We begin a new Home Group series on 25 September looking at five different ways to share your faith using the acronym BLESS. To bless is to speak favourably toward, or about, someone or something. The word blessing means: ‘Empowered to prosper or succeed; to become an instrument of God through whom divine favour flows.’

When you’ve been touched by God’s love, you can’t help but want others to experience that same love. But how do you share it confidently without scaring them away or offending them? For most Christians, ‘evangelism’ is an intimidating word that suggests handing out leaflets to strangers or doing other awkward things.

But what if there was a more organic, more authentic way to share your faith with your friends, neighbours and co-workers by blessing them? Using the example of Jesus, this series will look at five ways that you can bless others and by consistently living them out, you can affect not just individual lives but your family and friends and neighbours – one person at a time.

This really is the time to join a Home Group – if you’re not already a member!  Please contact Pauline Woolnough for more details.

Home Group sermons are usually preached on the 2 and 4 Sundays of the month (with a change for the Team Services on the fifth Sunday and Remembrance Sunday). Full sermon notes will be provided in church and via our website. All sermons at our 10.30 am services are livestreamed to YouTube and recorded to our website here

Please note change of dates relating to the Commemoration Service for Her Majesty the Queen on 11 September 2022.

11 September Remembering Her Majesty The Queen
Revelation 21:1-7
25 September HG245: BLESS Begin With Prayer
Luke 6:12-22
9 September HG246: BLESS Listen With Care
Luke 18:35-43
23 October HG247: BLESS Eat (Experience Life) Together
Matthew 9:9-13
6 November HG248: BLESS Serve In Love
John 13:3-17
27 November HG249: BLESS Share Your Story
John 3:1-17

Four Simple BLESS Tools

PLAN
Things that are important to us are written in our diaries. If you want to be intentional about setting aside time to pray, you need to plan for it. Perhaps you might  decide to pray for five minutes before you get out of bed and five minutes at night  before you go to sleep. Or you might set a reminder on your phone to pray during your lunch hour or some other time of the day. Plan to pray for your neighbours by name.

PREPARE
Next, you need to prepare. As you pray, ask God to prepare your heart for the adventure. If we’re going to take the mission of Jesus seriously we need to prepare our hearts for all that is to come. Ask God to give you eyes to see how He is leading and the courage to follow Him. Be bold: ask Him to give you divine appointments with each of the people named, as well as others.

PLACES
As you pray, make a mental map of the places you’ll visit during the day. Ask God to help you be sensitive to your surroundings and guide you to places where He wants you to be a blessing.

PEOPLE
Finally, ask God to show you how to be a blessing to your chosen neighbours and/or friends. As you pray, envision the faces of each of your neighbours and ask God to show you how you can be a blessing in their lives.  Remember that when you pray for people you are already blessing them. Pray for their physical health, their relationships, their emotional well-being, their careers and their finances. Just think of how you would want someone to pray for you and start praying for them in the very same way.