“We are called to be
a growing, inclusive, evangelistic and justice-seeking church.” (Methodist
Church)
“Continue to live your lives in him, rooted
and built up in him.”
(Colossians 2 v 6-7)
“Blessed are those
who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees
planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not
bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay
green, and they never stop producing fruit.”
(Jeremiah 17 v 7-8)
These words
encourage us to trust in God for growth at church and in our own personal
relationship with Jesus.
The four S’s at the
bottom of the card are the four areas we will focus on as a church over the
next few years. They are:
Spiritually: We are shaped by
worshipping together, praying together and learning together. Growth is not
instant, but a daily, steady, faithful walk with God.
Whether seen or unseen, growth happens when we stay rooted in Christ. We will
endeavour to go deeper in our faith and love for God.
Socially: Christianity is
never meant to be a solo project. To grow socially is to grow in fellowship and
friendship. It is to share life with one another – the laughter, the tears, the
milestones, and the ordinary days in between; having fun and eating together.
Community is about
real people, with all their quirks, gifts, and weaknesses, learning to love one
another in Christ.
Supporting: To grow together is
also to support one another. Paul often urged the early churches to “encourage one
another and build each other up.” Faith is not a race we run alone, but a
journey where we sometimes need to lean on each other.
Sowing: We grow together by
sowing. Jesus told the parable of the sower scattering seeds, and some of those
seeds fell on good soil and bore a harvest far greater than anyone expected.
We are called to be
sowers of the Kingdom – planting seeds of kindness, justice, and faith in our
community. We may not always see the fruit of what we sow, but our task is to
sow faithfully and trust God with the harvest.
Alpha has started
and we trust God for growth – we journey together.
We look forward to
everything God has for Dale Street this year, 2026 and beyond. Let’s GO!
Spiritually-socially-supporting-sowing
We are pleased to announce that we were able to welcome nearly 200 people across the two days. 430 puzzles and related items were sold.
We have already passed on almost £2700 to Action for Children and some more money is expected.
Thanks to everyone who supported the event - especially those who braved the weather on "Flooding Friday".
We were pleased to welcome a good number of people at this event.
Over £1300 was raised on the day and matched funding from Barclays Bank should increase this amount to over £1800.
Thanks to everyone who supported the Fair and raised money to provide extra treats for the residents at Homewood - our local Methodist Home.
Our monthly Prayer Service will be handled using Zoom
during the winter months.
Sunday 7th December
Sunday 4th January
Sunday 1st Feb
all at 6.30pm
Please send an email for the Zoom link
All are Welcome
Our
Christingle
Yes, Christingle is an important event – it’s one
of the very few times in the year that we provide something really suitable for
children and young people. That and harvest, perhaps the carol service,
Christmas Day and – oddly – when we make something special for Palm Sunday. And
for these we get big congregations, often over 100.
We also welcome young people to our communion
services, which is very important and hopefully, those who take the café style
services think in terms of worship for everyone throughout the services.
No, Dale Street is not a dying church at all – it’s
daft to say so – but we just need to move with the times and to understand what
modern people and especially young people need in their worship. We’re not very
good at doing that yet.
So we reckoned 125 at this event, which was
certainly worship, but jolly and colourful. Though it is basically the same
from year to year, each one turns out to be subtly different. This year we had
the Peace Light, which was a happy surprise and of course, Graham’s Christmas
shirt.
And it was a great moment when the completed Christingles were held up
in the darkness and lit, lots of little epiphanies all over the building.
Perhaps we are a little less worried about risk these days.
The Dale
Street Carol Service
This has
also become something of an event. As always it was great to welcome the
Harbury Folk Club Choir and Peter, fresh from what he called his ‘man flu.’
They sang a jazzy version of Hush, Hear
the Angels sing and later on it was good to hear the traditional Diadem with a slightly extended ending.
Believe
it or not we managed to get through fourteen carols, hymns and songs in under
seventy minutes, but we also heard some very fine readings of the Christmas
story, starting with the prophet and ending with the authorised version of St
John chapter 1. Thanks to all our super eight readers. This year it was Mary’s
turn (appropriate to week four of Advent) to give her version of events.
We chose
this week as our local arrangement, for the entire service was scripted and we
had no need of a preacher. However, we asked Sarah to introduce the service and
to provide the intercessions for those, particularly children, who have less
happy times to endure at Christmas. We think there were 115 people at the
service.
