Blog entries

What Would Jesus Do?

Andy Wilson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:14:45 +0100

The Occupy movement has become the latest to use the slogan "what would Jesus do?", something that has been questioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury. But where did the slogan come from and is there ever an answer to the question posed, asks Stephen Tomkins.

Like all the most enduring slogans, "what would Jesus do?" has inspired countless rewrites.

There has been everything from political parody - anti-war T-shirts asking "who would Jesus bomb?" - to the beyond parody such as t...

Pondering - thanks

Emma Kinani — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:28:00 +0100

Why - we ask. No reason, God says. But ... No but, God says, I just do.

God just loves us. Once I believed that with conviction, then years on, I said, but, could He really, really love me, after me being so disobedient sometimes? And Pastor Warren told me, yea ... with no doubt God does.

Mmm ... ok ... it IS as simple as that. God loves us, period.

I decided months ago that the best path is the narrow hard one, and despite the obstacles and temptations thrown on th...

Humility

Emma Kinani — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:02:09 +0100

We have to try and remember to stay humble. Sometimes there are people around you who may not necessarily wish the best for you. BUT, don't act in haste to hate them back or be mean to them. Continue to pray for them and allow God to work his special magic. God loves us all. The last weeks have been testy, but I thank God for the good counsel in the church and pray that we can be motivated to remain humble. I again thank God for the joy in my heart, not because I deserve it, or because there ...

A medium to God’s word through Facebook

Emma Kinani — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:48:24 +0100

Facebook – yes, most of us use Facebook. The beauty is you can control whom you want to be a part of your circle and what kind of posts you choose to upload. I have found it to be a blessing to many as I post Biblical verses and inspiring God given accounts of my life on it. It reaches many and they have attested to the fact that it changes their outlook on life. Some have written to me saying they feel inspired or it made their day.

Since my settings allow everyone to view m...

Thomas Family News: Our Journey

Adam Thomas — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:04:40 +0100

Dear Friends, since we last wrote much has changed and life has been something of a roller-coaster. We are very grateful that God is at the controls. As we write God is amazingly putting many things in to place and enabling us to continue to move forward into all He is asking of us.

In January we learnt that Bosnia and Herzegovinian (BiH) Laws had changed, we can get residents permits (Boravak) as volunteer workers and previously the children could get them as our dependants, this i...

Finding Oasis

Clare Nonhebel — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:01:06 +0100

It was always my ambition to be a writer. It outlasted my other ambitions (ballerina, dairy farmer) and other careers - carer for young disabled, social worker, optician's assistant, secretary, and PR executive.

I've written stories ever since I could write. My first novel was 100 pages long, written in biro in a couple of exercise books, at the age of 13, and only my sister was allowed to read it. By my twenties, I was seriously writing a book. I'd heard how difficult it was...

Lepers in the Temple

Clare Nonhebel — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:30:38 +0100

Former sex offenders released into the community are probably the nearest parallel to the lepers of Jesus’ day, feared, reviled and shunned. Paedophilia seems to have become the unforgivable sin, with no biblical basis for this belief.

The stereotype offender is the psychopathic stranger opportunely preying on children, yet most child abusers are known family members or friends, some are women, and a third are young people. Victims and offenders may be members of the same c...

Two-Camera Dream for the MultiMedia Group

Andy Wilson — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:17:46 +0100

I'm so excited that the MultiMedia Group has reached such a landmark stage in its development.

For the first time ever, last Sunday we used the new GBC video camera (in addition to my usual camera) to film a sermon. Today you can enjoy the two-camera video of Assistant Pastor Warren on our website GBCweb.tv.

Having two cameras makes viewing the sermon videos on the website much more fun!

Imagine the scene, the speaker (Warren in this case) says "Who has ever been into a c...

Thomas Family News: Our Journey

Adam Thomas — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:35:01 +0100

GBC members Adam and Rachel Thomas are off to Bosnia soon. Read their fascinating newsletter here and subscribe to future ones if you would like to.

