Issue 2 APRIL 2012

MO

NTu

eW

eDTH

uFRI

suN

CReDITsEditorial team Sarah Lohse, Adam BradleyDesign Follow CreativePrint Hollinger Print

CONTACTLife Church, 139b Fletton AvenuePeterborough PE2 8BY

Telephone 01733 552227

Email hello@life–church.eu

www.life–church.eu

Follow us on Twitter @medialifechurch

Find us on Facebook ‘Life Church Peterborough’

MEEting on SundAYS At

sTAMFORD 10.30AMQueen Eleanor School, green Lane, PE9 1HE

PeTeRbOROugH 9.45AMgladstone Park Centre, Bourges Boulevard, PE1 2An

Family worshiP9.45amgladstone Park Centre

Family worshiP10.30amStamford Queen Eleanor School

SECond & FouRtH MondAYSliFEsong CommuniTy Choir7.30pmFletton Centre

ThE living roomCoffee lounge for 50s plus10am – 12noonFletton Centre

ChurCh oFFiCE oPEn10am – 12.30pmFletton Centre

liFEToTsParents & toddlers group9.45 – 11.45amFletton Centre

ChurCh oFFiCE oPEn10am – 12.30pmFletton Centre

For Y6 onwards7 – 9pm, Fletton Centre

INsIDe THIs Issue...

Weekly diary 02

Make yourself at home

03

CovER StoRY: Beyond my alley

and muddy bank

04

Fletton Centre update 05

Hot topics

06

term planner 08

new Sunday meeting timesstarting with freshly brewed coffee and tea

Peterborough: 9.45am at the Gladstone Park Centre

Stamford: 10.30am at Queen Eleanor School

Sam is part of the core team at Life Church and heads up the welcome team, looking after newcomers to the church from their first visit through to our welcome lunches and the Belonging Course. He’s a police officer in his day job and married to Susannah.

‘The hospitality in this country is as warm as the weather.’– Azeem (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves,1991)

i found myself reading this quote with snow falling outside the window, just before pulling on my thermals, ready to work a night shift in a forecast minus three degrees. does this reflect your experience of hospitality? At Life Church i’ve thankfully found the hospitality to be considerably warmer than minus three and i am grateful for the example of so many within our Stamford and Peterborough congregations who are obviously gifted in extending hospitality to those around them. in this article i want to explore the biblical principle of hospitality.

Hospitality is not simply sharing food (although that’s how i would like to read it!). it’s about being accepting and inviting, building relationships, fellowship, sharing and opening our homes to each other. the example given in Acts (Acts 2:42–47) suggests an almost tropical climate compared to that of our film quote!

the new testament describes a church fully engaged on mission together and seeing amazing growth, with new Christians joining the church daily. Yet this church is an amazing expression of community in how they care for one another in practical ways. the more i read these verses, the more i am convinced that at the centre of all that they did was a heart of hospitality, where they opened their homes, both to those being added to the church and to each other, as they live on mission together.

hospitality is not only at the centre of these verses; it is at the centre of the gospel. god’s intention from creation was that we would exist in community and relationship with him.

the good news of the gospel is that Jesus’ death and resurrection has defeated our sin which separated us from god and we are now invited, welcomed and accepted into a relationship with the living god (as he intended). What amazing hospitality that, even in light of my failings, god has accepted me and invited me into relationship with him and the wonderful church which he has called me to be part of.

the Bible recognises the difficulties that we may have with practising hospitality. to be honest, it’s not always the easiest thing to do. As sin looks to break relationship, seeking solitude and selfishness, hospitality seeks relationship, fellowship and community.

the Bible teaches us that hospitality is not natural. it is this that prompts Peter to say ‘Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.’ Recognising that sometimes ‘Hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even though you wish they were’ (anon), Paul writes ‘... and seek hospitality’ (Romans 12:13).

03

‘What amazing hospitality that, even in light of my failings, God has accepted me and invited me into relationship with him and his wonderful church.’

BY SAM tuCKER @SamWtucker

Biblical hospitality

He includes hospitality along with other essential instructions to the church in a passage which includes being constant in prayer – clearly non–negotiable for the church! in doing so, Paul demonstrates the importance he gives hospitality, not simply by expecting it to happen naturally, but by insisting we look for it, seek it, work at it.

04

Adam leads Life Church, which he thinks is ‘probably the best job in the world’. He’s married to Lorna and they have three young daughters.

