Over recent years a number of churches have moved into warehouses and converted them into churches. For three weeks in November we turn our church into a warehouse - as we become a satellite processing centre for Operation Christmas Child.
You can find out more about OCC's shoebox appeal by clicking here.
This morning we received our first 150 boxes that need to be processed - although we won't actually start that process until the middle of next week.
Last year we saw 3879 boxes pass through the church. This year we're hoping to process even more.
Yesterday I had an email from some friends who work in Thailand and who have some loose links with an organisation called Sports Friends Thailand. They posted a link to this video that shows how a group of ladies who knit in northern England support this ministry for young people on the other side of the world.
I have written this post not because I know anything about Sports Friends or because I want to encourage you to support them but because I think this is a great example that demonstrates how anyone can use their talents and their passions to support mission.
Whether you're a runner, a baker, a knitter, a reader, a gardener, a crafter or a builder I'm sure you can think of ways in which you can get involved in supporting whatever mission organisations you or your church are already linked to.
Have you ever wondered how tax dodging by big companies works and what impact it has in places like Ghana or Peru? Well this little video might help.
Last Sunday, in our series looking at Romans, we emerged from the difficult issues of chapters 9-11 into the easy to understand chapter 12. The trouble with the bits of the Bible that are easy to understand is that we have no excuse for not obeying them.
Paul starts this section with a couple of verses that set up the rest of the letter. The rest of the letter is the practical outworking of what he says here.
And Paul starts by saying, in verse one, that when we consider everything that God has already done for us the only appropriate response is to offer ourselves over fully into God's service.
Why do we do what we do? One of the issues that the previous chapters raise - if we wanted to read them that way - is the apparent contradiction between being saved by grace on the one hand, and the threat of being cut off from God if we slip from belief into unbelief on the other. We are told that we are not saved by works ... but somehow our works are significant.
So why do we serve? Here Paul makes it clear. Our service is a willing and loving response to everything that God has already done for us - another word for that is 'worship'. Worship is not just about singing songs in church on a Sunday - it's about everything that I do in response to what God has already done.
