building the future in Doncaster

February - April 2010

Building God's House: The Dream is born
As a church we have been working on developing or building a new centre in Doncaster for longer than I have been the leader of the church. When Del and I first came to speak about coming to Doncaster the thing that caught our attention was the fact that the leadership of the church had plans for a brand new centre on Nether Hall Road.

Since then we have looked at numerous buildings, plots and sites to see what God wanted until we finally purchased our 3.5 acres of land in February 2009. Now as a church we have finally agreed the design of the building, the plans have gone into the planning department and we are almost ready to begin building. Below are some drawings of the new building.

Artist's Impression of front of the building and entrance way.

In the Old Testament when the people of Israel were going to build the Tabernacle under Moses, it says that God had in place the design of the building. He also had Bezalel ready to build it (Ex 31), but it also says that the people contributed willingly and generously for the building of it (Ex 35). In fact due to the generosity of the people we read these incredible words in Ex 36:6-7 “Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: ‘No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.’” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

3D drawings of the new building.

As a community of people who have been blessed by God, it is now our turn to give generously to build something that will represent God to our communities and to speak of the God we serve. Let’s not withhold, but release, our resources together as God leads us so we can be part of something incredible being built in our day and generation. We want to build something that will not only bring glory to God, but will also serve as a centre to help people connect with Him and His blessing in their lives for generations to come.

May - July 2010

Building God's House: Living Stones
If we are going to build God's House spiritually this year then it is not enough just to get people coming to church each Sunday morning to gather together in a crowd, sing songs and listen to a preacher. The church in the New Testament was not simply a crowd of people getting together in the same building, but a dynamic group of people doing life together. Being connected to church meant that the focus was no longer about the individual, but about how that individual was connected with and served with this new community. Sadly this is often missing in our modern church context where the needs of the individual can often get in the way of people connecting correctly in comminity.

In the New Testament we find that there are 43 'one another' passages declaring how connected the early church was, yet during a Sunday morning service we are able to practice three or maybe four of them. As a church we are meant to interact with one anohter, share with one another, care for one another, service one another and do many other things, for and with one another

As a leader from time top time I have been asked the question 'Can you be a Christian and not go to church?' Obviously the answer is yes, you can be a Christian and not go to church. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and that alone. We are now part of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12) This doesn't mean that we visit a building every Sunday and do certain things, but that now our lives are lived to serve, bless, care and share with others. Jesus said 'By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35). If we are going to build God's House then it is vital that we take up the challenge of love, which is to live beyond ourselves. If we could just concentrate on getting this as the priority in our lives, that we would choose to embrace love in every way, then everything else would fall into place. Let me Explain:

'A man was instructing students on the importance of making priorities. He produced a large wide mouthed glass jar and about a dozen rocks were carefully placed inside the jar. When the jar filled to the top and no more rocks could be squeezed in, he asked, "is this jar full?" Everyone said, "Yes". then he put gravel into the jar and shock it, causeing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. "Is this jar full now?" he asked. By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," the answered. He then poured sand in and filled all the spaces between the rocks and gravel. "Is the jar full now?" "No!" the class shouted. Then he poured water in until the jar was filled to the brim. "What is the point of this illustration?" he said. One student answered, "no matter how full your schedule is, if you try realy hard, you can always fit something more into it!" "No," the speaker replied, "That's not the point. The truth is that if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

"If we are going to building God's House,
then it is vital that we take up the challenge of love."

Living Stones
By Grayson Jones