This morning, we are thinking about what it means to live as a Christian community. Pray for our church family. Pray for a strengthening of relationships between each of us. Pray that the way we live as a community would leave an impression on those watching.
Monday 30th September
Ballywillan Kirk Session meet tonight to discuss a way forward in filling the vacancy. Pray for the kirk session and the congregation. Pray not only for a filling of the vacancy but a renewed sense of hope after a disappointing congregational meeting earlier in the year.
GB and Little Treasures meet today. These are incredible opportunities for our church to engage with the community. Pray for all who attend both organisations asking that God would use them to draw more people unto himself.
Thursday 3rd October
The Bible study meets tonight. Thank God for all who come along to this and pray that it would be an opportunity for each of us to deepen our faith in Jesus Christ.
Friday 4th October
Cynthia faithfully produces this diary week by week, among many other administrative duties. She also provides an important ministry of friendship to all who call in to the office. Thank God for Cynthia and pray that she continues to be a blessing to so many within our congregation.
Saturday 5th October
Blaze and Chill meet tonight. Pray for our young people asking God to draw them away from everything that would be harmful and towards his goodness and love.
This Sunday our theme in Established was God’s grace. We used Ephesians 2:8-9 to explore what grace means and how that grace is received by us. What an incredible privilege to have so many young people in the manse to talk about these things. If you haven’t been to established yet then why not come along to the manse on Sunday 13th October at 6:30 pm…. Michelle might even bring some more cookies with her!
Is a new gathering for young people in year 8 and above. The one thing young people and the rest of us have in common is that they want to establish a place in this world for themselves, and we want to see them established.
Is a place where our young people will have the opportunity to explore scripture and their place within the church in a way that enables them to become established as they plot their course through the rest of life.
meets in the Centenary room which is in the main church building on Enfield Street from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month On a 5th Sunday in the month we will go out do something different. Click on the logo to find out more.
Can you believe the summer is drawing to a close and we are about to embark on another church year? I hope you have been able to find time to rest and recharge your batteries over the summer, even if the weather has been less than kind to us. Certainly, Julia and I enjoyed our break and we now approach another year refreshed and excited at what the Lord has in store for us as a church in the coming months.
This has also been a significant summer for Michelle Hutchinson. If you are wondering who Michelle Hutchinson is, she is the person we used to know as Michelle Mullan. Michelle married Richard Hutchinson on Tuesday 20th August in our church. I know you will want to join with me in asking for God’s richest blessing for Richard and Michelle. It was a privilege to be able to officiate at their wedding and we look forward to seeing them both worship with us in weeks, months and indeed years ahead.
We have a number of other people getting married in the coming weeks. John Sinclair (a nephew of Mary Sinclair) is marrying Emily Menzies on Monday 26th of August, Rebecca Lemon is marrying Jeff McCormick on the 20th of September and Corey McDowell (Maureen McDowell’s grandson) is marrying Jess French on the 1st of November.
We wish each of these couples God’s richest blessing and I would encourage each of us to commit to pray for them, not just in the run up to their wedding day, but to continue to pray as they build new lives together.
September brings the restarting of much of church life. The GB registration evening will be on Wednesday 28thof August and the first official GB evening will be Wednesday 4thof September. The GB are encouraging girls to register online to help speed up this process. You can do this on the church website by either following the link to the GB page, or using the link in the latest GB update in the blog section of the website (www.portstewartpresbyterian.org) . Alternatively check the GB or the Church Facebook page.
The Sunday evening Prayer and Praise service will begin again on Sunday 1stof September and the congregational bible study on Thursday 5thof September. If you have never been to either of these then could I encourage you to consider coming along this autumn. The Christian life is not a life to be led in isolation, it is a call to be part of a redeemed community of God’s people. We are to meet together for worship Sunday by Sunday, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing… (Hebrews 10:25) We are also to meet together for prayer…devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful…(Colossians 4:2) The Prayer and Praise service along with the Bible Study are opportunities to be obedient to God’s word, but they are not places where anyone will be put under pressure or made to feel uncomfortable.
In September we will begin a new series on the book of Acts which will take us some time to work through, although we will do this in short bite sized segments. Acts gives a wonderful picture of how the early church came together and grew, despite some quite horrendous persecution. This is a preaching series the elders have asked for as they try to help us understand what it means for us to live out our mission statement that we worship God, serve our community and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In September we will also be relaunching our youth fellowship which will be called established. We have taken Ephesians 3: 17, being rooted and established in love our young people may have the power to grasp how wide, and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. We want to create an environment where our young people are discipled and encouraged to deepen understanding and indeed commitment to Christ. We want to see them established in the church and in their faith. If you have young people of secondary school age, then please do encourage them to come along to this on the 2nd and 4th Sunday evenings of the month. We will have more promotional material coming shortly for this.
This of course is only a snapshot of what is starting up again. To keep fully abreast of what is happening keep an eye on our website, social media and the printed announcement sheets which are issued Sunday by Sunday. If you miss a week and want an announcement sheet, they are normally available to download alongside the recording of the service each week. https://www.portstewartpresbyterian.org/sermons/
As always it is with sadness that we report the deaths of much-loved members of our congregation since I last wrote to you.
Doreen Boyd died on the 27th of April 2024
Margaret Logan died on the 28th of May 2024
Kathleen Stewart died on the 20th of June 2024
Edna McFarland died on the 26th of June 2024
Phyllis McKergan died on the 9th of July 2024
Jean Wallace died on the 12th of July 2024
Noel Johnston died on the 15th of July 2024
Please do continue to pray for those who mourn. Each name listed represents a family still struggling to come to terms with death of a loved one. Ask that God by his Spirit would bring the comfort and hope that is only found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have also had cause to celebrate, especially due to the baptism of Esme Poppy Nicholl who was baptised on Sunday 23rd June. Esme will be familiar to many of you as she has taken her place at the front of the church while her mum Samantha helps lead us in worship. Continue to give thanks for Esme, and all our children, and pray that they would grow in their knowledge and understanding of the Lord.
I hope you are looking forward to the new church year. I hope you are excited because of what God is doing amongst us. Please do continue to pray for our church. Pray that we would grow, not only in numbers, but also in the depth of our faith. If it has been a while since you’ve been out with us, or if you have never been, then why not make this September a time to come and be part of our family once more, or even better – to join us for the first time.
This September in Portstewart Presbyterian Church we will be spending time thinking about the book of Acts. In Acts we read about the church being born, almost like a baby fawn as it takes its first shaky steps into the world. In Acts the disciples had to get used to Jesus been raised from the dead and then deal with the mixed emotions of watching him ascend into heaven.
This new church seemed to be incredibly vulnerable in those early days as it waited for the promised Holy Spirit and dealt with persecution from both the Roman and Jewish authorities. Despite such vulnerability the church not only survived but it grew and it did this with incredible displays of power and resilience.
As we read the book of Acts we are left wondering, what has changed? Why does the church look so different today?
Sunday 1st September: Acts 1: 1-11 – Stuart Morrow
Why not come along and join us as we seek to become more like the church in Acts – a church on fire for Jesus. It doesn’t matter if you are a member of the church, or maybe you have benefitted from the church in the past, or you just want to know more about what it means to be part of a church, you will be most welcome.
We will be learning some new songs in September some of which you can familiarise yourself with below.
