Week 1 – September 5th – Acts 2:42-47 – The Fellowship of Believers
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
Heavenly Father, glorious Lord
As we come before you today
Preparing to start another year, take our
Prayers, our hearts, ourselves, and hear us say
Yes to the call you place on us
None of us come to You fully alone:
Everyone has your Spirit offered and waiting within them
Waiting, wondering and hoping what this year could bring
You are our magnificent, adoring and glorious Lord
Engage, equip and enable us to respond
Again and again to your call on our hearts.
Rejoice in our YES as we respond to YOU. AMEN
Yes, Happy New Year!
And what an exciting new Connexional year this is going to be. When, as a Trustee for MWiB, I originally offered to write the prayer/reflections for September, little did I know that this would be my first month in a surprising new role as I take up the responsibility of Vice Chair of our newly structured organisation. September sees the start of our church year, many ministers have moved into new locations, or taken up their first post and in my circuit of Bolton we have also an exciting ‘new beginning’ as we have had the great pleasure of finally coming together as one circuit –- now 10 churches working across our town. On Wednesday of this week we met at Victoria Hall (the original Bolton Mission church) to celebrate a welcoming together service with shared food, drink, worship, fellowship and communion. The service was based around this well-known reading from Acts, and reflects perfectly the fellowship we were sharing, it was led by our WOW (Worship on Wednesday) Team: a monthly ‘alternative’ service held on the first Wednesday of every month and hosted at different churches across the original Bolton Circuit. WOW has been successfully running for many years and was launched originally out of Fresh Expressions – and what a perfect opportunity it was to share with our fellow believers from across all the churches in our ‘new’ circuit. We opened with singing ‘Bind us Together Lord’ and closed with Communion – All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. As we left communion we all received a bracelet of cords bound together to remind us that we are one fellowship, one body, one church.
Over the next 4 weeks I will use this Acts passage to share a little bit more about WOW as well as sharing more about myself as I begin this new year, new journey and new beginning.
Philippa Hill, Vice-Chair MWiB
Bind us together Lord, Bind us together with cords that cannot be broken
Bind us together Lord, Bind us together, Bind us together with love
There is only one God, there is only one King, there is only one Body, that is why we all sing
Bind us together Lord. Bind us together in love, AMEN CMP 54 (Bob Gillman, 1977)
