7th Communion as part of the Morning-Service
9th Wayne O’Leary of Slavic Gospel Association speaking at Whole-Church Prayer-Meeting
11th Members’ Meeting
13th AECW Annual Conference @ Newtown, 10am-4pm, all welcome (Rhodri has five spaces in his car)
14th Rhodri preaching on Doctrine of the Church, as prep for following week’s Special Church-Covenant Service
18th Women’s Evening, 8pm @ The Manse
20th Men’s Breakfast, 8:30am @ AP (one week later than usual)
21st All members AP members present for our Special Church-Covenant Service, 11am @ AP (more info below)
26th Bible Club, 6-7pm @ The Manse
Other Notes
- The Special Church-Covenant Service was what we announced at the Church-Forum on Monday the 24th of April. As elders, we have produced a Church-Covenant based on the commitments we all made when we became church-members. These are not new promises that we’re expecting members to make, but the plan is for us all to recommit to the vows we all made as AP members. Please let the elders know if you can’t be at the service on the 21st, and do take note of our morning-service the week before where we’ll be looking at The Doctrine of the Church.
- Whole-Church Prayer-Meeting dates: 9th & 23rd | Small-Group Prayer-Meeting: 2nd, 16th & 30th
- Speak to Rhodri, Ian, or Eric if you are interested in joining one of the three small-groups.
- The weekly Women’s Fellowship continues to meet on Wednesday mornings, in AP basement at 10:30am.
- The monthly Bible-Reading-Groups Bible-book is 1 Kings this month. All church-members are encouraged to read it and consider Christ as you do. Those attending the groups (Women’s Evening / Men’s Breakfast / Bible Club) do keep a note of observations and questions to share with your group. Good questions to ask (these are questions the Bible asks about itself):
- What did you learn about the Lord Jesus?
- What did you learn about yourself?
- How were you corrected and rebuked?
- How do you feel you need to change?
- What did you learn from scripture that will help you endure (keep going) and be encouraged?
- What did you learn that will teach you to do works of service to build up the brothers and sisters in AP?
- What have you learned that helps you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind?
- What has helped you love your neighbour as yourself?
- The book-table continues to go out every Saturday (weather-permitting), members, speak to Eric if you are interested in joining the work. Meet @ 11am, outside The Christian Bookshop.
Book News
Any book-orders or enquiries related to the bookshop should be emailed to info@apbookshop.co.uk
Visit the Bookshop Facebook Page for all the latest information, including opening hours (note: a Facebook account is not required to access that page.)
NEW BOOKS
SHOW THEM JESUS: Teaching the Gospel to Kids -Jack Klumpenhower (New Growth Press, 2023)
If our overall vision as a church is to Make Much of Christ, this is a book about teaching children which does just that. The marvellously named Mr. Klumpenhower tells us that ‘our challenge is to proclaim the good news of Jesus so clearly and consistently that no kid of ours will ever place him in a category with typical religious leaders. Our calling is to be good-news fanatics. ‘ This is why the focus of the book is not primarily in teaching children to be like the Lord Jesus, but rather to proclaim his full saving work.
THE HOLY WAR: A Modern English Edition by Thelma H. Jenkins – John Bunyan (EP, 2023)
Bunyan has sought to explain the Christian life by portraying our souls as a great city. The story is an allegory (a story that when interpreted reveals a hidden meaning) and it shows, in word pictures, how man lost his first position of innocence by listening to the temptations of Satan; how he came under Satan’s domination and the misery that followed; and how the Lord Jesus Christ came to rescue mankind from our bondage to Satan, casting out the evil within us and making our hearts fit once more to be the dwelling-place of God.
To encourage you to read it, here’s the foreword by Doctor D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (warning he doesn’t hold back!):
Nothing, perhaps, provides us with a better index to the quality of life of an individual or a generation of Christian people, than their reading habits.Many, alas, do not seem to read at all, but just spend their time in talking or arguing or in attending an endless succession of meetings. Others read nothing but exciting and dramatic accounts of other people’s experiences. Still others are interested only in books and booklets which deal with the “Christians attitude” to this, that and the other.Most significant of all, however, is our attitude to the great classics of the Christian life, the books in which our forefathers delighted, and on which, next to the Bible itself, they fed their souls. In this category the works of John Bunyan always stood out prominently for some 250 years, and their neglect during the past fifty-years exposed the pathetic, superficiality of our generation.It is said that the moderns find Bunyan difficult to read. Because of this, Mrs Thelma Jenkins, in her desire to introduce people to the riches of ‘The Holy War’ in particular, has undertaken this labour of love. Her desire is that as a result of reading it in this more modern idiom, many may be lead to read Bunyan himself directly, and thereby experience untold blessings and great enrichment of their spiritual lives.It is my pleasure to encourage this noble effort and my privilege to pray that God will bless it to that end.
1 KINGS: The Wisdom and the Folly – Dale Ralph Davis (Christian Focus, 2008)
Doctor Davis has been enjoyed for many years by several people in AP, and others would be encouraged to join us in reading and listening to his excellent books and sermons. 1 Kings is the book of the month, and here is the suggested further reading. However, a note of caution; it is very important that we actually read 1 Kings, before we read anything about 1 Kings! The Bible teaches us that God’s word is ‘very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.’ (Deuteronomy 30:14), and therefore, with the Holy Spirit’s help, even the youngest reader can understand the Bible. And yet, we also read the Bible in the context of the church, and the church has had many wonderful interpreters over the years, one such wonderful interpreter is Dr. D. Ralph Davis. Enjoy!
~ Rhodri