Here is your start-of-the-week newsletter. It should have all you need to know about what’s happening amongst us. And a quick look should mean you are updated each week.
Coming Up
Our Sunday Gatherings
We want to invite you to pray together before the service. From 11am there will be chance to gather together in the small room at the front of the church. It would be great if you could be there.
After each service there will be chance to be prayed with personally. This will be in the side chapel. If you have been part of the prayer team, or would like to pray with people, let Neil know.
What will be happening on Sundays in September
Next Sunday (5 September): Communion – while we are adjusting to the new Covid-situation can we bring our own bread and wine to this service again. Thanks. We will also be praying for kids and teachers (and the rest of us) as life gets back to normal after the summer
Sunday 12 September: Shared Stories from Life
Sunday 19 September: Prayer and Ministry time
Sunday 26 September: Time to reflect on the sermon
Thursday 2 September, 7.30pm, The Vine (Bolton Road)
We will begin the autumn season with a Praise, Prayer & Prophecy evening. This will begin the rhythm of our midweek life together:
First Thursday of each month: an in-person prayer gathering
Second Thursday: Home Groups – either in-person or online. See Neil if you would like to connect with a group.
Third Thursday: Online Prayer Meeting
Fourth Thursday: Home Groups
Church Picnic
Sunday 5 September
Earlier in the summer we had wanted to have a picnic together, but had to postpone it. It’s going to happen on this Sunday. After church, we will go to Buile Hill park. Meet outside the main building there. Bring chairs to sit on or blankets, bring your own lunch, but there might be cake provided! There will be games for those wanting to chase around. There will be chance just to chat for the rest of you.
A Men’s weekend away
Friday-Sunday 17-19 September
Neil is leading a men’s weekend for Fulwood Free Methodist Church, Preston. That’s Jay’s home church. The weekend will be in Bassenthwaite and if you would like to join Neil you would be very welcome! Contact Neil and he’ll give you more details.
A Ladies’ prayer breakfast
Saturday 18th September 9-11am
This is an invitation to meet together in The Vine Community Hub (87-89 Cholmondeley Road M6 8PU) as the women, the feminine heartbeat of Salford Elim to eat together, share our stories, encourage and support each other and pray. Whether you know this will be something you definitely want to be part of or if you are simply intrigued, everyone is welcome. Cereal, toast and pastries will be provided but feel free to bring your own breakfast if preferred.
Contact Kate Blundell 07805 069 033 or Jumi Isibor 07703 028 936 for more details and to let us know you’re coming.
Preparing for The Vine Relaunch
We are reopening The Vine Community Hub in our new premises with a family-friendly launch day on Saturday the 11th of September, 10-3pm.
We encourage everyone to come along at some point in the day to celebrate this new chapter and get a feel for the new space God has given us.
Do invite folks along who are not currently part of our church too.
There will be jobs that need to be done in order to get it ready such as painting and cleaning. If you can spare anytime in the first two weeks of September to help out, please let Ian know.
Alpha – who might you invite?
Following on from our successful Alpha courses last year, we’re providing three opportunities this year to invite friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to hear the good news of Jesus.
Who might you invite?
We will have flyers to hand out with the dates and times of the courses, as well as social media posts that you can share with your friends. Each course is 12 evenings and the first starts on Tuesday the 14th of September, from 7.30-9pm at The Vine (new premises!).
Please pray for God to draw people to himself and let Ian know if someone you’ve invited accepts the invitation, or you can sign up via our Alpha page.
Important message for all parents/carers
It’s that time of year again where we update our records and Morag asks you to complete some paperwork. This year, the consent form is very conveniently on our website – no paper copies to locate and you can even fill it on via your phone on a Sunday morning! Please complete one form for every child you have responsibility for.
This year we are also rolling out a new form called a Pen Portrait that we’d like you to fill in for us. Some of you might have seen similar things through your child’s school, but essentially these forms help us get to know your child/ren a little better and we hope you too will see how helpful they will be to all those who volunteer in Kids Church. These will be in paper form (for accessibility reasons), so you’ll need a good old-fashioned pen for this one!
We have a Cleaning Team Leader!
Simon Mars has kindly accepted this role. We have said to St James that we will clean the church and hall once a month. If you would be willing to join this team, please see Simon for more details. If you’re not sure who Simon is, ask someone who looks like they might know!
Midweek Small Groups
We have 4 midweek groups that meet on Thursday evenings. Two are in-person, two are online.
The Crafty Crew meet on Tuesday afternoons in The Vine to catch up with one another, and to engage in some sort of craft if they want to. I believe that just chatting is acceptable!
On Wednesday mornings in The Vine there is a Prayer Meeting.
There is also a group of Young Adults who meet regularly.
As you can see all these groups are different, with slightly different emphases.
But in general they all exist to do three things:
- To help us pay careful attention to one another,
- To help us to be alert to what God is doing so that
- We can be good news to those around us.
You might want to start a group that does that. It might be a group that meets together regularly and shares a meal together. It might be a group that does something together – walking, fixing stuff, playing a sport – whatever. It doesn’t matter – as long as you can cover those three basic principles.
If you are interested in chatting about this, then please talk with Neil.
An Offer of Counselling Support
One of the ministries we have as a church is the Community Counselling Service. During this Covid crisis we have continued to offer Counselling remotely via zoom or telephone. And of course, now we can do that in person.
If you feel you would benefit from this please don’t hesitate to contact Judith Thompson, Neil, or Ian or fill in the form on the church website.
Looking for Help
Yvonne and Martin run a food-poverty programme, Salford Food Parcels. They would be grateful if there are any of you available to deliver parcels to people who are unable to get to their offices on Langworthy Road. Please contact them if you are able to help.