Let me tell you about an alley and a muddy bank that had real significance when I was growing up.

it was a gravelly driveway with a good quota of potholes and a series of dilapidated garages and, best of all, a muddy bank, which i still believe is the greatest and muddiest bank in the land for sliding down! Furthermore, for me and my friends, as soon as school was finished or the weekend had arrived, this small alley and muddy bank became our very own world of adventure.

this may have been a small alley and an almost unnoticeable slope to others, but for us it was our very own kingdom. this was where, as boys living in Sheffield, we heard with shock about the Hillsborough disaster; the place where, on a number of occasions, we got chased off other people’s land; and the place where i got stuck half–in and half–out of a hole in the roof of one of the garages.

Why am i telling you about this little alley and muddy bank? Because, as i’ve been thinking and evaluating where we’re at on our journey of growing into a multi–congregation church, this image keeps coming back to me again and again. Let me show you why...

Living as a multi–congregation church will always stretch our hearts, emotions and lives to look beyond the end of our own alley. Jesus’ mission mandate for his church, recorded in Acts 1:8, says:‘But you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and samaria, and to the end of the Earth.’ (ESV)

this verse shows us that Jesus expected that, as local churches, we would be moving constantly between the local (Jerusalem), the not so local (Judea and Samaria) and the far off (the end of the Earth). For many of us it is really easy to do the local (Jerusalem), because it’s like my alley and muddy bank: familiar, safe, ours and small enough to know it in quite some detail. Many churches are also great at having big hearts for the far away (the end of the Earth).

this is certainly true of Life Church, with our long term support of people in turkey, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and, more recently, the developing relationship with friends in Serbia. However notice that, in acts 1:8, Jesus also refers to those more uncomfortable places: the new alleys that are neither in our alley nor far off, but are still close enough that we all – not just the keen ones – need to go and explore them (Judea and Samaria).

Living as a multi–congregation church always stretches our hearts, emotions and lives to look beyond the end of our alley to see that there are lots and lots of alleys just like ours where god wants us together to get involved. Let me list some of the alleys that we’re already living in as a church family: Stamford, Peterborough, oakham, Stilton, Bourne,

deeping St James, thorney, north Luffenham, uppingham, nassington... and on the list goes.

Here’s the challenge: being part of a multi–congregation church means we need to allow god to expand our hearts to see these other alleys and muddy banks (or communities) not as places for someone else to deal with but as part of our acts 1:8 mission to see this part of the world – our region – changed and transformed by the power of the gospel. in order for this to happen we need to ensure that Acts 1:8 is soaking down into our hearts, thoughts, emotions and commitments so that there is a place for the local, the not so local and the far off. As this happens, any sense of ‘us and them’ will be stripped away, because we’re learning that Jesus is looking for a church that is willing to move between the local, the not so local and the far off with equal passion and equal commitment.

what about you? are you willing to see another man’s alley and muddy bank as part of your acts 1:8 mission field?

BY AdAM BRAdLEY @AdamRBradley

‘Living as a multi–congregation church

will always stretch our hearts, emotions and

lives to look beyond the end of our own alley.’

Living in the joy and tension of multi–congregation church life

05

BY WoutER vERtEgAAL @Woutervertegaal

Wouter is married to Simone and part of the core team at Life Church, overseeing the operations team. He and Simone have two young daughters.

The Fletton Centre is getting ready for a big launch! What a long way we’ve come over the last few months. Hours of volunteering - painting, sanding, scrubbing and redecorating - have resulted in a great facility.

our goal is for this warm and welcoming building to become a meeting place for many local organisations, charities and businesses in the surrounding areas. it’s our vision to make the Fletton Centre the first place where people go for help. Already requests for bookings have been coming in and plenty of work has been put into bringing together the legal requirements, booking systems, publicity and information packs for hirers – the last stage before our official launch.

nAnCY LAFREnièRE has done an amazing job over the last few months in coordinating the redevelopments at the Fletton Centre and we are delighted to announce that she has agreed to take on the role of Fletton Centre Coordinator, coordinating the use of the building and lettings.

invitations to local businesses, organisations and charities will go out soon for an official opening of the Centre at the beginning of June. Let’s pray the Centre will be a great tool for the community and a place where many will find help in time of need.

explore Christianity with usStarting 19th April in north Luffenham

Contact Mike Maddock for details: mikemaddock@uwclub.net

Coming to Peterborough in the autumn

AN UPDATE

VLADA sTOjANOVICnis, Serbia

[Q] Tell us about your wife and children:Sonja Stojanovic is my significant other, my English rose. We have been married for 14 years. our children are iva; she will be 13 on 26th April and she loves playing guitar, making jewellery and finding new ways of getting new clothes from her dad (she is vERY skillful!); and Milosh; he will be 10 on 26th April (i’m good with time management!). He likes playing with his friends, reading and sports. [Q] If you were a star Trek character, who would it be?Jean-Luc Picard - my hairstyle is becoming very similar. i like his style: ‘tea. Earl grey. Hot’ – he knows what he wants, simply and directly. ‘Make it so’ – he listens to his team, gets their input and releases them in the right direction. ‘Engage’ – and he is not afraid to engage in whatever infinity throws at him.

