Eastern Baptist Association Quarterly Bulletin Summer 2018

EBA Prayer Focus: Friars Baptist Church, Shoeburyness

EBA Prayer Focus: Eastwood Baptist Church

From the beginning of November 2017, we will be not be putting any further EBA Weekly Prayer Focus items on In Touch but instead direct you to the EBA Website, which has a special section with all the Prayer Focus items under Churches.  We will point you directly to it from social media.

EBA Prayer Focus: Hunstanton Union Church

EBA Quarterly Bulletin October 2017

EBA Prayer Focus - Elmswell Baptist Church

EBA Prayer Focus - Earl's Hall Baptist Church

EBA Prayer Focus - Haddenham Baptist Church

EBA Prayer Diary - Earl's Colne Baptist Church

EBA prayer Diary - Cranham Baptist Church

Meet the Regional MInister

The appointment of Beth Powney marks a new era for the Eastern Baptist Association as she takes up her appointment as Regional Minister and Team Leader.   Beth will be Thetford based and cover the northern sector as well as lead the Regional Ministry team.   In this video she outlines some of her hopes and vision for the Association.



This video is part of a new initiative by the EBA to encourage prayer for the work of churches and ministries in the Association. Each week there will be an article focussing on a church or ministry and every other month or so, there will be a video. It is intended that these are used in services, prayer meetings and house groups. We will post this material here on In Touch with links from the MRBC Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Report on EBA Project 2016

In June, at the assembly the EBA launched Project 2016 – Gorleston Baptist Church in Norfolk presented their project;

Our project is to completely refurbish the rear to include a new toilet area with shower, new entrance new kitchen, new roof, new bright airy hall which will have a mezzanine floor with extra rooms. It will also provide a better atmosphere for the existing Drop- In folk, and to be able to make it available to the community for occasional use".

Six months later they have sent an update as to how things are going;

“The project has been held up for a few months, but since October the Redevelopment Team have been working flat out to try and catch up time.

We have seen the architect and have approved the final set of plans for the building works. It went before Great Yarmouth Borough Council Planning Committee in December, and in early January we were informed that the plans had been passed.

Another meeting has been held and we have agreed for a site survey of topological survey of the grounds, and then we should be ready to go to builders quotes."

The church is very thankful for the financial gifts they have received so far from EBA churches and thank those who have been praying for them.   Please keep praying that the next six months sees work started on the work in practical terms and for those within our community that will benefit from the finished work.

EBA Assembly

The EBA have released details of the 2016 Assembly which this year is going to be held here in Felixstowe from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th June. The keynote speaker is Dotha Blackwood from Spurgeon's College. Do take the opportunity to come to this event as it's a great opportunity to be encouraged and hear what God is doing in the East of England.  The programme for the weekend is as follows:

Friday
19.00pm	BBQ and fellowship at Maidstone Road Baptist Church
Saturday
9.00am	Children’s and youth programme
9.15am	Worship and Bible study
10.15am	Coffee
10.45am	AGM and discussion groups
12.15pm	Break out groups
13.00- 15.15	Picnic Family Fun
14.15-15.15	BMS World Mission
15.30pm	All age celebration
17.00pm	Break for tea
19.30pm	Evening Event - European Football at Maidstone Rd Baptist Church 18:00 (Wales 2nd half) & 20:00 (England)   Otherwise, enjoy the resort. Why not gat a takeaway and bring it to the church?
Sunday
10.30am	Final worship
12.00	Assembly ends

You are strongly advised to bring your own picnic lunch if you are participating in afternoon activities.  The Academy is in a residential area with limited places to  pick up lunch within walking distance.  However, if you are willing to drive off site, Felixstowe is a seaside town with no shortage of places for lunch.

We have produced a guide to Felixstowe, including directions to the Academy for those not familiar with this seaside town.

Guide to Felixstowe for EBA Weekend

The main assembly sessions will be held at Felixstowe Academy which is on Walton High Street on the outskirts of town.

Getting there
 
For sat nav users, the address is  Felixstowe Academy  IP11 9QR and it is signposted from Walton High Street.   Stewards in hi-vis jackets will be near the entrance road on the Saturday morning.   There is a large car park on site.  If you are arriving in Felixstowe on the A14, leave it at junction 59 (Trimley Villages) and drive through Trimley.  The academy is just after the bridge over the A14 on the right.

For those of you going to events at Maidstone Road Baptist Church, it is in Maidstone Road IP11 9ED.  The church car park is accessed through the driveway on the right hand side of the church.  Maidstone Road is also just off Walton High Street.

Felixstowe is served by buses 75,76 and 77 from Ipswich.  Ask the driver to put you off near Felixstowe Academy.   It is also served by an hourly train service from Ipswich.  Trimley Station is nearer the Academy than Felixstowe.

Accommodation in Felixstowe
Felixstowe has a variety of types of accommodation available being a seaside town.  The Visit Felixstowe website has a comprehensive list of places to stay.

