20th December!
Other meetings: Friday 25th December - Christmas Day meeting 10am - 11am (please note different time!) Sunday 27th December - 2 meetings only: 9.30am & 11.30am (no 5.30 meeting) Thursday 31st December - ‘Watchnight' prayer event at King's - 9pm until late Sunday 3rd January - 9.30am, 11.30am & 5.30pm Sunday 17th January - Vision Sunday - 9.30am, 11.30am & 5.30pm
And it's not too late to book in for our Together @ Butlins weekend (Friday 22nd Jan to Sunday 24th) - something to look forward to in the New Year! Booking forms are available in reception and at the Information Desk on Sunday.
Another wonderful Gift Day on Sunday toward the cost of the new building and going multi-site. Praise God for the £81,000 now sitting in the account that wasn't there this time last month - and thank you to all of you who are continuing to trust God and be generous in these days!
Further meetings re the new building have dominated the first part of the week, all providing further encouragement that we are moving to a positive conclusion.
I am now in the middle of 3 days of meetings connected with our Newfrontiers family of churches. This is always an encouraging time and confirms that God is moving in all parts of the movement - not just in London and Catford!!
This Sunday I look forward to preaching out of Hebrews 1 - a real change of subject and style after our Reel to Real series. And Christmas is nearly here! Please take as many of our fantastic Christmas Carol service flyers as you can reasonably use and give them out to your neighbours and friends. If you can, why not post them through the letterboxes in your block or street? Great music and drama sketches, hot drinks and mince pies, a good (short!) message and friendly faces - all are waiting at King's on the 19th and 20th!
Carol Services : 5pm & 7.30pm on Saturday 19th December and 2.30pm, 5pm & 7.30pm on Sunday 20th December
It was great to have Julian Adams with us this Sunday. I hope that you all found it encouraging - especially those who he spoke to individually.
We also took up our next offering for the new site as part of our ‘toward multi site' challenge. Thanks to all who gave as part of their commitment to this important project. We will report on progress with that later in the week. Please pray for the meetings that I will be having this week with banks and other people, to do with the new site.
Our focus is now on Christmas and especially our five ‘Red Letter Day' Carol Services for which much preparation has already been done. Rehearsals and planning are at a pitch - please pray that God will speak through all that is done and don't forget to invite your friends/family/neighbours/work colleagues! There are plenty of our fantastic Red Letter Day flyers for us to take to help with this. And tickets are available at the end of each of our Sunday meetings - these are free and help us to know how many will be at each carol service and therefore how many mince pies will be needed - so please only take the number that you are reasonably certain will be used.
Let's keep praying that this Christmas will be a real time of kingdom sowing and kingdom harvest all rolled in to one. The message of God and sinners reconciled is a stupendous one - not to be kept to ourselves!
Christmas Carol Service times: Saturday 19th December - 5pm and 7.30pm Sunday 20th December - 2.30pm, 5pm and 7.30pm
Plans for the Tibbert Christmas are now in full swing. The Tree has been ordered! Simon Allen and the Feast/Jericho Road Project teams are grateful to those who have already ordered their tree through Caring Christmas Trees - do go to the website to order yours!www.caringchristmastrees.com/selondon.
All orders need to be placed by December 14th - only 10 days to go! Even our mayor has supported this new venture - he has been photographed with one of the trees for the local press and has also placed his own order.
This year the Tibbert Christmas sees a major change. Up until now we have benefited from going to our parents' homes for Christmas Day/Boxing Day with them providing the food and all the work that goes with that. We have been really glad to benefit from their generosity! This year the baton has been passed to us so for the first time a Christmas turkey has been ordered and will be cooked in our kitchen! We're looking forward to a great time!
It will also be a Red Letter Day at King's - that's the theme for our five Christmas Carol Services. Preparations are well in hand and we would ask you to pick up free tickets for these important meetings after our current Sunday meetings, so we know how many to cater for! The service times are Saturday 19th December at 5pm and 7.30pm and then on Sunday 20th at 2.30pm, 5pm and 7.30pm. This is the ideal time in the year to invite friends, neighbours, family members and work colleagues along to King's! There are those in King's and in God's family now whose first visit was to a Carol Service.
But before all that we look forward to Julian Adams being with us, this Sunday. Julian has a prophetic gift and will bring something more of God to us - don't miss it!
Steve Tibbert leads Kings Church, Catford. The
church has grown steadily over the last decade
and attendance now regularly reaches 1000.
He also serves on the Newfrontiers UK Team,
working with teams overseeing churches in
London and the UK. He is regularly involved in
advising and coaching leaders on issues related
to leadership, growth, diversity, and life balance.
Steve is married to Deb and they have three
sons, Ben, Josh and Sam.
Check out my Leadership Blog here...
VISION SUNDAY Steve Tibbert will be speaking about the vision of the church on Sun 12th Sept More
The Move to Multi-site We have now secured a new building in Lee to help us move towards our Multisite Vision for the Church, check out the website. More
All orders need to be placed by December 14th - only 10 days to go! Even our mayor has supported this new venture - he has been photographed with one of the trees for the local press and has also placed his own order.