[Q] What’s your favourite drink?Espresso from my coffee maker, and a glass of red wine (or two).

[Q] What’s the last book you read?Paul the Missionary: realities, strategies and methods by EJ Schnabel.

[Q] If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be?i would like to be Wile E Coyote, as i think i would do a better job of catching the Road Runner.

[Q] Tell us why you are in serbia:Because i want to be part of the great things that god is doing through my generation. they will be unstoppable and eternal.

[Q] What promises from god are you holding on to for your situation?So far god has been faithful! And we are still alive, so god has even greater plans for us. We will see the unstoppable church rising up and growing, and god’s kingdom will cover the earth.

[Q] What is the biggest prayer request you have at the moment?For a second leader in the church who will help to shape the church better and release me in my gifting to serve other churches and the region.

06

BY AdAM BRAdLEY @AdamRBradley

i’m sure we can all remember moments when someone has asked a question and suddenly the room goes deathly silent and there’s a shortness of oxygen... What will happen next? Will the person explode in rage? Will they cry and rush out of the room a broken person? Will they blush and turn away in embarrassment? And so, for many of us, we erect fences, make ‘no go’ areas and write mental lists of taboo subjects, because we don’t want to face the deathly silence and lack of air.

However, at Life Church over the coming months we’re going to be addressing twelve hot topics on Sunday mornings that don’t often get spoken about in a church context. We’ve chosen to address these issues directly because, amazingly, god doesn’t seem to blush in embarrassment when these issues are raised. in fact, the Bible is full of teaching on these subjects – and we want to present what it has to say in a straightforward and helpful way, so that each one of us can face these hot topics without wishing that the floor would swallow us up, or that an oxygen mask would miraculously descend from the ceiling.

Here are the topics we’re going to be looking at together:

Creation SexPolitics HeavenHell WorkMoney DatingSuccess SufferingDying The end of time

We want to make this series as relevant as possible to the issues we face in real life, so if you have any (yes, any!) questions you’d like answered in relation to any or all of these topics, please email them to adam.bradley@life–church.eu with ‘Hot topics’ in the subject line.

It’s easier than ever to stay in touch with friends at home and away. We caught up with some of friends of Life Church working in far off places for some swift 30 second interviews.

‘God doesn’t seem to blush in embarrassment when these issues are raised.’

07

PeTe bReTTYalova, turkey

[Q] Tell us about your wife and children:M wife’s name is Carol and we have two boys, tommy (18) and Matty (15). We’ve just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.

[Q] If you were a star Wars character, who would it be?Me: darth Siddious. Matty: Yoda. Carol: Princess Leia. tommy: Hans Solo

[Q] What would we find in your refrigerator right now?Sarap, tavuk, peynir, recel, sut, dondurma, mantar, tursu, mayonez, ketcap vs.

[Q] What would be the title of your biography?They came, they saw, they planted!

[Q] If you were featured on the front page of a newspaper, what would the headline be? English metal fans heal the sick in Jesus name!

[Q] Tell us why you are in Turkey:to plant churches.

[Q] What promises from god are you holding on to for your situation?‘A city on a hill cannot be hidden’. god wants to help us plant a church that blesses and changes the city of Yalova.

[Q] What is the biggest prayer request you have at the moment?We need local leaders to emerge and take over.

gRAHAM gILesBulawayo, Zimbabwe

[Q] Tell us about your wife and children:i’ve been married to Sarah for 34 years. our children are Hannah, Jonathan and Joseph.

[Q] What would we find in your refrigerator right now?garlic, ginger, mangoes, grapes, cheese, milk, fruit juice and Coke Light. [Q] What is the last book you read? the Bible. And From Prayer to Revival, the story of a slum church which came into revival through constant prophetic prayer with everyone involved.

[Q] If you were featured on the front page of a newspaper, what would the headline be? Couple seeks to bring Jesus to every community in Bulawayo. [Q] Tell us why you are in Zimbabwe:god called us to come and help our brothers gain their inheritance before we go and get ours, and along the way to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to remember the poor, orphans and widows. [Q] What promises from god are you holding on to for your situation?He who called us has promised to bring it to completion. god will provide for our every need according to his riches in glory. [Q] What is the biggest prayer request you have at the moment?that we may be effective for Christ in every situation, and for our ongoing finances, as we find ourselves 50% down on financial support.

