Join us this coming Sunday (19th March) at 10.30am at St Mary’s Church in Denham. No need to sign up or register, just turn up!
Songs | Quiz | Bible Story | Flowers | Children’s Activity | Prayers
WIN A REAL EASTER EGG!
Please join us and spread the word. We look forward to welcoming you.
Download a flyer with all the family events over the next weeks…
Our last Mothering Sunday service at St Mary’s was in 2019. But this year we’re back!
Join us this coming Sunday (27th March) at 10.30am at St Mary’s Church in Denham. No need to sign up or register, just turn up!
Songs | Quiz | Bible Story | Flowers | Children’s Activity | Prayers | Chocolate
Please join us and spread the word. We look forward to welcoming you.
It’s Mothering Sunday! This service is brimming with encouragement, with your contributions, and with helpful insights into relational wellbeing. Join us for Church Coffee on Zoom afterwards. [Find all the links below the video]
Church Coffee on Zoom:
Meeting ID: 836 9097 1697
Passcode: Coffee
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES:
A special Mothering Sunday Craft…
BONUS CLIP on relational wellbeing…
It’s summer and Sunday Worship comes from the Rectory Garden today!
Find all the links mentioned in the service below the video.
Church Community Coffee Online, from 11.15am…
Activity Sheet (with Colouring in Sheet)…
(To listen to David Suchet’s Audio Bible, look for NIVUK)
Download our new Denham Parish News as PDF…
Preacher: Ian Jennings
The Bible reading is included in the recording.
Sermon preached by Christoph Lindner on Sunday 23 February, 10.30am service.
This sermon is based on Acts 4.5-13 and Luke 7. 11-23.
During our service and at the beginning and end of this sermon, we sang and prayed this hymn:
Here are the notes from page 1 of our news sheet:
Healthy Family: What we need is a miracle
“Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.” (Acts 2.43)
Jesus and his disciples spread the good news in both proclamation (preaching) and demonstration (healings, miracles).
For Luke, who wrote a gospel and the Book of Acts, signs and wonders
Wherever signs and wonders are done in the name of Jesus today, they have the same potential. God works through the regular rhythms and rules of creation (e.g. modern medicine!), in response to faithful prayer and through specific acts of grace, sometimes miraculous.
Healthy Habits
From Pentecost we will explore and practise healthy habits of Christians. When we grow in Christlikeness, that itself is a gift of God’s grace. The more we practise healthy habits, the more signs and wonders we will see, with the habit of prayer playing a prominent role. And there is no greater miracle than the transformation of the human heart!
When we follow Jesus, the initiative always lies with him! It is important to remember this when it comes to miracles: we cannot produce them ‘to order’ and sadly the realm of God’s supernatural intervention can be misused for human manipulation and deceit. We need to humbly recognise that there will always be an element of mystery as to why we see some signs and not others. Many questions beginning with ‘why’ will remain. But as followers of Jesus we are already part of the greatest miracle of all – Jesus’ resurrection and our firm hope of overflowing and eternal life as we follow him.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)
Talk by Ian Jennings at our 10.30am service on Sunday, 16th February 2020.
This sermon is based on Matthew 16.24-26 and Romans 8. 18-25.
Healthy Family: This Will Hurt!
By Ian Jennings
When I was sixteen I had a serious car accident. It was the days before compulsory seat belts and I was in the front the passenger seat. I was projected through the wind screen and so suffered a feather fracture of the skull and many lacerations of the scalp. I was rushed to hospital and the surgeon said, ‘I’m going to stitch your scalp back on but I don’t plan to use any anaesthetic – if you can stand the pain it will aid the healing process. But it will hurt!’ He was right – it did! But he was also right in that my scalp did heal quickly.
The experience of discipleship will hurt at times. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘in this world you will have trouble.’ It is unavoidable if we walk the path of true discipleship there will be times when it will hurt. Jesus went on to say, ‘But cheer up because I have overcome the world.’ There will be healing – ultimate and eternal. But as we live out our calling as disciples of Jesus we will experience and suffering and sacrifice. That is part of the deal.
For some the sacrifice is huge and the suffering intense. Sheila Cassidy was arrested and tortured when serving as a missionary in Chile. She went on to be the Director of a Hospice. She wrote a book called Sharing the Darkness. She writes, ‘Right at the heart of the mystery of suffering is the grace that sustains us all, carers and cared for alike. It comes as freely and as surely as the sunrise, piercing the blackness of grief and despair, restoring once again the hope of things unseen.’
Jesus said, ‘if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’ Sacrifice is part of the adventure of discipleship. It may take many forms but it will involve moving out of our comfort zones and embracing new challenges. ‘Lord what would you have me to do today,’ is a good place to begin in our morning prayers. We may well be surprised by the opportunities that open up to us as a result. It may hurt as we step out of our comfort zones but it will also bring healing – to us and to others.
And ultimately, as St Paul says, ‘The suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.’
Talk by Christoph Lindner at our 10.30am service on Sunday, 9th February 2020.
This sermon is based on Matthew 3. 1-6, 4.12-17
Healthy Family: The Aims of Discipleship
“If you aim at nothing, you are bound to hit it!”
“Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” (Jesus)
What are the aims of Christian Discipleship?
Talk by Nnamdi Maduka at our 10.30am service on Sunday, 2nd February 2020.
This sermon is based on Luke 5.1-11
“Healthy Family: Follow me!” by Nnamdi Maduka
Discipleship (i.e. following Jesus wholeheartedly) has always been at the heart of what it means to be the family of Jesus and is one of the vital issues for today. The Christian church has largely neglected the thrust of the Great Commission: to make disciples (not just converts!). When the charge ‘follow me’ comes from a member of a healthy family and from someone we trust, it leads us into the fullness of life that Jesus promised. The first disciples were a strong community and the healthiness of that family has been a blessing to the Christian world. God has placed people around you with a purpose- it is for you to point them to Jesus, the living water. According to Andrew Roberts in his book ‘Holy Habits’, “there are striking similarities in Luke’s account of the call of Simon and the story of the call of Isaiah which reassures us that places of worship as well as places of work can also be places of encounter, call and commission.” By allowing Jesus to live His life through us we will be a living and attractive message from God, which people will read and by his grace find Him. There is no greater good news to be found anywhere than in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Who else in the history of the world, can answer the deepest cries of the human heart? The cry for meaning. The cry for unconditional love. The cry for forgiveness. The cry for freedom. The cry for hope.
The clear resounding answer to every cry is Jesus Christ! Not only has he something highly relevant to say concerning all our deepest needs, but by his living presence among us, he has the power to change the very heart of man/woman. When our hearts are transformed, the resultant impact on society will be staggering. This happened in the first century when a tiny handful of timid disciples began, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the greatest spiritual revolution the world has ever known. If they did, of course we can, for He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.