The Beacon // A Community Church in Dartford

Community is the heart of mission

woodybart — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:05:31 +0000

God seems to be opening doors for us on the development as we continue to get involved in the community. It is looking likely that I (Bart Woodhouse) will be funded by Kent County Council to work 1.5 days a week as a community development worker, essentially continuing much of the work we are already doing! This is a real affirmation to us and will enable us to further the work we feel is so important on this new site, helping it become a strong and vibrant community. It also affirms our position in the new community as a church, and helps us communicate that the Christian life is not just sermons and worship songs, but more about changing lives and communities for the better, which is what Jesus’ life and teaching is all about! Of course we hope people will become intrigued and look further into the message and life of Jesus, but our aim is to live out the kingdom in the community and see what God does. Or put another way, we don’t want to have an agenda as we work in the community, we just want to support the community and demonstrate God’s love – a lived out witness – and watch the Spirit at work as he does the rest… with the Y Course running in the background!

First Beacon:Celebrate – The toddlers first steps…

woodybart — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:35:29 +0000

The Beacon is beginning to spread its wings now as we held our first Beacon:Celebrate at the new school yesterday! Two things struck me during the day, firstly, its crazy and very hard work setting church up from the boot of a car, and secondly, how exciting and deeply affirming it is to see us “doing big church”, finally! A big thank you to Gwyn, Steve, and Jonathan who supported us yesterday with muscle, words, and music! Also, job well done to the Beacon team, it was a big effort (pray for storage at the new school!) but we made it happen and we can only get better having made such a strong start. Some photos below of our practice before people arrived…

Community Room Painting finished!

woodybart — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:35:53 +0000

As you know, the Beacon was invited to contribute a piece of artwork that reflected “What community meant to us?”. The Bridge Learning Campus wanted each user group to provide a painting for the community room, and we were considered a “user” even though we have no official stake in the building! So, a group of us got together to design something and to start to paint. We produced a cross that was part of the “mess of shapes” of the wider picture, but as they came to be part of the cross they become lighter and “different”. There are three circles representing the Trinity and there will be 5 brass nails representing “grace” piercing the canvas and a heart at the centre of the cross. Caz was the labourer who got the majority of the painting done before the deadline, and she’s done us proud!

Earth Quake Appeal – Christian Aid

woodybart — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:57:37 +0000

At the Beacon:Celebrate this Sunday we will have an opportunity to give to the emergency appeal from Christian Aid to help those affected by the earth quake yesterday. Please come prepared. Alternatively you can support them through their website – http://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/current/haiti-earthquake-appeal/ – a link is on the homepage.

Faith and Doubt…

woodybart — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:30:03 +0000

This Sunday will be the first of our Beacon:Celebrate events at the new school (Community Room), and not long after this we will be holding our first Beacon:Inspire (28th Jan). As we begin this new phase in the Beacon’s life we are going to be looking at three of the key attitudes of the Jesus life, these are faith, hope, and love. Beacon:Inspire will start with faith, asking what is it? how do we live out “faith”? and, is doubt a bad thing?, then during the next month the Beacon:Connect groups will take some of these questions further.

Reading suggestion for this month: “Faith and Doubt” – by John Ortberg

Please pray…

woodybart — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:26:50 +0000

As we approach our first beacon:celebrate and beacon:inspire please pray for:

The Team – That we work well together and grow in our gifts and make the most of the opportunities that God gives us.

The Events – That people from the community feel able to come and find out what we are doing. That all the technical stuff works well. That the events and celebrations are marked by a deep sense of God’s presence. That Kent County Council agree to charge us a modest rent (prices have not been fixed yet and we are in conversations that may allow us to rent on a “costs incurred only” basis).

We thank God for all the opportunities we have had over the past 18 months within the community and all the people we have made strong links with, we continue to pray into these links and that people will progress into a walk with Jesus.

Many thanks to all our pray supporters!

The start of a new year and a new chapter for the Beacon

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:04:04 +0000

2010 marks a new beginning for us as a church, we have finally been given access to the new “Learning Campus” on the Bridge site. It has been in construction and behind schedule for over a year, but the building is almost finished and looks great! This new venue gives us the opportunity to begin both beacon:celebrate and beacon:inspire, our worship meeting and our teaching event which will start from the 17th January. We are excited and expectant to see what God will do amongst us as we spread our wings and take this further step in living out our vision.