IVAN VuCICeVIC Kragujevac, Serbia

[Q] Tell us about your wife and children:My wife is Andrijana. We have been married for 11 years and we have three daughters, Sofija (10), natasha (8) and Martina (2½).

[Q] What’s your favourite drink?i like to drink coffee & lemonade the most.

[Q] What’s the last book you read?the last book i read was a historical book about a Serbian man, vuk Karadzic, an important 19th century linguist who reformed the Serbian alphabet to give each sound its own character. Andrijana read Somebody’s Child by the author of Nobody’s Child, John Robinson.

[Q] If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be? i would choose my youngest daughter, Martina, who is 2½.

[Q] Tell us why you are in serbia:We want to be with the people [of Serbia], and to share with them our good humour and attitude, and sometimes food, and through having a pleasant time with them to talk about grace, love, kindness and forgiveness and through this to show what god is really like.

[Q] What promises from god are you holding on to for your situation?We believe that god will build his church in Kragujevac (‘go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that i may take pleasure in it and that i may be glorified, says the Lord.’ Haggai 1:8).

[Q] What is the biggest prayer request you have at the moment?We pray for god’s army in Kragujevac; in other words, we pray for workers who can set fire with the gospel to our town and throughout Serbia.

A quick catch up with friends abroad

the earthend ofTo the

LIFe CHuRCH TeRM PLANNeR APRiL – AuguSt 2012Sat 14th April 9.30am/10.45am/12noon Pastoral surgery Fletton Centre

thu 19th April 7pm Alpha week 2 north Luffenham

Sat 21st April 7 – 10.15pm Music quiz Caffe nero, Stamford

Sat 28th April 9am – 12noon Magenta: girls’ breakfast Fletton Centre

9.30am/10.45am/12noon Pastoral surgery Stamford (venue tbc)

Wed 2nd May 8 – 10pm Prayer & worship (Stamford & Peterborough) Sibson inn

thu 3rd May 7pm Alpha week 3 north Luffenham

Sat 5th May 6.30 – 9.30pm the Hub Fletton Centre

thu 10th May 7pm Alpha week 4 north Luffenham

Sat 12th May 9.30am/10.45am/12noon Pastoral surgery Fletton Centre

Sun 13th May 7.30 – 9.30pm Wider team leaders’ gathering Fletton Centre

thu 17th May 7pm Alpha week 5 north Luffenham

Sat 19th May 10am – 4.30pm Pastoral ministry team training (part 3) Fletton Centre

Sun 20th May 12.30pm (after meeting) Welcome Lunch Queen Eleanor School

Sat 26th May 9.30am/10.45am/12noon Pastoral surgery Stamford (venue tbc)

9.30am Alpha week 6 (Holy Spirit day) north Luffenham

thu 31st May 7pm Alpha week 7 north Luffenham

Sat 2nd June 9am – 1pm Core team planning morning Fletton Centre

6.30 – 9.30pm the Hub Fletton Centre

Wed 6th June 8 – 10pm Prayer & worship (Stamford & Peterborough) Sibson inn

thu 7th June 7pm Alpha week 8 north Luffenham

thu 14th June 7pm Alpha week 9 north Luffenham

Sun 17th June 7.30 – 9pm Preaching team gathering Fletton Centre

thu 21st June 7pm Alpha week 10 north Luffenham

Sat 23rd June 9am – 12noon Men’s breakfast venue tbc

Sun 24th June 9.45am Family service (Peterborough congregation) Fletton Centre

Sat 30th June 7.30 – 10pm Marriage evening with graham & Sue Hall Fletton Centre

Sun 1st July 9.45am Family service and gift day Fletton Centre

10.30am gift day Queen Eleanor School

Wed 4th July 8 – 10pm Prayer & worship (Stamford & Peterborough) Sibson inn

Sat 7th July 6.30 – 9.30pm the Hub Fletton Centre

Sun 8th July 10.30am Joint celebration and gift day Queen Eleanor School

Sun 15th July Life group Sunday

Sun 5th August after meetingsBBQ (meet at BBQ area near water sports centre – change for car parking needed, approx £3.50)

Ferry Meadows, Peterborough

Mon 13th August – Sat 18th August newday

Sun 26th August after meetings Picnic (meet near car park) Burghley House, Stamford