Feast
We had a brilliant time gathering at the Feast last Sunday! Ben spoke on Ephesians 3 and shared vision for the coming season.
You can listen to his talk here.
You can also get a copy of the Pioneer Leaders’ Report here.
Ben Askew
About Ben Askew
Posts by Ben Askew:
Base Camp
During October and November a number of us are gatherings at the Kairos Base for Base Camp: 6 weeks to go other some of our core principles and practices. If you have missed a week or want to listen again there’ll all be posted here:
In this first session we talked about our story as a church. Did you know our history goes back around 200 years and includes 4 different buildings as well as a long history of mission in Harrogate?
Session 2: Love God – Covenant
We are called to love God and orientate our lives around him. In this session Chris opens up the idea of Covenant and why we prioritise relationship with the God who loves us.
Loving God and becoming his friend leads us to become interested in the things he is interested in so we find ourselves getting drawn into his kingdom. In this session Helen unpacks what it means to be a friend of God with kingdomresponsibility.
This session comes with homework! This week spend some time (minimum 10 mins) in a place you regularly frequent (pub, workplace, home, community centre, school etc.) in conversation with God. Ask the Holy Spirit “What does your kingdom look like in this place?” Make a note of any thoughts, words, or feelings that you notice.
As we learn to relate to God as both Father and King we find ourselves drawn towards Jesus’ way of living building relationships in three directions through worship, community and mission. In this session we ask “What next Lord?” as we seek to go further with those relationships.
The recording features the start of a video, you can watch the whole thing clicking on the image below.
Session 5: Jesus’ Followers’ Ways
We go deeper into exploring how Jesus followers build relationships with those around them and participate in God’s mission by noticing the people around them who are leaning in to relationship with them.
Session 6: Introducing Kairos Communities
In our final Thursday session we look at the lost idea of Oikos and the ways in which we might build community together.
One Another Part 1
This term at our Central Gatherings we are exploring some of the “one another” sayings from the New Testament and looking to see what we can learn from these as we start to build community together. You can listen to the first three of these by following the links below.
One Another: Foundations for Community by Ben
Love One Another by Ben, there is an activity sheet here.
Prefer One Another by Helen
Launch Week – Start September with Prayer.
We are so excited about Launch Week running from Monday 3rd to Thursday 6th September. We are going to be focusing on declaring God’s truth and our prayers will be based around speaking out truth together about who God is, who we are and who He calls us to be. I (Ben) have found that recently I’ve learnt some new things about this way of praying and found real power in declaring God’s truth over my life and our church. I can’t wait to share some of these things with you.
As well as 9am and 12noon prayers we are going to be gathering each evening from 5-8pm and these evenings will follow the pattern Pray, Eat, Pray.
5-6pm: Prayer for all ages. An opportunity for all the generations to pray together. There will be fun, creative and interactive ways to speak God’s truth out together.
6-7pm: Eat together. We are a family, let’s enjoy food together! We’ll have tea in the hall. If you are planning to eat any evening with us simply leave a comment below by the night before.
7-8pm: Declaring further. A final hour of worship and prayer. We’ll be listening to God, responding to what He says, whispering, speaking and maybe even shouting out truth.
You don’t have to stay for the whole evening! Come for the bits that work best for you. Going to a few of these, perhaps at the same time each day will give you a sense of journey during the week. At the very least I’d like to challenge all of you to make space to join us for at least one of these opportunities and see what God does as we pray together.
God is glorious so I don’t have to fear others
At this time of Advent, it seemed appropriate for us to focus on the glory of God and how glorious he is, and so that means we don’t have to fear others. The glory belongs to God, not to us, everything we are and do is about showing his glory through us to others.
We often sing a worship song, which has the line, “ and if God is for us, who can stand against us?” In this we recognise the fact that God is for us, in all circumstances, and in all conversations, and in all contexts, we do not have to be afraid. All we have to be is who we are created to be, and be confident in our identity, as individuals, MSC’s and as Kairos.
We do not have to be afraid of others, their words, their actions, as we are about showing the glory of God not the glory of others! Other people may well say things, and act in ways that does not help us, but we must return to our foundation that our lives are about the glory of God.
As a church going through the vacancy process still, how is it that we can continue to show the glory of God to others around us, and show it to each other as well. We do not need to be afraid of what others think, but also we do not need to add fear into people’s lives. So in this season, let’s ensure that in confidence we show the glory of God to all around us, and encourage each other not to be afraid, but to recognise the glory of God around each of us.
And as we reflect upon the glory of God this month, praying in our MSC’s and as a whole Church, do remember that we will be having launch week in January, 7-10 January.
We will be focusing upon how Jesus had compassion for others, and we are called to have compassion on people around us, wherever that may be, work, home, community, travels, where ever! so be thinking over this season, who is it that God may be calling you to pray for during launch week, and who will he be calling you to have compassion for.
Andy Wilson
Celebrate Christmas With Kairos
We would like to invite you to join celebrate the birth of Jesus who is God with Us this Christmas.
We’d love to see you at one of the following Gatherings:
Sunday 17th December – Simply Christingle.
Join us from 3 – 5pm to prepare for Christmas with craft, carols, food and fun.
An offering will be taken to give to the Children’s Society
Christmas Eve: 9am Communion. 9 – 10am
Christmas Day: Celebration with Communion: 10 – 11am
Gospel Story: Kingdom
Last Sunday Ben spoke on the Kingdom of God. You can download the sermon here or listen below.
A copy of his slides are available here (link opens a pdf).
Praying Together
Hi everyone,
It feels very important that during our time of vacancy we commit to praying together – individually, in our MSCs and at gatherings. We already have some regular times of prayer: 9am prayer Monday to Wednesdays, 9am Communion each Sunday and the Up gathering on the fourth Sunday of each month. We are also going to introduce a new time to pray at 7:30pm on the second Sunday of the month. We are going to focus these prayer times on the 4 G’s, concentrating on one a month.
In November our focus will be: God is great so we don’t have to be in control.
It is important at the start of this time that we give it all over to God, trust him, ensure that it is what He wants rather than what we want.
So as leaders, in your communities, pray acknowledging that God is indeed great, hand over control to Him and let go of whatever we may need to let go of.
It is also important that in recognising that we are not in control, that we offer ourselves to God, remaining in His call and in His family, and offer ourselves to play whatever part He asks of us during this time.
We will gather on the 12th November at 7:30pm to pray and worship together focusing on this, but also please do pray in your communities, and on your own, so we remain close to Jesus throughout this whole process.
Remember, God is great so we don’t have to be in control.
Blessings, Andy Wilson
Gospel Story – Covenant
Here is Mark’s final sermon as Kairos Pioneer Minister. He was telling the next stage of our Gospel Story series and focussing on the first of two threads that run through the whole story: covenant. The reading was Genesis 15.
You can download the sermon here or listen on the player below.
Pioneer Minister’s Report
The Feast is our annual birthday celebration, this year it was also Mark and Penny’s last Sunday with us. Below is Mark’s final Pioneer Minister’s annual report.