Eating Out
Felixstowe Academy is in a residential area and there is only one cafe in Walton and a bakery and a couple of shops to buy lunch from.  We advise you to bring a packed lunch if you are participating in the afternoon activities at the Assembly.  If you are going off site for lunch, then the best place to pick up something is on the sea front where there are a wide variety of eateries.  There are many cafes and coffee shops in the town centre as well.

If you are staying over in Felixstowe, there are a large number of restaurants and cafes to cater for all tastes and wallets.  There's a list on the Visit Felixstowe website.  Here's a few favourites that local people like.

Bombay Nite - one of Suffolk's best Indian Restaurants and here in Walton too!  
285 High St, Felixstowe IP11 9DZ

The Regal Fish Bar,  Sea Rd, Felixstowe IP11 2DH - Trad fish and chips.

The Owl and Pussycat, Grange Farm Ave, Felixstowe, Suffolk IP11 2FB - good value pub grub 

Cafe Bencotto, 128 Hamilton Rd, Felixstowe IP11 7AB 

The Alex, 123 Undercliff Rd W, Felixstowe IP11 2AF

Fish Dish, 69-71 Undercliff Rd W, Felixstowe IP11 2AD

Viewpoint Cafe, Landguard IP11 3TW - popular, good value and great views over the Port of Felixstowe and Harwich Harbour but closes at 6pm.

Things to Do   
The Assembly has a full programme on the Saturday.   We suggest those who are staying over enjoy some of the amenities of the resort on the Saturday evening as many are open until 9pm on the seafront.   If you stay around for Sunday, there's plenty to do in the afternoon on the seafront, including a large Sunday market.  

Felixstowe is a great place for coastal walks.  There is a 3.5km main promenade and a second promenade in Old Felixstowe that leads out to Felixstowe Ferry on the River Deben.   For a less built up walk, why not try walking out to Landguard  Point which also has a disabled trail.   

Felixstowe is also the largest container port in the UK and you can get excellent views of it as well as Harwich Harbour at Landguard Viewpoint .  The sunsets are good here too!  If you've got time on Sunday afternoon Landguard Fort and Felixstowe Museum next door, are both interesting visits.

You'll find more details and directions on the Visit Felixstowe website as well as other ideas for things to do.   Most of Felixstowe Town Centre's shops are closed on a Sunday.

Forty Days of Daring Greatly April 6th to 15th May

As many of you will know, the Presidential Theme for Baptists Together (the BU) for 2015-16 has been called Daring Greatly.   Nationally each of the Baptist Associations have been encouraged to mark the six week period in the run up to Pentecost (6^th April - 15^th May) with a focus on demonstrating and sharing the good news. The Eastern Baptist Association,  along with our neighbouring churches in the Central Baptist Association, we are urging individual members, and congregations as a whole, to embrace this particular opportunity to engage in “40 Days of Daring Greatly”.

To help inspire you the EBA had 15,000 leaflets printed – enough for every attender in each EBA church – with a number of ideas and suggestions.   If you come to MRBC regularly, you'll have either already had one of these, or will be able to pick one up at church.  If not, the leaflet is reproduced below and is also downloadable as a pdf   It's in the  CBA format but is barely different from the EBA version.

Let's use the opportunity to think and pray over the 40 days as to fresh ways we can reach out to our family, friends and community.  Some of the ideas are for the church and the Planning Group will be looking through it as it meets in April.  Others are personal and may well inspire just you.   We will also be thinking and praying about the document during our services leading up to Pentecost.

Why not take one idea every day and commit it to the Lord in prayer.  What may not be relevant to Felixstowe may well be a blessing to another church in the Association.

As you go through it, if the Lord speaks to you through it or something makes you think "that's for us" do let one of the Leadership Team or the planning Group know.

Pray for the Eastern Baptist Association

EBA Regional Minister, Nick Lear, recently sent us a letter asking for our prayers for the association at the beginning of the new year.

God is a generous God and he gives his churches all that is needed to fulfil his mission. But we have finite resources of time, energy and money so from time to time it is important for us to seek God’s priorities for us and ensure that we are using what he has given us in the ways that he wants us to. So the EBA Council is currently exploring what God’s strategic priorities might be for us as an Association (of which your church is a part). As a significant part of that process we would be overjoyed if you and your church would join us in that process of prayerful discernment.    It would be wonderful if we could all use the same prayer at different times over the next month so that we can be persistent in our praying to our gracious and wonderful Saviour. We suggest the following prayer could be used, but of course please pray your own prayers in addition:

Lord Jesus, our Savour.

We have recently celebrated your birth in this world and  rejoiced that you are Immanuel, God with us. You have shown us our Heavenly Father’s love – supremely in your death on the cross. Thank you that after your resurrection you gave your people, the Church, the task of being Immanuel among the people who do not yet know you. You call us to go into your world, to make disciples, to baptise them and teach about you. Thank you that by your Spirit you are with us to help us in this task.