Our Journey

Our journey to this point has been a long one and rather than showing us the big picture God has chosen to take us small steps all the way. We have felt called to be involved in Mission together from the beginning. Rachel felt this was long term from the start though this has been a growing sense for Adam. God ...

New GBC MultiMedia Group

Beryl-Ann Fondam — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:33:42 +0100

I am writing this blog to share how excited I am about my first video camera training session. On Tuesday after work I met at Andy Wilson's house for a training session on how to use Andy’s video camera. (Hopefully, the church will have it’s own in due course.) It was very educational and insightful and I am glad I have such an opportunity to learn new technical stuff. I love the fact that it is very simple but at the same time some of it can be complex. I had an overview of the p...

Greenford Baptist Church isn't what it used to be!

Andy Wilson — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:36:10 +0100

Visitors to the Greenford Baptist Church building on Sunday mornings might have a bit of a shock these days. There are now so many people attending that we have to lay out extra chairs! In fact, at Easter Pastor David Wise reported we had the largest congregation ever!

Who is responsible for all this growth? Well, of course its all down to God. He has so blessed the church recently. We not only see a numerical growth in church membership (currently nearly 200) but also a growth in...

The Budgie Story

Lynda Wilson — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:42:23 +0100

Last week whilst Andy and I were on holiday near Portsmouth, we listened to the local news on the television one evening and heard an interesting story about a budgie. It seemed that one had escaped from an aviary and the owner thought he would never see it again.

However, little did he know that about three miles off the coast, some unusual movements in the sea caught the eye of some people in a boat. They went closer to see what it was, thinking it was a seagull or something l...

Keep it close to your heart

Andy Wilson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:33:06 +0100

June 27 maked the Men Behaving Godly weekend away Each of us was given a list of Bible verses and the list was entitled, "Keep it close to your heart". Here are the verses (NIV).

1 John 1:8 (ANIV)
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

James 1:15 (ANIV)
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

1 Corinthians 9:27 (ANIV)
27 No, I beat my body ...

Men Behaving Godly is Steaming

Andy Wilson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:14:37 +0100

Only one day to go until around 16 of the aptly named Men Behaving Godly group (MBG) - goes on its annual pilgrimage. This year we will be enjoying two days in the Windmill Farm Conference Centre, Oxfordshire.

We are anticipating having a mysterious experience with leader Andy Robertson I say mysterious because Robertson has told us to pack rain-wear, a bag of Walkers crisps, a potato, a CD of our favourite music, our Bibles, another book we have read recently (assuming we actually d...

New Year's Eve Celebration

Andy Wilson — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 14:08:13 +0100

I really enjoyed the New Year's Eve Celebration in our lovely warm church building - it was a fantastic night out with around 100 people - mostly church family but with a few visitors. The doors opened at 10.00pm and we were welcomed with tea, coffee and mince pies (enough already)!

By 10.30 the praise and worship was in full swing - complete with dancing, (theatrical) smoke and colourful disco lights. The first part of the evening was hosted by Andy Robertson, who made everybod...

"Tell your story" - How it Went

Andy Wilson — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:03:55 +0100

I have the privilege to report how excellently Greyham Bryant's "Tell your story" session went at the Barnabas discipleship group tonight.

Nine of us met this week and after a time of normal sharing, praising and praying, we started the story telling. After a few minutes of silence while we collected our thoughts and prayed the first person shared their journey of spirituality as per Greyhan's "Tell your story" guidelines.

In our discipleship groups we have code of confidential...

Tell Your Story

Andy Wilson — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:55:41 +0100

Today in Church, visiting guest speaker Professor Greyham Bryant started teaching a series on Spirituality.
Greyham also explained the wonderfully simple and natural way of how to "Tell your story". This can be practiced in discipleship groups or between friends. Part of the benefit of this is to learn how to share your faith with others in a very natural and acceptable way. So, here it is in Greyham's own words.

Tell Your Story

Some off the top of my head thoughts.

Your ...