Please read on for just some of the highlights from another busy term at Dundonald
We’re sad that we can’t say something about everything that’s been going on at Dundonald since September, however, here are some highlights from this last term.
Titus 2 has continued. It’s been thoroughly enjoyed by those who attended. Titus 2 is a cross-congregational group of 8 women at different stages of life and christian maturity, meeting together for 6 weekday evenings to look at what the bible has to say about being a godly woman. Our prayer is that, encouraged by “Titus 2” every member of these groups will realise that we are each “older” women to someone and that, as result, we see more and more inter- and cross-congregational relationships of older Christian women discipling/mentoring younger women. It’s work in progress but this is our prayerful aim!
We’re seeking to encourage more relational evangelism. Tom writes, ‘hopefully by now you’ve seen a lot of the “A Better Hero” booklets which we’ve been handing out at our Christmas gatherings.
What’s the vision for these little booklets? For multiple people across Dundonald to be reading the Bible with friends, all in a pursuit of seeing lost people come to Christ.
Importantly, these booklets are designed for us all to be using with friends. They’re not just for the trained professional or the extrovert evangelist – they’re for all of us. No training is required. You don’t need a ‘Leaders Handbook’ to guide you through it. All you do is open it up with your friend, read the passage, and then chat about the three simple questions. You can do it anywhere – in the pub, at work, in Starbucks, over the garden fence, on the bus, in your kitchen. For some people, the conversation might be over in 5 minutes. For others, it might be an hour. But conversations will be happening!
So can I encourage you, off the back of these Christmas events, to start the conversation with those you know about Jesus, the Better Hero. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if hundreds of Bible conversations were happening across London in the New Year?’
Mark Vernon writes about some encouragements from the Support Ministry.
- We have seen more internationals attending our various outreach events.
- The Friday morning English Conversation & Coffee (you can find it on Meet-Up) continues to be popular with those who want to improve their spoken English, with lots of new faces and a number who’ve come back regularly.
- The Tuesday evening international café continues to be popular giving great chances for members of the team to build friendships with students from overseas as well as others getting settled in London.
Please pray that the many people we meet who are new to London from overseas might accept an invitation to attend one of our Christmas Carol Services.
Many of the women from Dundonald attended the London Women’s Convention back in October. Jen Wilkin was a great speaker and we came away encouraged by how great our God is. (See Ailsa’s review of the day if you want to find out a bit more about what happened.)
We ran Marriage Matters again this term, with loads of encouragements. Here’s some of the feedback at the end of the course:
“Very engaging … Really enjoyed it!”
“Very helpful – lots to talk about”
“Encouraged to change for the better”
“I’ve gained wisdom, biblical insight, and awareness of our sinful hearts”
“Really great format”
“I want to live out my love for Christ in my marriage”
“Quality marriage time”
“God must be at the centre of our marriage”
“Discussions were challenging, practical and made me think.”
“The DVDs were excellent and very helpful.”
Welcoming has been strengthened this term with a dedicated team being set up at The 4 and teams at the other congregations growing in their particular ministry of helping newcomers to feel like they belong at Dundonald. This has contributed to a healthy wave of new folks joining small groups in their congregations, some for the first time others just in new groups – 42 people across the church family.
Evangelise and Worship have held ministry vision dinners following on from the really enjoyable Vision Dinners at the beginning of the year. It’s been great to see these ministry teams getting excited about “reaching the lost for Christ” and “responding to God’s mercy in everything we do”.
What have been your highlights? Let us know in the comments.
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