Thank you too that our local church is part of a wider family of churches, particularly Baptist churches, and as part of that family we are seeking your guidance today.

Inspire us in our thinking. Encourage us our imagining. Help us to see with the eyes of faith what you would have us do and broaden our vision beyond our human limitations. Speak to us and through us so that we might discern what you are saying to us as a church and to our wider family in the Eastern Baptist Association.

Speak, Lord, your servants are listening.

Amen

 

Just to clarify what we mean by strategic priorities, the EBA’s vision is to grow healthy churches that are wholesome communities engaged in relevant mission. We are seeking to discern together what God wants us to do together to continue Jesus’ mission commission (Matthew 28:19)? How does God want to use the EBA to support the making of and growth of disciples in and through local churches? How can the EBA help you and your church to fulfil this commission? You might have specific ideas about what we should be doing (for example, providing training for local church members in how to share their faith with others or regional prayer events) or they could be more general (for example, sharing inspiring stories of what God is doing across the EBA).

If you have any word from the Lord or any feedback for the EBA Council, please let Mark know as he has some postcards to send comments back to the EBA.

Church of the Year Project Report

Maidstone Road was chosen as one of two Churches of the Year in 2014-15.   The project was to revamp the front area of the church building. This was to make us more conspicuous from the street, make the building look more welcoming, use it for activities that engage with the community and improve overall access to the building by removing steps and widening the driveway.

Here's Mark's introduction to the project back in May 2014:



The main building work was carried out in August and September 2014 and we have just one or two small jobs left before it is fully complete, most notably our bright new noticeboard which is on order as this is written.   Here are a few before and after pictures:

We've already started to make use of the new facility as the photos below show.   We also plan to use it as a free café and  for a community BBQ amongst other things.    Feedback from the local community has been positive about the changes we have made.

If you are looking for the original project proposal, it's in the In Touch blog.

We are pleased to say that,as a result of generous giving from a number sources, including a legacy and gifts from EBA Churches,  the full costs of the project have been met.   We praise God as we had very few funds when we started but believed the Lord was calling us to make a step of faith.    We would like to thank all those churches who encouraged us with their giving and prayers.  Here's a little thank you video:




Project Details
We always envisaged this primarily as a mission project – to make the building feel more accessible to the community and to create a useful outdoor space.  The idea was to make us “part of the street” by taking down most of the front wall, removing the shrubbery and laying down a much larger paved area.  We widened the entrance to the car park which was narrow, and made a drop-off space for the elderly and disabled.  A diagram is below. 
At present all of the windows and most of the doors at the front of the building are glazed in obscure glass making it almost impossible for anyone to see people inside the church. During the Summer of 2015 the windows and doors will be re-glazed with clear glass making it possible for people coming to the church or just passing to see inside .

PROGRESS PICTURES

Paul Hills' Farewell Service

It was a real EBA bean feast, with over 400 folk from all over the Association joining together at Burlington Baptist Church in Ipswich for the Farewell Service for Paul and Sue Hills.  Paul has been a Regional Minister and the Team Leader since the inception of the EBA and had been in post for 17 years.

 

 Apart from representatives of many churches in the Association, there were leaders from the Baptist Union, other Associations and also from other Churches and Denominations, to recognise the contribution Paul and Sue has made to the life of the Association as well as Baptist life in the UK.   In his sermon Paul also gave thanks to those ecumenical leaders here in East Anglia that he had worked with over the years as well as those in the four original county associations that merged to form the EBA.

It was a great opportunity to worship together and praise God for what has been achieved in this region since the EBA began and all the Regional Ministers that had served with Paul came to celebrate.

Some of the churches also brought symbols of how they work in their local communities.  It was quite an eclectic mix of items, which included Cambridge United's FA Trophy which they won last season!

Paul's service served as a reminder that although as a Baptist fellowship our local church is independent, we are part of the body of Christ and we are interdependent on one another, whether that be with other Baptist churches as part of an Association, or whether we work with other churches of various types within our own local community.   As an individual church, there is a limit to what we can do to extend the Kingdom of God, but together under the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, there is so much we can achieve together!

New EBA Regional Minister Appointment

The Eastern Baptist Association has appointed a new Regional Minister to replace the Rev Paul Hills who retires in February.  He is the Rev Nick Lear, who is currently one of the ministers at Colchester (Eld Lane) Baptist Church.  

Nick will take up his responsibilities on November 1^st  of this year. Please pray for Nick, Sally, the family and the church at Colchester as they adapt to the new role and Nick’s moving on from the church.   He and the family will move to Wickford in the early summer of 2015 and he will serve the Southern Sector.

To Boldly Go

No, it's not another plug for Star Trek but the title of the EBA's new look Annual Assembly.   It's going to be in Sheringham from 7-8th of June and looks to be like an action packed weekend.   Why not give it a try out?   Apart from the usual worship, there's loads of things to do.  The EBA have produced a promotional video and it's here for you to have a look at.